Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum, habitare fratres in unum – Psalm 133
As I reflect on my experience of lockdown as a new priest appointed to four parishes in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, it is not the fact that I regularly had to celebrate three funeral services a day – the terror of giving the Last Rites in hospital beneath the PPE that I had been helped into by heroic nursing staff – but rather it was the loneliness I experienced at not having the fraternal support of my brother priests.
The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy has been an invaluable source of fraternity, formation and fidelity for me since I was a seminarian at Oscott College in Birmingham. After a long hiatus caused by the pandemic, two brother priests and I joyfully headed up to York to attend the Confraternity Colloquium at the end of May.
