Joseph Warrilow

Joseph Warrilow (1909-1998), also known simply as Father Joe was a catholic benedictine monk who served as Guest Master at Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight in the United kingdom where he is buried.^[1] Several guests have spoke about the guidance he gave, including former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Bishop of Portsmouth Kenneth Stevenson, and Tony Hendra who wrote a best-selling book about Warrilow.^[1],^[2]^[3]

Quotes

Chastity doesn’t involve surgery, does it? We’re still sexual beings. Sex is a won- derful gift, a physical way to express the most powerful force in all existence — love. Sex is a brilliant idea of God’s, I think. Almost like a sacrament. ... D-d-don’t tell the Abbot!

Hendra's account of part of Warrilow's discussion with him about Chastity. Warrilow's request not to discuss this with the Abbot was after Hendra had replied "Sex is a sacrament?". (Hendra, 2006, pp. 215–216).
This should be taken in the context Hendra was a satirist and on publication of the boot Hendra's daughter was to claim her father had sexually abused her but had failed to mention this relevant fact in his book, albeit her father called the allegations "outragious".^[4]

Two people have perhaps done more than any others to direct my thoughts and prayers for the last nine or ten years: Dom Joseph Warrilow of Quarr Abbey and Professor Donald MacKinnon, Norris-Hulse Professor Emeritus in the Univer- sity of Cambridge. What I owe to these men is not easily expressible, and I must be content with this barest of ack- nowledgements to voice my love, respect and gratitude.

Anglican Rowan Williams, in the preface of his 1980 work on Christian Spirituality, explicitly acknowledges Warrilow. (Williams, 1980).