From this time in his life into the latter years of primary school he attended daily Mass and Communion - no easy discipline as the church was a kilometre and a half walk from where he lived.

This experience had a deep and indelible effect on Roger Pryke and his companions because they recognised that feeding the homeless, campaigning for justice and living by the corporal works of mercy were the most authentic expression of Catholicism and Christianity they had experienced.

Five of the group - Roger Pryke, Guilford Young, Vincent Butler, John Heffey and Kevin Shanahan - purchased a large second hand Buick car in New York and proceeded to drive across America visiting houses of hospitality, communal farms and various Catholic institutions.

[1]: 60–66 Pryke returned to St. Columba’s Seminary in Springwood for a short period before commencing his final four years of preparation for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College, Manly.

[1]: 73 Recognising his above average intellect, his experience in Rome and his fluency in Latin and Italian, Roger Pryke became an obvious choice to fill a need at the office of the Apostolic Delegate.

[1]: 102 While still working for the Cardinal, and intending to give himself a break from soul-destroying administrative duties, Roger Pryke enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree at Sydney University.

The militantly anti-communist movement consisted of Catholics who met secretly to plan effective influence over the trade unions and the Australian Labor Party.

With this team he created a series of lectures and discussion sessions for nuns of all religious orders held at nearby Sancta Sophia College.

These leading priests communicated many new and exciting ideas, which portended the coming reforms of the Second Vatican Council, but they were couched within the conservative parameters of traditional Catholic theology.

The titles included references to the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Salvation history, thus reassuring an uneasy Cardinal Gilroy and his bishops that Pryke and his colleagues were not stepping over the line.

Within a relatively short time the reformers had introduced the Dialogue Mass, wherein the congregation participated in the liturgical responses normally uttered by altar boys.

The sales of the Hymnal, described as “sensational”, overwhelmed Pryke and Newman, bringing in a million and a half dollars in revenue and requiring a business infrastructure.

By 1958-59 Pryke’s over generous giving of himself to the chaplaincy of the university, the parishioners of Camperdown, the delighted nuns of the Sydney Archdiocese, as well as coping with the success of The Living Parish Hymn Book were becoming too much for him.

[1]: 196 On his return in late 1962, Pryke was summoned to a meeting with Cardinal Gilroy and two of his bishops who, during his absence, had been investigating the content of the theological lectures for the religious sisters.

At the diplomatic intervention of Yvonne Swift, principal of Sancta Sophia College within Pryke’s Camperdown Parish, Cardinal Gilroy conceded that it was unavoidable that he would encounter students.

He practised and advocated the Carl Rogers' method of counselling in assisting his parishioners, guiding individuals in how to solve their own problems, rather than simplistically delivering non nuanced advice in the traditional way.

St.Joseph’s, Camperdown also became the hub for his discussion group on the nature of Christian marriage, the place of sex in a loving relationship, and the emerging contentious question of birth control.

At the end of 1965, the Cardinal ordered Pryke to leave Camperdown where he was enjoying great success with his students, his parishioners and a televised Mass, and accept a transfer to the somewhat out-of-the-way parish of Harbord on Sydney’s North Shore.

Roger Pryke produced a magazine, Nonviolent Power, mainly to publish reports and insights into the Vietnam War, the nature of violence in society, and Christian pacifism.

[1]: 271 With Tony Newman, another initiative in lifting the standard of religious art in churches was partially successful at Harbord, but failed miserably on a national scale and almost led to financial disaster.

[1]: 286 The constant difficulties with Cardinal Gilroy and the Catholic hierarchy, in addition to the stress of supporting the reforms in which Pryke believed, were by now beginning to take their toll.

For the first time since commencing study for the priesthood, Roger Pryke found the burden of celibacy and the emptiness of not having an intimate supporting partner too much to bear.

[1]: 273ff A seismic event for the universal Catholic Church occurred on 25 July 1968 when Pope Paul VI promulgated the authoritative encyclical Humanae Vitae("Human Life").

The ceaseless opposition and humiliation by Cardinal Gilroy and his coadjutor bishops, the world wide psychological betrayal of the encyclical Humanae Vitae and Pryke’s personal struggle with celibacy seemed to herald the beginning of the end.

[1]: 334ff A productive diversion occurred when Dorothy Day, the American social activist and writer, accepted Pryke’s invitation to visit Australia.

[1]: 336 In August 1970, Pryke organised Day to begin her tour in Melbourne, managed by his colleagues, Val Noone and John Heffey, and reside with the writer Paul Ormonde and his family.

Day, a pacifist, mixed informally with anti-Vietnam campaigners and presented two packed out public lectures, one at Melbourne University and the other at Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley.

[1]: 336 In NSW she addressed a full house at Sydney Town Hall with Dr Jim Cairns and Roger Pryke, “giving a major boost to peace groups across the country”.

Her main themes were on Christian pacifism, the war in Vietnam, The Catholic Worker movement, the need for community, the corporal works of mercy and feeding and sheltering the poor as well as direct action to support justice and the place of civil disobedience.

Without the public fanfare generated by the circumstances of a large organisation like the Catholic Church, those who worked with him contend that Pryke made a substantial contribution to the improvement of the prison service in NSW.