I'm not sure if I interpreted it right, and it's been some time, but to me the suffering for the sake of it seemed like the point, like we were meant to admire the path the priest chose, and I remember the frustration and strong disagreement while reading it. But I'm also an atheist (raised Catholic) who is pretty anti-Church, so it might have been just my opinions skewing my interpretation. I might have to go back and re-read it sometime :)