When media coverage of the scandal over child sex abuse in the Catholic church reached a frenzy this year, Fr Paul Keane admits there were times he wondered how he could continue his work as a priest.
But as the 35-year-old Londoner prepares for this week’s historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Britain, he is confident Catholicism has a role in this liberal, increasingly secular and officially Anglican country.
“The past year has been an extraordinary year for the Catholic Church, because of the abuse scandal,” he said from his home in Essex, east of London, where he is a chaplain at the local university and parish priest.
“It’s shaken our confidence on being on the street as priests. Back in March or April, you’d be thinking, ‘what do people think of me’?”
He recalled stopping at a motorway service station where “I was painfully conscious of being in a collar walking into the gentleman’s toilets, because of the whole issue of priests’ bodies and sex”.
But his optimism was restored by the “goodwill” he feels towards him and the five million Catholics in England, despite their minority status in a country where 20 million people identify themselves as Anglican.
“I think the Church in England and Wales has much heart in it,” he said.
The Catholic authorities are hoping this positivity will drown out any protests over the abuse scandal and the Church’s attitude to gays and contraception when the Pope visits Scotland and England this week.