His first appointment was as an assistant (curate) at St Aloysius, Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, but after a year he returned to Rome to study Canon Law, gaining in 1953 a Doctorate (DCL). Thereafter he was curate in St Mary's Church in Hamilton from 1953 to 1957 and from 1956 secretary to Bishop James Donald Scanlan of Motherwell. After a period in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral in Motherwell from 1957 to 1958 he became Chaplain to the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Bothwell until 1961. At this point he became Spiritual Director at the Pontifical Scots College. Soon after his arrival in Rome, the Second Vatican Council was convened and he was therefore uniquely placed to be involved with the bishops during those historic years of the various Sessions of the Council. At the same time he continued his studies becoming an Advocate of the Sacred Roman Rota in 1965. In the late 1960s, after his return to Scotland, he was appointed minute secretary for the meetings of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland.