A Changing Role in a Changing World

Abstract

We have seen how secularization has affected the body of the church, and how the church responded. How then did priests respond? Changes in society affected the priesthood alongside lay persons. How did this affect vocations? If the priesthood was affected in terms of non-recruitment to its ranks, how did priests perceive their role in this changing society? Did they expect to be involved in politics? What was the hierarchy’s response to changing expectations? What indeed is the role of the church in the kind of society described in Chapter 2? Each and every issue examined in the last three chapters, alongside ecclesiastical considerations, personal motivation, and religious aspiration, concerns priests. In an age where they have to confront changing attitudes to religion, as well as indifference and indeed non-belief, their task is far from straightforward. Three time periods will be examined in this chapter, that of the worker-priests (1940–60); that including Vatican II (1960–80); and the remaining years up to the end of the second millennium. As in previous chapters the response of each level of the church to the issue will be analysed within these periods.