During a public meeting I asked a bishop how long it took to train a priest. He said 7 years. I said that during the War a Lancaster bomber pilot was trained in 6 months because that was an emergency. I said that we have a great emergency now and that a person with a degree could be trained to be a teacher in 12 months. I could not see that the training needs of priest and teacher was that much different. We have a mighty emergency regarding priesthood numbers now, I said, surely the training should be minimised as soon as possible. The bishop could not reply.  I was amazed.