A novel first published in 1997 charted the optimism felt by priests in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, followed by years of disillusionment. Here its author traces that journey and brings it up to date Along with eight others, I was ordained priest for the Dublin Archdiocese in the early 1970s. We were young, idealistic and still high on the pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes. The happiness of our parishioners or pupils would be our happiness. Those who were wounded would become our special concern: we were a listening ear whether they phoned us late at night or early in the morning. The English Jesuit Fr Michael Hollings was our hero; the “open presbytery” our goal.We could hardly wait to shatter the image of generations of staid pr