A Catholic writing in last Sunday's Observer says that although Churches complain of a shortage of vocations to the religious life, they under-use what manpower they have. Helen Thomas suggests in the colour supplement "Dissent" column that in an age of specialisation the professional cleric's only valid remaining function lies in the administration of Sacraments — which is not a full-time job.
Seminary training, she thinks, isolates the clergy from laymen, and the system by which curates are promoted means that zealous, idealistic men may be 40 before they can put their ideas into practice by which time "the taste for a quiet and comfortable life has insidiously taken hold."
Miss Thomas tells of a parson who filled his day with a "recital of trivia" which "could not, by any standards, be made to add up to a lull day's work,"