Priest

Controversial, thought-provoking, tender, occasionally even funny: this 1994 drama, written by Jimmy McGovern and starring Linus Roache as a young Catholic priest who not only experiences a crisis of faith but an ever bigger, personal one, has just been released on Blu-ray.

Things are off to a rocky start when newly assigned Father Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache) arrives at St Mary’s parish in inner-city Liverpool, where he’s taken under the wing of Father Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson). Pretty much from their first meeting, the two don’t seem to see eye to eye or rather, Father Greg is taken aback by Father Matthew’s progressive and altogether left-wing stance. What’s more, Father Matthew makes no secret out of the fact that he has nothing but disregard for the vow of celibacy, as exemplified by the fact that has an ongoing sexual relationship with his attractive black housekeeper Maria Kerrigan (Cathy Tyson) although, as she later explains, the two are in love and she has enough money stacked away on her own so when Matthew kicks the bucket one day, she won’t be left destitute. Father Greg is equally bewildered by a framed portrait of famed Native American chief Sitting Bull hanging in the rectory’s dining room. “Proud and noble even in defeat” explains Father Matthew - a remark utterly lost on his new protégé. Things go from bad to worse when Father Greg delivers his first mass to the congregation, with his delivery akin to a fire and brimstone sermon and dismissed by Father Matthew as “interesting” (meaning he didn’t like it). In turn, Father Greg finds Father Matthew’s sermon almost offensive due to its liberal context - a stance which also gets him into constant trouble with the Bishop (Rio Fanning).

Nonetheless, the two priests learn to live side by side and eventually, Father Greg even comes to accept housekeeper Maria after she pointed out a little home truth about Greg’s attitude. Weeks pass and slowly, Father Greg settles into a routine encompassing his Christian duties in church but also instructing young pupils and students in religion. During confession, a class of young pupils make for some humorous moments, what with Father Greg being typically po-faced whilst the youngsters are, well, youngsters and one lad struggles to confess anything due to his severe stammering. However, the situation changes into a much darker mood when one young student, Lisa Unsworth (Christine Tremarco) lets the cat out of the bag and whispers that she’s sexually abused by her Dad (Robert Pugh). This confronts Father Greg with a terrible dilemma, as on the one hand he knows he ought to intervene while on the other hand, he is required to honour the sanctity of the so-called Sacrament of Penance, meaning that what has been exchanged in the confessional must remain a secret. While that may be so, Father Greg’s cowardice and inability to consider other ways of bringing the incestuous father/daughter relationship to an end soon allows the situation to spiral out of control. His advice to Lisa is, “Tell your Dad that I said to stop with what he’s doing to you.”

Father Greg’s knowledge of Lisa’s predicament isn’t the only thing that bothers him because during a night out in a gay club it emerges that he has homosexual tendencies and caught the eye of Graham (Robert Carlyle). Of course, displaying his true colours taints Father Greg as a hipocryte of the highest order - scolding Father Matthew for having a sexual relationship with his housekeeper/lover while at the same time, engaging in steamy gay sex with Graham. It’s a recipe for disaster and indeed, disaster arrives soon enough, namely when eventually, Lisa’s mother (Lesley Sharp) catches her husband molesting their daughter, prompting her to angrily confront Father Greg and telling him that she hopes he’ll burn in hell for having known all along what was going on and kept silent about it. Karma is also waiting in the wings when Graham and Father Greg are caught by police having sex in a parked car, oh christ! Because Father Greg is a Catholic priest, the arrest makes headlines and he is forced to relocate to a rural parish, where his situation is made worse by the local parish priest who makes his disgust towards Greg crystal clear. Ironically, it’s Father Matthew who offers support in Father Greg’s hour of need…
The film’s final scene is touching and filled with redemption while exposing some of the double-standards not only of the Catholic Church itself but some members of the congregation don’t fare much better. Suffice to say that the Catholic Church in Ireland - always at the forefront when it comes to controversy surrounding Catholicism - called for an outright ban on the film’s theatrical distribution, with other Catholic institutions taking a similar stance. Then again, this was 1994 and perhaps nowadays the film is less offensive than it was back then, although someone like the late Charlie Kirk would disapprove no doubt. Of course, some questions remain regardless of personal opinions, for example, why did someone like Greg Pilkington decide to become a priest in the first place… surely he must have known that sooner or later, his sexual tendencies would get him into trouble.
The performances are to be applauded, in particular the two male leads.

Bonus material includes:
I Miss Those Days: An Interview With Linus Roache (2025, 18 mins) / The Bafta & BFI Screenwriters’ Lecture Series: Jimmy McGovern (2016, 27 mins) / Jimmy McGovern Remembers… Priest (2025, 14 mins) / The Guardian Interview: Antonia Bird (1995, 72 mins) / The Take: Priest (1999, 4 mins): Simon O’Brien considers how McGovern’s Catholic education and personal experiences influenced his writing on Priest / The Priest (1953, 22 mins): an amateur documentary about the priesthood and Catholicism / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only).