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.
at

11 comments:

  1. arnold05 February, 2011

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

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fr John Hunwicke05 February, 2011

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

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous05 February, 2011

    Fr Colin Stephenson

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  4. ardmacha05 February, 2011

    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

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  5. Fr John Hunwicke05 February, 2011

    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 ... ?

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  6. ardmacha05 February, 2011

    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

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  7. AHJ05 February, 2011

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

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  8. Fr John Hunwicke06 February, 2011

    Full marks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous06 February, 2011

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

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  10. ardmacha07 February, 2011

    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

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  11. FootmanUK07 February, 2011

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

    ReplyDelete