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"Forgive Me Father" by Val White (earful in confessional)
10, 10, 10
"Forgive Me Father" by Val White (val72@hotmail.com). Joseph Conrad used to set his stories in the context of sailors talking to one another. In "The Heart of Darkness" I remember waking up in the middle of the story and noticing three nested quotation marks in the left margin: I had to start the story over just to figure out who was talking to whom. In the present case the author sets the story in the context of a woman talking to a priest in the confessional. Since it has been a slow day, the priest encourages her to disclose all the lurid details, so that she can be forgiven more completely, of course. As a young Catholic girl, I often wondered what it would be like to confess a sexual sin to a priest. I'm still wondering, because I have never yet done so. I've just never figured out why any of my sexual activities should be considered "sinful." I was imbibing at a party with a priest one evening, and I asked him if he felt uncomfortable about sex in the confessional. He said he certainly did. I asked him how he dealt with it, and he said he made a deliberate attempt to keep it informal and impersonal. He felt that it was his job to symbolize the person's reconciliation with the community rather than to discuss intimate details, and he added that he was not qualified to give psychiatric counseling. When I asked him what he would do if I came into his confessional and told him I wanted to fuck his brains out, he said he would tell me to say three Hail Marys and to make a good act of contrition instead. Then he told me this story. The eighth graders were going to confession. The first boy said, "Bless me father, for I have sinned. I blew bubbles behind the shed out behind the school." Assuming that this was for some reason prohibited, the priest gave him three Hail Marys for penance and sent him on the way. The next three boys also confessed to similar activities behind the shed at the back of school. When a girl finally entered the confessional, the priest mumbled in exasperation, "I suppose you've been blowing bubbles too." The girl replied, "No, I'm Bubbles." Anyway, I've been a Catholic all my life, and I don't know of any women who have been exploited by priests in the confessional. Nor do I know whether priests get their rocks off by listening to stories from penitents. I know I myself listen to a lot of sordid stories from the abused women I have counseled, and I don't get turned on sexually. Back to this story - it has a surprise ending that really didn't surprise me. But overall, this was a very sexy story. Ratings for "Forgive Me Father" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 |