My father, John Challenor, who has died aged 90, spent 18 years of his life as a liberal-minded Catholic priest in a conservative religious community. He was a vocal supporter of the rights of gay people and women to hold the same positions in the church as anyone else, and while he remained at the Birmingham Oratory community he held discussion groups that addressed topics that were controversial to some in the church, like contraception. His approach became so unpopular with the Catholic hierarchy that in 1972 he felt bound to leave. He spent the rest of his life campaigning for change and equality, and serving as a figurehead for disenfranchised Catholics.
The writer David Lodge was a friend of John, and elements of John's life story contributed to the fortunes of Father Austin Brierley in Lodge's 1980 novel How Far Can You Go? Lodge himself has emphasised, though, that John was very different from the fictional priest in character and intellect.
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