The National Conference of Priests

Nurturing the Priesthood' is the theme of this year's week-long National Conference of Priests, which opens today at Digby Stuart College, Roehampton in west London.

The key note speaker will be Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP. Fr Timothy will give two lectures over two days.

The first, tomorrow, will explore the vocation of the priest, looking also at priestly identity, ministry and service, the parish community and facing sin and failure.

The second lecture, on Wednesday, (which will not be open to the media), will deal with 'The Search for Truth, the teaching of the Church and the reality of lived experience'.

We will be publishing the full text of Fr Timothy's talk tomorrow, and a summary of his Wednesday lecture on the following day.

Timothy Radcliffe joined the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1971.

The former Provincial of the English Dominicans and one-time Oxford lecturer was elected to the Post of Master General of the Dominican Order in 1992. He recently completed his ten year term of office and has now returned to England. He is a well known author and religious commentator.