Saturday, 9 February 2008

The Priest and His Practices

Don Adriano is a worker-priest, at least he leans in that direction, unlike his predecessor but one, the Arch Priest of whom my stepmother-in-law once remarked that he was considerably more arch and too little priest for her taste. The immediate predecessor was Don Benito, which sums him up really.

Possessed of a fine, light baritone, Don Adriano takes pleasure, and sinful pride for which he will pay, in using it on his ritual duties. Which left his congregation standing, in the musical stakes, until the reinstatement of the Tridentine Mass. No longer is there a ragged, if willing chorus of little known hymns and hopeful expectation of the rousing rendition of the leaving church hymn, in which even the Communists standing outside in the church square can join.

Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are back with a full-throated vengeance;so he's got himself a microphone and an acolyte carries the loudspeakers when he's out and about processing, and the church is all wired up for indoor coverage.

What his cousinship with the longstanding Mayor, second cousinship with the grocer, and descent from one of the Families of the 600 is doing for the sacrament of Confession, he's not saying.

2 comments:

Nick Drew said...

this is fine, HG

your TV series follows shortly, I trust ?

hatfield girl said...

Lovely you're here ND. You're just in time for the elections, and a Draghi/Padoa Schioppa view of the global crisis.