Get thee to a nunnery

I thought if you were 'called', you were 'called'. No choice in the matter. And if you're 'called' but resist due to societal pressure then you're a slave to worldly concerns and what would God think?

Isn't being 'called' (though not neccessarily to be a priest, just in terms of faith) something to do with the Holy Spirit, and refusing that the ultimate blasphemy or something?

Yes but some people need a push. The Holy Ghost is NOT calling me.

This may seem a very insensitive question but what is the proportion of people from very conservative families who join the priesthood solely to avoid 'coming out'?

My brother, after a bout as an 80s Smiths & New Order loving art student, dedcided to become a Methodist minister. Even my parents were a little dismayed... My minister when I was in high school was jailed for statutory rape (with a girl). Ultimate feeling is that priesthood/ministry is just another profession, but one that can mess up your psyche (like a doctor's God complex, only in this case literal). (No, I'm not against religion in general, only when it descriminates against me). This isn't about priesthood itself... but I've always felt that a relationship with a higher 'something' should be done personally and not through a mediator.

I think priests serve a valuable function. They dedicate their lives to thinking about spiritual matters, whereas most of us (if we even do it at all) have to fit it into the situational ethics of getting along in the world. That's why mediators can be useful. To make an analogy, if you needed surgery would you do it yourself or entrust it to somebody who spends practically all their time practicing medicine?

I meant 'useful' as in 'offering a wholly different perspect that may prove to be enlightening'

That's true--I don't perform surgery on myself. But is religious healing/guidance the same as medical healing? I have met some priests however--they are just as much 'in this world' as you and I. Religion as a profession is mostly politics. Not like those good old medieval priests/monks... (I think I sound harsher on this subject than I really am).

lives on one's knees, wears mucho black and long robes, drinks lots of cheap booze- honey, i've lived there,and it wasn't no nunery