ANGELS AND DEMONIC PARISHIONERS

As I write this piece, the annual Bray festival is in full swing, lastnight I attended a wine tasting in a local bar and then went down to the Italian street Party just off the seafront. Amidst the wine, pasta and the enchanting Italian music, I could just imagine Dan Brown lurking in the shadows taking notes and breathing in the atmosphere of this large north Wicklow town.

For if you rise above the rooftops and look west you will see the imposing edifice of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, why Dan's interest? There are rumours of dark things happening within the hallowed walls of this fine church, that may just be what Dan is looking for to spark his next novel.

Everything in life has a natural order, we are all in a food chain of sorts, mankind thinks it's at the top. As we have seen, we've created pandemics that now put us down the pecking order, as well as the greed driven consumption of our natural resources and the threatening of our very

existence on this planet.

Natural order, also has it's role in the selection process for jobs, so we think. So do the leaders of the Dublin diocese. A little over a year ago they appointed a new parish priest to Holy Redeemer, a youngish Irish man who'd spent the last twenty years ministering and lecturing in the U.S. He came back with a bag full of ideas from the new world, and was welcomed with open arms. Well one atleast, the other may have been behind their backs...

He didn't move into the presbytery with the other priests, but rented an apartment in the town. Nowt wrong, he's lived by himself for a good few years, having middle aged flatmates can be of a shock to the system. Then he started by introducing new things into the mass, such as delivering a sermon through a radio microphone and walking along the front of the altar and picking people out of the congregation and asking them questions(I heard he was going to look for spot prizes next). Whats wrong with that, everything needs to change, a new broom sweeps clean etc,etc.

What the new man hadn't bargained on was something started up by his predecessor. The Parish Council. The who? They're a group of parishioners who offer to help run the parish on a day to day basis. It seems this enlightened group, has taken it upon it's self to do more then just count the takings in the Sunday baskets, arrange the flowers and clean the church. Now they're getting involved in the selection process of the priests, starting by contacting the Arch Bishops office and telling him to replace the new parish priest, because he doesn't conform to their out-dated draconian standards of worship.

They succeeded, the new man. Ok after a year, is he still new man? Probably depends on your point of view. is being moved.

But the whole affair is being played down. I spoke to a friend whose involved in the parish who claims that he hadn't made many new friends and was brusque and unapproachable. While his bedside manner and treatment of ill or dying was outstanding. They also went onto tell me that he himself was unhappy as he didn't realise how large a position he was coming back to, as his previous posting was in a small town in America where he held mass in a community hall every Sunday. Where as here he was dropped into one of the larger parishes on the southside of Dublin.

It's no surprise that the small cabal from the Parish Council, is made up mainly of women. So whats next? Will these ladies decide to unseat the pope. One parishioner said, they can't get too picky there aren't that many priests out there who still do things the old way.

My advice to them is, ladies stick to the coffee mornings, baking scones and idle gossiping and leave witch hunts to the KKK. Recruitment to Sir Alan Sugar and gods natural selection. Because power corrupts and all power corrupts absolutely. Also your not on the council by any devine right, so watch your backs, you maybe the ones being told "your fired" next.

What of the innocent party, he's going to a chaplaincy posting at a Dublin hospital. Good luck to you father, you were saved a fate worse then death and a chalk-line on the alter steps...