In the 175 years since this paper first appeared, the priest has gone from missioner to church-builder to social worker, and relationships with the laity have been transformed. Has the time now come to restore the notion of the missionary priest? when the Catholic hierarchy was restored, in 1850, it was hoped that it would draw the Church in England and Wales into closer spiritual, political and emotional support for the embattled Pope Pius IX. The Church was also destined to confront the political and religious values of the Victorian establishment. It became, in the title of Derek Holmes’ study of English Catholicism in the nineteenth century, More Roman than Rome, and a counter-culture was created that drew Catholics apart from the rest of society. In this clash of cultures, the