Every Danvers Catholic kid I knew swore by everything Father Berube said. About anything. The reason why was . . . complicated. Oh, so complicated.
“Now you're getting older, your body's starting to change” said Dad. “Any questions?”
“How do you stop getting hard in church?” I asked.
“Don't be ridiculous. That never happens.”
“I just heard . . . in school. Some of the guys . . .”
“It doesn't happen if you're Catholic. You know all about impure thoughts by now.”
“Yeah, but . . .”
“You just got confirmed for chrissake.”
“Not sayin' it was me.”
“Then who? Better not be that Channing Johnstone character.”
“I'm just asking, what if it happens? What are you supposed to do?”
“You say a prayer or something."
“What prayer?”
“Any prayer!”
“But what if some girl’s sitting in the next pew and . . . and looking real pretty . . . and things get out of hand and suddenly you gotta get up and take communion?”
“How the hell should I know? Ask Father Berube.”
from “Questions I Tormented my Dad With”
IN WHICH we are truly blessed.
I never did ask Father John Berube that question, but it wasn’t because I didn’t trust him. He was eminently trustworthy. Every Danvers Catholic kid I knew swore by everything he said. About anything. The reason why was . . . complicated. Oh, so complicated.
Continue reading “Surrounded by Catholics, Part I: Blessings on Everything”
Diary Entry, May 8, 1961
