By Steve Hawkes
BBC News Online |
 Vicars are more likely to be threatened or assaulted than police |
"Later today I could get a punch in the nose," says Edward Matthews cheerily, in the manner one might expect from a nightclub bouncer or a police officer. "There will always be trouble - it goes with the job.
"But if you had a wife or children you would have to think more carefully," he says.
He sounds more like a squaddie en route to the Gulf, but Father Matthews is the parish priest at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Hammersmith, west London.
When he says "there was blood all over the place", he is not talking about a mishap with the communion wine.
Vicars now stand more chance of being threatened or assaulted than police officers.
 There will always be trouble - it goes with the job. But if you had a wife or children you would have to think more carefully  |
The Archbishop of York, David Hope, the second most powerful cleric in the Church of England - has told BBC Radio 4's Today programme violent assaults on clergy and burglaries from churches were making it "extraordinarily difficult" to attract those with families to inner city areas.
Father Matthews agrees and says: "Children would be in danger.
"We Roman Catholics are lucky in that way - pretty lucky anyway, on the whole."
A fortnight before Christmas 2000, two concrete blocks came crashing through the dining room windows at the presbytery where Father Matthews lives with two other priests and their assistants.
Six hours later, at 4am, he was woken by the smell of burning petrol and rushed out into the street thinking there had been an accident.
Who would want deliberately to take their family into these situations? Archbishop of York David Hope |
"When I got outside I realised the smell had eased so it must be coming from inside the house.
"I went round to the front door and opened it to encounter a wall of black of smoke."
Someone had poured petrol through the letterbox and set the presbytery on fire.
He says: "I assume it was a homeless person - we do have arguments with these people and many of them are quite strange.
"But it could have been someone who had a grudge against religion or Catholic priests in particular.
"These things do happen - it is part of the work.
"We have to shrug our shoulders and say it is very regrettable but that risk goes with the job.
"It was unnerving - someone had tried to do something very serious indeed.
HAVE YOUR SAY All Christians should be ready to face persecution in whatever form it takes |
"You feel uneasy about it for a time - but after a while you learn to live with it."
Some clergy have removed vicarage signs to stop their homes being targeted.
Father Matthews has replaced his burnt front door with a new one made of reinforced glass, with a security light, a fireproof letterbox, close-circuit television camera and intercom.
But it also has a notice on it - advertising free sandwiches for the homeless.
About 20 people a day - many with drugs, drink or mental health problems - come to the door asking for food, money or just a cup of tea.
Father Matthews says: "Of those 20, there will be about 18 with whom we will have a chat, exchange a smile and wish them the best of the day.
"But sometimes I don't open the door.
Threatening violence
"We never refuse to talk to them but sometimes it is through the intercom.
"We are in the business of helping people and we can't dictate what state they are in when they come to us.
"We have confrontations - but when I am confronted by someone who is threatening violence I quite deliberately look him straight in the eye.
"And on those occasions I never have any trouble."
Nowadays it appears it takes nerves of steel to minister in some of the UK's inner city areas.
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