In this audio feature, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Timothy Radcliffe, Myra Poole and other members of the Catholic Church ask whether the Roman Catholic priest is an endangered species.
Future of the Catholic priesthood
Last updated 2009-08-10
Future of the Catholic priesthood
Presenter Michael Ford with Fr Timothy Radcliffe
Is the Roman Catholic priest an endangered species, or maybe an evolving one? New ones are proving hard to recruit. In this audio feature, Michael Ford lifts the lid on a debate going on within the Church about the future of priesthood.
Maligned in the media, pressured and often isolated in his job, signed up for life to a male-only celibate life which looks out of touch with the world around, what is the future for the Roman Catholic priest in Britain?
Michael Ford, a writer on spirituality and priesthood, talks with today's priests about their own experiences, ranging from the anger and disgust sometimes directed at them in the street to the deeply fulfilling life which their divine calling can offer. Why do some leave? Whom can they turn to for support? How is the Church attempting to guarantee the personal maturity and trustworthiness the office requires?
Radical questions are raised by Catholics themselves - bishops, priests, monks, nuns and lay. Priesthood as presently understood and exercised certainly has its critics and questioners. How will lay people and priests work together in a future where there are fewer priests to go round? The obligation to celibacy is being challenged, but who would pay the extra cost of kids in the presbytery? Even the possibility of women at the altar is being championed and discussed, despite Pope John Paul II's definitive ruling against it.
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Those taking part include:
- Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster
- Timothy Radcliffe, former Master of the Dominican order and a writer on the future of priesthood
- Shaun Middleton, parish priest in Notting Hill
- Kieren Mullarkey, one year into priesthood at Salford Cathedral
- Myra Poole, Catholic nun and campaigner for women's ordination
- Peter Stanford, lay Catholic journalist
- "Father Richard", a priest speaking of his alcoholism which began in seminary
- Tim Pike, who left seminary when he discovered he was gay
- Gerry McCann, now married, who served 30 years as a priest before frustration with the slowness of reform led him to leave.
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