Vatican confirms pope's butler arrested in scandal

[bjb]

18. The Catholic Church is still full of secrets

Several years ago we were assigned a new priest. He had been married and divorced and had a son (long story.) Our aging parish accepted him and he was likable. About six months later he suddenly disappears. The archdiocese told us that they were not at liberty to tell us what happened. Our guess was he went back to his wife but heaven forbid that they tell us adults the truth. We then had different priests every week filling in for months. Then one morning and I swear it was by divine intervention, the assigned priest for the day didn't show up. The service was going to be called off and there was a priest in the pew who was retired and said he would be glad to say the mass. After mass he told us the reason he was there was he wanted to rent a room in our rectory so he wouldn't have to move in with relatives. He said he would be willing to say our masses for room and board. It was the best seven years our parish ever had. He was the closet thing to Jesus we had ever seen. What little money he received from doing weddings or funerals he gave away to the poor. He marched up and down a busy street one day every week for years with Stop the War signs. He wanted to welcome gays into our church and wanted women to be able to be priests. When the churches were merging last year for supposedly a shortage of priests, the archdiocese made sure that he was no longer needed. I swear it was like losing Jesus.