The Tablet’s series of six profiles of priests in their own words has done much to deepen our understanding of the experience of the men who minister to the Catholic community. But what happens when things go wrong?

When Fr James Mallon took over his new parish, he arrived with big dreams: dreams that he could help the parishioners discover their faith afresh and so become a stronger Christian community. Blithely, he booked the parish hall on Monday nights for a 10-week Alpha Course programme of evangelisation to explore Christian faith through small communities inspired by and based on the role and nature of Jesus.

But he had reckoned without the force in the parish that was the card players. They were used to having the hall booked for their group on Monday night. One woman shouted at him, “We don’t need to know about Jesus. We need to play cards!” In spite of advice from others to back off, and the uproar he caused leading to the calling of an emergency parish council meeting, Fr Mallon remained convinced that drastic action was required for the parish to thrive, so he pressed on and, in his case, the change was a very positive one.

As Fr Mallon recalls in his 2014 book, Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission, change is never easy. And according to Mallon, the key role of the priest is to inspire and equip his parish for change from membership-based communities to assemblies of disciples of Jesus. His method includes lay people and clergy learning how to work in a team – talking more, dreaming more, having a much bigger vision, praying more and supporting each other more through basic parish communities.