A WORKER IN THE VINEYARD

Ordination

One day at a time, Clem, having successfully passed his exams, arrived at Ordination in July 1958. He recalls that Fr Gerard Downing was one of the other priests ordained at the same time and is light-heartedly comments on the contrast in their public profiles.

I commented that after all the demands of his training and the challenges he had faced during it, that the day he took the Sacrament of Holy Orders must have been particularly memorable.

‘No,’ he says. ‘I remember the day as a quiet affair.’

Unknown to Fr Clem, his Compare and Comare, Frank and Nancy Crea, had taken an 8mm movie of the event. Fifteen years ago, when Frank died, his widow rang Fr Clem to say that the project he was working on at the time of his death was still in progress. Fr Clem was not entirely clear what the project was but was reluctant to ask in case he should have known. Some time later, he discovered that the project was converting the film taken on the day of Ordination to video format. Recently it has been transferred to DVD.

On that three minute DVD, a young Fr Clem is instantly recognisable. Already he has established his trademark handclasp. The grainy image with its family and friends in the muted hues of the 1950’s—women in cloche hats and men in trench coats—still manages to evoke the solemnity and excitement of the day.

Although Fr Clem did not recall any outstanding part to the day, we can see Clem and some of his sisters, all with the same ‘Cafarella smile’, proudly standing as a family.

Toward the end of the DVD, Fr Clem is seen facing the camera, smiling. A sudden gust of wind catches the back of his cape and he struggles to keep it in place. It immediately brought to mind what he said about the attire of a priest making him stand out. Ironically, it was already giving him trouble.

Soaring choral music accompanies the footage. It runs out a few seconds before the images end. In the silence, the unsteady camera pans images of the young Ordinands, grouped for a formal photograph.

In that quiet moment, is easy to ponder what their chosen vocation would bring these young men, especially the smiling young man who had told God he did not want to be a priest.