Is being a priest a salaried job?
No, it's a stipend that you get. We don't get a salary and the stipends are very small. For example, in the diocese of Birmingham, the annual salary for the priest is 1,200 pounds a year. Saying all that, the priest who is earning only 1,200 pounds a year is living in a parish community. His food, his wellbeing, his heating, his lighting, his lodgings are provided by that community. There are not things that he has to think about, like providing for himself. The community provides that for him. In a sense, because our call is to live a simple life, a lot of stuff is done within that amount. Being a religious order, we share our money together, we pool our money together so that if I need something extra then I can draw out extra. If I don't need it, it's in the kitty for someone else to draw out. In terms of the dioceses and priests, if they're on their own, the salaries will vary. There will be an extra help given to the priest, especially if he needs that help. I don't think any priest should be struggling. I don't think you'll find a poor priest in the Western world. In the other worlds, yes. You will find a poor priest, but in the Western world you'd never find a poor priest. They've been looked after well, but it's nothing like a salary where you can rely on and get a mortgage and finance yourself with other stuff.
