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Their influence on me was strong and I had visited Lourdes with them on a number of occasions and always enjoyed it. When I was fifteen or sixteen, I used to attend evening theology discussion groups and other meetings on aspects of spirituality. ” This was not quite true, however. I had once toyed with the idea and had been seriously deflected from it. But, in truth, in my teens I was drawn again to the possibility. I was actually only seven or eight when I first thought about becoming a priest.

Priests in Ireland, even as I write, are being imprisoned, bishops are resigning, and the Pope himself has had to intervene in the wake of the Ferns, the Ryan and the Murphy reports which have left the faithful confused and angry, and the Irish Church humbled and ashamed. And today I hear appalling stories about years of child abuse carried out by Jesuit colleges in Germany. The last thing the Church in Scotland needs is yet more opprobrium heaped upon it because of the behaviour of some of its priests.

I was shocked. My informant seemed glad to have an opportunity to expand on this. She, too, was clearly concerned. “There is no moral leadership in the choir,” she told me. ” Hardly knowing how to respond, I said, “And does…Mrs. ” “Of course she knows. She’s a friend of the man involved and she knows about the other stuff, too. Everybody does. ” I was deeply disturbed by this. I did not believe that I could stand back this time. It was absolutely necessary that any leader of a community choir should enforce some sort of moral discipline.