It’s hardly what God or Steve Jobs intended it for, and heaven knows what Fr Ted would have made of it, but Apple’s iconic iPad has produced it first iPriest.

IT USED to be considered a cushy number. A free university education, the chance to travel, accommodation and housekeeper provided, instant respect, a fair degree of power, opportunities for promotion, a pension, security for life.

THIRTY-SIX men are due to begin studies this year to enter the Catholic priesthood – the highest number in over a decade.