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In Tears With His People: Reflections on the Role of the Roman Catholic Clergy in Four English Parishes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Michael P Hornsby‐Smith
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In this article, a number of findings of a series of focussed interviews with fifteen Roman Catholic clergy associated with four English parishes will be discussed in the light of a recent survey of clergy from three denominations. It will be shown that in a number of important respects the findings of this mail questionnaire survey were not supported by the evidence derived from taped interviews in the present research.

All the priests interviewed were or had been recently associated with one of the four parishes selected for the study of change in the Roman Catholic community in England. The parishes had been selected to reflect as far as possible with the resources available, both regional and social class variations. Two parishes were in the London area. One was a middle class commuter parish covering an area of some fifteen square miles, about 20 miles outside the city and with a Catholic density of around 8% of the population. The second was an inner-city parish occupying under one square mile in area with a large proportion of both Irish and New Commonwealth immigrants. In this parish Catholics comprised some 18% of the population. The remaining two parishes, both covering under one square mile in. area were in Preston where Catholics comprised between one quarter and one third of the population. Relatively few Catholics in Preston admitted to having any Irish ancestry. One parish was an inner-city, traditional working class parish in a state of population decline and aging associated with massive but arrested urban redevelopment programmes and the second, on the outskirts of Preston consisted mainly of new housing estates occupied by upwardly mobile people in professional, managerial and technical occupations.

Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 61 , Issue 726 , December 1980 , pp. 504 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Ranson, S., Bryman, A. and Hinings, R., Clergy, Ministers and Priests, London Routledge, 1977Google Scholar.

2 The study of “Tradition and Change in the Roman Catholic Community in England” was carried out with the support of a grant from the Social Science Research Council.

3 53% of the present sample were under the age of 40, compared to 27% of the priests surveyed by Ranson et al, op. cit. p 24.

4 Overall Ranson reported 20% of priests had fathers who were agricultural workers though in an urban diocese the proportion rose to 35%, op. cit. pp 28–9. These proportions clearly reflect the social origins of Irish priests, a point overlooked by Ranson.

5 S. Ranson et al, op. cit. p 49.

6 Ibid. p 51.

7 Ibid, p 154.

8 Ibid. pp 50, 154.

9 One priest commented on these views: ‘I wonder if your quote on the infallibility of the Pope would find many echoes. Maybe it would, but I doubt it.’ Another priest urged that: ‘to keep the balance it would be good to have the views of a priest who is just as explicit about the orthodoxy of the Pope's teaching, i.e. myself.’ A third observed: ‘today my impression from the Deanery meetings…is that the issue seems less of a problem. I would like to think that priests generally accept Humanae Vitae as being the present moral position and merely interpret it with great compassion (elasticity?). Some would agree with Cardinal Hume: “the last word has not been said on this”.’

10 Ibid. p 24.

11 Some interesting illustrations are given in R. V. Bogan, “Priests’ Alienation and Hope”, The Month, June 1973, pp 195–201. One priest was quoted as saying “Celibacy does bother a lot of priests: not lack of a sexual outlet but lack of companionship which is not supplied by deep relationships with other people. I was so lonely I got a canary, but jut not your trust in canaries”.

12 One of the priests who agreed with this interpretation wrote that: ‘it has been my experience that there is very little forward planning by the clergy in a parish as a team, possibly, and in fact ideally, involving the laity. What I mean is something along the classic lines of identifying problems or problem areas, e.g. Where are we now? Where are we going? How do we get there? Obviously I do not expect fool‐proof solutions, but there might just emerge more of a sense of direction.’

13 C. K. Ward, Priests and People, Liverpool University Press, 1961. One priest who agreed that ‘people are not being visited in the way they used to be’ observed that ‘perhaps we should be thinking about developing lay ministries more, and far more real lay involvement.’ Some helpful suggestions on this can be found in B. O'Sullivan, Parish Alive, Sheed & Ward, 1979.