In France I am almost the first priest (6)
I believe the answer is:
jesuit
'priest' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Catholic priest ' mean 'jesuit' so perhaps 'priest' could also mean 'jesuit')
'in france i am almost the first' is the wordplay.
'in france i am' becomes 'jesuis' (French for "I am").
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'first' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'the' is 't'.
'jesuis' with its final letter removed is 'jesui'.
'jesui'+'t'='JESUIT'
(Other definitions for jesuit that I've seen before include "Roman Catholic" , "A member of the Society of Jesus" , "Member of Catholic order" , "Eg, St Ignatius Loyola" , "One in Loyola's order" .)