Fascinating. Since leaving the WF (I was at The Priory and later Blacklion in the late 50s and early 60s with some lovely lads, many of who would have made outstanding priests). I have often thought I too would be a priest today had the celibacy rule not applied. My wife would have supported me in eactly the same way as she has done in my businesses for the 54 years since we met. For my sins, I have long been a student of the history of the Catholic Church and hope I can make a small contribution to this discussion. The embargo on priests marrying has its roots in the days when priests, especially bishops and above, accumulated great wealth through bequests of property from grateful, mostly wealthy patrons, usually in exchange for guarantees of being fast-tracked to Heaven. Sadly, this also applied to the practice of Simony and the sale of indulgences. Naturally, the Church did not wish this wealth to disappear upon the death of the priest and so the rule of Chastity became ensconched within the system. I am sure no-one would argue that the underlying argument against married priests no longer applies and yet there are no signs of any relaxation of the rule. What a waste - in my case they would have got twice the priest rather than no priest at all.
By the way, I have been trying to get in contact with Mike Mearns, a man of whom I was extremely fond back in the days of those "happy highways where we cannot come again". I sincerely hope he sees this and gets in touch.
John (Jock) Halloran
The spy who is yet to come in from the cold.