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Bewitched, Bewildered and Bothered, Irish Cofounder,
by Naive and Sentimental Catholic Boy
Part I - 'Bewitched',
First Contact, Grooming, Postulancy, Sudden Travel & Entering Novitiate in Salamanca, Spain
THE BRAHMIN'S SON
The first light of day entered the room. The Brahmin saw that Siddhartha’s knees trembled slightly, but there was no trembling in Siddhartha’s face; his eyes looked far away. Then the father realized that Siddhartha could no longer remain at home –that he had already left him.
The father touched Siddhartha’s shoulder.
‘You will go into the forest,’ he said, ‘and become a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come back and teach it to me. If you find disillusionment, come back, and we shall again offer sacrifices to the gods together. Now go, kiss your mother and tell her where you are going. For me, however, it is time to go to the river and perform the first ablution.’
He dropped his hand from his son’s shoulder and went out. Siddhartha swayed as he tried to walk. He controlled himself, bowed to his father and went to his mother to do what had been told him.
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha, Picador, 1973, London, page 10
B E W I T C H E D !
1.
I was born in Ireland in 1943 and as a young altar-boy had entertained thoughts of being a missionary. I would realize decades later my Irish Catholic mother, --a forceful woman in her own right— had a fair amount to do with that. When I look back to 1961 I see a very sheltered, very shy, very pious, very naïve and sentimental Catholic boy; a soccer-crazy teen who was stubborn enough to play this ‘foreign’ game despite a ban on it by the Gaelic Athletic Association which was enforced at his Irish Christian Brothers school. My peculiar brand of juvenile piety could be gauged by my daily Mass and Communion and an altar in my room to the deceased Manchester Uniter soccer players killed in the Munich air disaster.
2.
During my ‘Leaving Cert’, or ‘senior’ year, a vocational recruiter with a strange accent calling himself ‘Father James’ spoke to our all boys’ class. He distributed cards and I filled mine out indicating that I had an interest in exploring my vocation with his ‘order’. I already knew that I did not want to be a ‘Brother’, like my physically abusive teachers, or a diocesan priest, i.e. boring, and none of the other ‘Missionary’ orders that spoke to us had satisfied me. The Legion’s glossy brochure, featuring His Holiness Pope John XXIII’s plea for vocations to Latin America, and the ‘Mexican cowboy’s’ pep talk won me over. Once or twice monthly after that we exchanged letters and he encouraged me to consider joining other boys for fun vacations during the summer to begin my training as a missionary.
TRUTH: 'Father' James was a non-ordained Legionary seminarian for several years while he masqueraded as a priest-vocation-recruiter in Ireland.
3.
The day in spring Fr. James came to the school to interview the applicants I was excited for myself and pleasantly surprised when two other boys showed up: my old buddy John Devlin, and another friend of ours, Thomas Moylan. Head Brother ‘Butch’ Feeney went straight to the point: ‘Have you thought about joining an Irish group instead of a foreign outfit like this that nobody knows…’ The three idealists paid no attention to that observation…as we excitedly awaited our first individual interview with Fr. Coindreau in a room we had never been to at St. Vincents. We were under the spell.
UPDATE 09/12/09
John Devlin, with whom I walked to school during my childhood, was ordained in the LC in the 70s and became Fr Maciel's secretary, for years operating out of the office at Quinta Pacelli in Tlalpan, Mexico City. He loved having the power to give and refuse audiences with Nuestro Padre and enforcing his orders, such as sending his old school chum Paul to the Missions for the second time in 1982.
Thomas Moylan was another school buddy of Paul and John, though he belonged to 6B at St Vincent's, Glasnevin, Dublin. The three of us were interviewed by "Fr." Jimmy Coindreau in the spring of 1961. He has always been a party man and spoke up against me during my "Gunfight at the Cotija Corral" with Fr. Maciel. He is still in and has occupied a number of middle level positions.
4.
Jack Lennon was non committal when approached by his son as he hauled his motorbike into the side passage by the semi-detached Corporation house on Fassaugh Ave, Cabra West.
‘Whatever you want, son’. A small, stoic and kind man, Jack probably did not know what to say, because he was not good at articulating feelings or sensitive subjects. And if he did know what to say, he did not say it. As the youngest son of a large, litigious, and tightly knit clan, he was a survivor peacemaker by family, and by marriage. Christina was not very articulate either but she was more outspoken and could be blunt. She had a way of making her wishes known to her husband and children. She was the forceful parent in most things, from running the home to making decisions regarding their lives. They did not want to displease Mammy as they had learned from an early age that this might make her ‘get into a huff’, chide them, emotionally reject them, or even hit them. Or get Daddy to give them a good spanking with his calloused hands when he came home from work as a printer's assistant. Breaking the news to her about possible ‘going away’ [to a seminary] had to be done. ‘Mammy, a Mexican priest came into the school a few weeks ago and when he asked was I interested in being a Missionary, I said yes.’ -‘Oh, that’s nice. You know I always thought you had a vocation. You have always been such a good boy and never done anything to hurt Mammy’s feelings.’ -‘Well, he has been writing to me and he is inviting me to go on holidays to Bundoran during the summer.-'Wont you miss your mother? But anyway, you might as well. Will the priest be coming ‘round to the house?'
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