I thought our friends and family would enjoy the story about Cilla and Fr. Barryfitzgerald and I’d get some catharsis, but it snowballed or mushroomed or exploded or whatever. It had everything -- a spunky child, a mean priest, feminism, theology, and Lesbians. The paper was flooded with letters and emails.
Then other papers, especially the tabloids, picked it up. The headlines were very creative, “Right Back at You, Father!” “Gay Grandma Not Going to Hell”, “Christian Mom Forgives Priest. Really?” The more serious papers wrote editorials about the decline of religion and the decay of the church and permissive parenting. I kept cutting things out for the scrapbook.
Saturday Night Live gave me the “Too Much Information” award. Ed said we could put it on the mantel. I don’t think they really send you anything, though.
We even got some mentions in other blogs: Bad Catholic, Telling Secrets, Woodstock Churchlady and Clergy Confidential.
I was afraid the kids would get flack at school, but thanks to the decline of religion and decay of the church, the other children really didn’t care. I was afraid it would spoil Cilla’s friendship with Veronica, but Veronica said that nobody liked Father Barryfitzgerald anyway and my friend Angela told me that he was always drunk at the Christmas Eve Mass.
Things eventually calmed down. After all, slow news seasons don’t last forever.
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