Fr Peter Porteous says he has never been more content than where he is right now.
That, for the Parish Priest of the central Perth suburb of Joondanna, is no mean feat, given the demanding picture he paints of the priesthood.
But it is a vision no less compelling than it is daunting and the only one, he says, that could ever deliver the fulfillment a priest seeks and the ministry God’s people need.
“It’s a life of being in love with Jesus, totally devoted to him, to his people, and to his Church, so that the love that I have for Jesus transfers to his Church to the extent that Jesus becomes the singular focus of my entire life,” Fr Porteous said, remembering some of his favorite phrases of Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
“It’s very difficult for me to be able to separate my life, in everything I do, from my love for Him; it’s real and its concrete and it’s the reason why I do what I do.”
He calls a blessing, what many, outside and inside the Catholic Church, have labelled a curse. Celibacy, he said, enables him to serve God with an undivided heart.
He also cites fidelity to the Holy Magisterium, respect for Bishops and Church leaders and listening intently to his parishioners, as essential to maintaining a Christ-centred life, and a happy and holy priesthood.
As a young man, Fr Porteous seriously entertained the idea of the priesthood, studying at a St Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide for six years, while training to be a priest for the Archdiocese of Perth.
Before rekindling his discernment with the Servites, he worked as a union and then Labor party official and spent many years working with street kids as part of the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community.
Several signs, he said, were there in his childhood.
His mother would often find his younger self preaching to his cousins at family gatherings.
Back then, she used to tell people she was sure he would be a minister, following in the tradition of her own Anglican or her husband’s Methodist backgrounds.
After years of feeling an inkling towards it, his mother converted to Catholicism via the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults along with her husband and Fr Porteous’s own father, when Fr Porteous was around 18.
Around six months later, Fr Porteous followed suit, joining the Catholic Church on Mother’s Day, 1980, after earlier joining the youth group at his home parish of St Francis Xavier in Armadale.
It was a day that would prove portentous to his life as a Religious priest of the Servite Order, one that promotes special devotion to the Mother of God, as a means of finding and communing with her son.
Instead of living by himself or with an assistant priest, Fr Porteous lives at the Servite Priory of St Philip in Tuart Hill, with five other men, Brothers and Priests, most of whom are chaplains throughout the Archdiocese.
“The person I was before entering the community, the effect that Jesus has had on me through my brothers has changed me; we’re all changing each other, we’re all growing together,” Fr Porteous said.
“One of the beauties of religious life, is that as much as your brothers support you, at the same time, we are individuals and we are going to be rubbing-up against each other and there is a lot of growth in that.
We are all able to resolve difficulties, in that context, with love.”
Any difficulties of life as a member of a religious order are not the only ones he has to face.
Making hard administrative decisions can cause great stress, not least because of the conflict they might involve.
“The first thing I need to be aware of is that I am not here for my own personal popularity.
I am not here to use these people to promote my own self-esteem … It’s not a matter of whether people like you or not, the primary focus is “what is the most loving and pastorally caring thing to do, what needs to be done, what would Jesus do in this situation”.
“In the end it’s not about me its about him and his Church,” Fr Porteous said.
What of the persistently negative public image of priests, particularly in the wake of clerical sexual abuse crises? Does he ever get despondent?
“Yes, you do, because you feel the hurt of the Church … If your heart is open to Christ and his Church, which naturally follows, then you do feel the hurt and it’s a very real hurt … in the end the last person or persons you would want to hurt, in any way, is the persons you love the most,” Fr Porteous said.
Whether he or his fellow priests liked it or not, he said, when people see a priest they see Christ.
Whatever one’s vocation, it is important for all people to bring their weakness and also, their many strengths, before God, to receive his grace.
“God’s grace keeps you honest about yourself, an honesty from the Spirit, an honesty about the life you are being called to live. (It’s) an integrity on your part that can only be fulfilled if the spirit of God is moving within you.”