Looking for a job

The main problem for a married priest would obviously be to have enough money for his newly formed couple or family. In Malta, one cannot support a family simply by working as a married priest. In my case I had to support Francesco. He was an eight year old bright boy.

Looking for opportunities in tiny Malta was never an easy job. But leaving the convent to become married to a women doesn't make things easy!

One encounters people who were used to see me as an unmarried priest. Not everybody was pleased that I made this decision. Others simply ignored me or played the role of reading a newspaper or walking quickly away......they couldn't handle my new situation. Others judged me. Some invented stories about my life...some of them were really creative!! But not all was black. Some of them admired my courage to make such a decision. Others told me: God needs you to a new mission by building a family. Some quickly questioned me: is family life easier or harder than that in a convent?

I got to know that to find a job I had to do it on my own. Nobody could find me a solution. But God's ways are unpredictable. All of a sudden, with the help of a friend of mine, I got my first job after six hard months. Thank God! I never really wanted to stay home doing nothing. Just for the records I sent more than 100 CVs. Just three of them replied....with the usual answer: we're sorry but at the moment we're not recruiting new people to our company.

On my CV I had to translate my working experience as an unmarried priest to the practical, financial world. I had to prove that I could work! I had to prove my talents to my future boss! In other words I had to start from scratch.