Reply #7: I keep hearing that they were "so close" for 20 years

[woolldog]

and I really don't buy it. How many people who've gone to the same church for 20 years are that close to their pastor? You see him maybe once a week for an hour or two. Maybe you have pancake dinner with him once a month with the 8,000 other parishioners; you have a private prayer session with him once in a while too.

I don't consider that to be an especially close relationship. I think that aspect to the story has been incredibly overblown.