Something interesting to me about Jud is that although he professes to want to help people, particularly people who would normally be shunned by the church (which I do believe is true), he goes about it in such a cowardly way.
There is an inherent level of separation from secular society which comes with being a priest, which I think is important to keep in mind when considering his choice to become one. Priesthood is not the only path open to him if he wanted to have an active role in the Catholic Church.
For instance, he could have chosen to become a deacon, who perform some of the same jobs within the church as a priest does, but who are allowed to marry, live on their own instead of in a rectory (this rule as it applies to priests varies by diocese, but often a priest would need special approval to live elsewhere if a rectory was already available to them), and work in secular jobs. In fact, many deacons choose to pursue careers in fields which are focused on helping people, and more specifically, helping people outside of the Catholic community. Many deacons work in education, healthcare, even as social workers, and not all of them are employed by Catholic institutions in those careers. (This isn’t me singing the praises of deacons, by the way, I’m just pointing out that if Jud truly wanted to help people like him while working in the church, that option is open to him without being a priest, and that option also would afford him more opportunities to do so.)
But again, priests have a level of isolation from “the world” inherent in their job. They are expected to turn their work inward, focus on the community that’s already chosen to at least consider Catholicism. Jud can simply wait for people to come to him for help, and while he’s obviously not the kinda guy who would be like “well, if you converted all your problems would be solved!” (and I don’t think he’d even necessarily want to convert people in the first place), he very conveniently is in a position where his job is essentially to sit idle and become complacent with whatever his limited congregation is. There is no expectation for him to step outside of the bubble of the church and into the world in order to help people; the expectation is for people outside of the church to step away from the world and into the bubble.
Priesthood also affords him two other important things: one, a simple excuse he can point to to explain his life choices—he just wants to help people, don’t you see, and the fact that that is a smokescreen over his self-serving motivations for becoming a priest is completely incidental, don’t you know? And second: a position of power.
Others have already pointed this out, but in regard to church power hierarchy, Jud was literally punching down when he punched the deacon at the beginning of the movie, and he received essentially no consequences for his physical assault of that man aside from getting a stern talking to and what I can only imagine is the Catholic priest equivalent of being grounded. (This is not to say that in Jud didn’t suffer during his tenure at Perpetual Fortitude, just that that was incidental to the intended punishment, which was basically just “we’ve built you a new bedroom. Go stay in it and think about your actions for a while.”)
We see Wicks has essentially no oversight, religious or secular, and while that means Jud is in a vulnerable position as his subordinate (to note: a Monsignor is just a priest, just a more senior one. The title is completely honorary, so aside from like, social clout, he and Jud are on the same level), it also means Jud has essentially no oversight, both as his subordinate and as the priest taking over Perpetual Fortitude. The man is one of the primary suspects in the murder of another priest, and as far as we can tell, nobody in the diocese has anything to say or do about that in any kind of timely manner. We see that nobody actually really cares that Jud attacked someone of a lower station than him and are essentially just disciplining him for appearances’ sake.
(Bishop Langstrom honestly doesn’t seem that surprised that it even happened, and we see that Jud is kinda volatile, so I can’t imagine he has a very spotless record, though likely for non-physical misconduct.)
Jud actually killed someone, and is still able to pursue a direct position of power which notoriously allows people to get away with shit. I’d even argue that Jud’s relationship with Langstrom and how that affects potential consequences Jud could ever face for misconduct is some form of nepotism.
This isn’t me saying Jud is a bad person who deserves to be permanently shunned and punished for his past, or that Jud is consciously seeking priesthood for nefarious reasons. I’m saying, it’s interesting that instead of pursuing a path to helping people that would require far more effort—both focused outwardly and inwardly, on improving himself in ways that aren’t reliant on religion—he chooses the path that allows him to squirrel himself away and have a magic You Can’t Punish Me In Any Way That Matters shield while also getting to do the whole “I’m such a good person, yes I am, because god is all about helping people and if I’m devoted to god that must mean I’m devoted to helping people!” song and dance. He’s playing both sides, but he’s convinced himself he’s helping more than he really is. He’s still actively participating in a system that causes so much harm to people like him, and his good intentions don’t magically erase that.
Jud is a huge coward whose purported goal of using the priesthood to help the world is as convenient an excuse as it is flimsy, and I don’t even think he knows it.
