What is the experience of being a priest today, serving in an ordinary parish, in a beleaguered Church? In the second in our series, a priest who celebrates the silver jubilee of his ordination this year welcomes the breakdown of clericalism

I’m a big fan of priestly celibacy. The longer I am celibate, the more I see its value. Because you can’t be totally available to the people to whom you’re ministering if you have a prior call upon your heart. And it’s in the seeking to be present again and again and again to the people to whom you’re ministering that you find the joy of love – both in the exercise of your love towards them and in all sorts of informal, casual expressions of their love towards you.

And that’s deeply fulfilling and life-giving. So you don’t go to bed at night thinking, “Blooming heck! That was OK, I suppose, but I wish I had the fuller love of a wife.” You feel, “I have experienced real love today.”
I most become aware of the love of parishioners when they ask to see me and then speak about something important to them. It can be marital issues, it can be issues with children, or sexual orientation, or faith. And it’s not a neutral asking and giving of help – as if I were superior to them and my helping was largesse on my part. Rather, it’s two people in their shared vulnerability: one person needing help coming to another person who is ordained and therefore has that pastoral responsibility. And they can see, in anticipation, that he might be able to help them precisely because of his own vulnerability, which they see.