If you have children, I hope they don't read this post that makes them seem somehow comparable to cancer ... Counselling about illnesses and counselling about the problems of raising children are, as they, different kettles of fish.  The skills of a good counsellor, whether he or she be dealing with cancer or child rearing, are always enhanced by first hand experience.  But the issue is not whether we need better counsellors for parishioners (we do), but how we get more priests in an institution that still thinks gender is the key factor in who can be ordained.