this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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And I'm also atheist, but raised Catholic and had a few schoolmates who became priests or nuns, and even more who explored it but left before making a permanent commitment.
I've got enough anecdotal evidence to cast a very skeptical eye on your claim that homeless broke dudes are the ones that go into the priesthood. So in an effort to get something a little better than my anecdotes, I websearched the phrase "demographics of men who become priests"
And got this page, https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/over-400-men-in-u-s-to-be-ordained-in-2025-most-felt-called-to-priesthood-by-age-16/100087, which says:
Not lining up with your theory unless you think there's a lot of homeless 16 year olds becoming priests.
And I guess caveat that I'm in US currently, most familiar with Western countries approach to Catholic religious life.