Sometimes all you can say is, “What the heck happened?” Karen put it in stronger terms and asked me
if I was related to Ned Flanders.
Our local paper read my story about Cilla and Fr. Barryfitzgerald
and called for an interview. But not
with me – with Cilla. I said they could
talk to me. As much as Cilla loves the
spotlight, I didn’t think it would be good for her.
So the reporter said, “How did you feel when your daughter
insulted a priest?”
“Not as bad as I felt when he told her that her grandmother
was going to Hell. It was a very bad
thing to say. Of course,” I felt obliged
to add, “that doesn’t make him a bad man.”
(“Though he probably is,” I added in my head.)
“So you forgive him?”
“As a Christian, I have to.”
“Are you going to pray for him?”
“I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess so.” (Not the best attitude, I suppose, but it was
the best I had. I’ll have to pray
for a better one while I’m at it.)
It must have been a slow news day, because they ran the
story with the headline, “Priest Damns Lesbian Couple to Granddaughter.” They recapped the story and quoted me. They said that Fr. Barry and the church had
no comment. Janet told me later that
they talked to Kate, probably looking for some feminist or gay rights comments,
but she just dazzled them with theology.
She didn’t get a mention.
I cut out the story and put in the pile of things to be put
in the family scrapbook it I ever get the time.
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