5 February 2011

Fr H's Winter General Paper, 2011

Question 62
(A) "We have all been brought up on the story of Fr X, at the end of a magnificent procession of Our Lady, bursting into tears and ejaculating 'Won't Mama be pleased'".
(B) "During a procession of the Virgin, Fr Y was enjoying it so much that he said: 'Round the church once again' and an ethereal female voice from the region of the image said: 'Damn!' loudly and clearly".
Suggest, with reasons, (i) who is, in each case, the narrator;
(ii) to which denomination each anecdote refers; and
(iii) the identity of each priest.

11 comments:

arnold said...

Fr Faber, Fr Patten. Do I get a prize?

Fr John Hunwicke said...

Not entirely. So far, I could only award you the St Thomas's Order of Chastity Fourth Class.

Anonymous said...

Fr Colin Stephenson

ardmacha said...

The second church, I think, St Paul's Walton,Street Oxford, the officiant was Fr Roger Wodehouse and the narrator Canon Colin Stephenson.The first was,surely, Fr Faber at the Oratory and the narrator......his biographer.......Fr Raleigh Addington ? or was it Pugin's attack on the Oratorianism ?
Alan Robinson

Fr John Hunwicke said...

Ardmacha has pretty well got it all. The Faber anecdote is very probably in the biography, but I lifted it from a sermon preached at Brompton by ... ?

ardmacha said...

The sermon may be one of the several preached at the Oratory by Msgr Knox, said to "make an Oratorian blush" and found in the Occasional Sermons. I am sure that the Fr Roger Wodehouse story comes from Merrily On High (Vol II of Canon Stephenson's Collected Gossip).
Alan Robinson

AHJ said...

Ardmacha, the second anecdote is indeed retailed in Merrily on High, where the happening is further described as St. Pauls' one reported miracle...

Fr John Hunwicke said...

Full marks

Anonymous said...

"Vol II of Canon Stephenson's Collected Gossip"
Was there a Vol I?? Or perhaps you are counting Walsingham Way??

ardmacha said...

Yes, I am sorry for being foolish. I was counting Walsingham Way as the first volume and Merrily On High as Vol. II. Maybe a debate should begin on the use or misuse of Merrily On High. There were a number of people who condemned it, among them Canon Eric Mascall,O.G.S. who said that it did terrible damage to the Anglo-Catholic movement. Alan Robinson

FootmanUK said...

Well, we needn't worry about the Anglo-Catholic movement now as, very soon, it will be a dim distant memory!