batrachised:

i listen to this podcast by two priests who talk about what life as a priest is like because I find their stories interesting, and one of the best moments was when the younger priest, baby priest we shall call him, absolutely lost it on the podcast because he had been preaching, then he saw someone do a full body sigh, shoulders up and down, then look at their watch, and then shoot baby priest a dirty look. Because priests are human too, this priest found it irritating on a human level, which, okay, I can see that–and then, he spent several minutes vehemently (and jokingly, but also, vehemently) proposing that Catholicism should update its rules so if anyone does that, the priest is allowed to come down from the altar and challenge the person to hand-to-hand combat. He argued that more people would come back to church if there was a chance of seeing the priest getting in a fistfight and in fact they might go to church multiple times a day. He stubbornly refused to allow exemptions for little old ladies. he was fully and passionately committed to the idea of Catholicism allowing priests to fistfight parishioners in the middle of mass, and I’m going to say it: i think he was right