This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles
This is me, Eccles
Showing posts with label Violet Elizabeth Bott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Violet Elizabeth Bott. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

The Confessions of St Kieran

The scene: Coventry, 1961. Young Kieran Conry, age 10, has been taken to confess his sins to Fr O'Connor.

sinless Kieran

But I haven't committed any sins this week! Do I have to go to confession?

O'C: So, tell me what you've been doing, Kieran.

K (thinking furiously): Not much this week, Father. Well, I murdered my grandmother, burnt down my school, robbed a bank, and, er, made a golden calf and worshipped it.

golden calf

An everyday scene in Coventry.

O'C: Now, Kieran, these are made-up sins, aren't they? Your grandmother is sitting in the church at the moment, and I don't believe in any of the other sins you're claiming to have committed.

K: Well, I may have exaggerated slightly, Father.

Kieran gluttony

Another sin?

O'C: Well, let's think of some of the real sins you may have committed, my lad. Your teacher says that you keep talking in Latin lessons, and I noticed you in Mass, rolling your eyes and saying "Ugh! Why isn't this in English?"

K: I hate Latin, Father. Fr Basil Loftus says that we should throw it out, along with the Ten Commandments. He says that stone tablets are out and paper ones are in.

10 commandments

The Ten Commandments plays to an audience of empty cars.

O'C: You don't want to listen to an enfant terrible like Fr Loftus, Kieran. When he gets older he'll become much wiser. Er, maybe.

K: Can I go now?

O'C: No you cannot. Wasn't it you who wrote "THE POPE'S A SILLY BILLY" on the school bike-sheds? Also, your mother says you've been making some very dodgy friends. What's this CRACPOT club that you've joined?

K: Calling Rebels to Action Contrary to the Pope, Orthodoxy and Tradition? Just a gang of outlaws, Father. We like to question everything the Vatican tells us. You know Tina Elizabeth Bottie's only six, but she says she's going to be a priest when she grows up.

Tina Elizabeth Bottie

Ordain me, or I'll thcweam and thcweam and thcweam until I'm thick. I can, you know.

O'C: Well, drop these dodgy friends at once, Kieran, or I won't be able to grant you absolution.

K: See if I care! I'm going to be a bishop when I grow up. Then I can do what I like.

O'C: You a bishop? Ha ha ha ha ha!

Kieran confesses

Mea minima culpa!

Friday, 14 December 2012

New blogger

Damian Thompson

William Thompson (age 11).

In recognition of the fact that James Delingpole's little brother has followed him into the glamorous world of Telegraph blogging, we are pleased to announce that Damian Thompson's nephew William will be writing today's guest post for us.


Hello, I'm William Thompson (age 11), and my uncle Damian is jolly pleased that you're letting me write on this blog. At first I was a bit jealous when I heard that my great friend Ginger Delingpole was going to be blogging on the Telegraph. I know I am better than him at Latin and RE, but he knows a lot about wind farms, and especially how to blow them up with things from the school science labs!

James Delingpole

My chum Ginger Delingpole (age 11) with some of the girls in our school.

Like my friend Ginger, I am very keen on war games. At weekend my gang and I dress up in medieval costume, and we re-enact the historic religious controversies of the past. At first it was a bit dull, as we were recreating the Synod of Whitby, when St Hilda was forced to accept the Roman date for Easter rather than the Ionan date. What a yawn!

Synod of Whitby

The critical moment when St Wilfrid convinces St Hilda.

Later on, we got onto the religious disputes of the middle ages, and I had a super time making torture implements out of the garden tools in Uncle Damian's shed. However, Mummy told me off when I set fire to little Violet Elizabeth Odone, as part of our "Joan of Arc" re-enactment.

Joan of Arc

"I'll scweam and scweam and scweam until I'm thick!" says Miss Odone.

Like Uncle Damian I am very interested in what the Catholic church is doing. I tried to go with him to Westminster Cathedral to see the Pope, but Uncle Damian confiscated the catapult I was going to use to fire pebbles at Cardinal Cormac. I don't know whether he used it himself!

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

The Cardinal drinks tea.

In my next blog I will go into the differences between Novus Ordo Masses and Extraordinary Form. This is something that I know a lot about, because we spent last weekend re-enacting Vatican II. In fact, I was sent to bed early for putting a worm down the back of Hubert Lane (who was playing the part of Basil Loftus).

Ad orientem

I'm sorry, Father, but my Uncle Damian says that Ad orientem is best.