The Confession by Christian Bedor

Author:Christian Bedor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Books on Demand
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

The new priest

When I was nine and a half years old, a younger priest came to the village. He was supposed to relieve Reverend Seedorn. I asked my mother why the old pastor left and didn't stay in the village.

He lived here for so many years.

She said he was old and no longer worked as a priest. Besides, he's not from our area, he's from a town. At that time he was assigned to our community by the bishop. Now that he no longer had to work for reasons of age, he had the desire to live in his home town. Reverend Seedorn was the last person I saw working during a Corpus Christi procession.

In the days before, my mother, schoolgirls and women from the village collected grasses and flowers from surrounding meadows. Baskets were carried into the school cellar, the bathtubs there filled with water. The collection should remain fresh for a few days.

In the past, the bathtubs served as public baths, when the village houses had no bathtubs. That must have been a long time ago, because now thick spiders waited half hidden at the spout for prey. And there were no curtains. At federal youth games or football tournaments the tubs were sometimes used.

At the back of the school a part of the quarry stone wall was windowless. Here sawdust was piled up and later distributed. It lay there like a gold carpet. A wooden altar was built, the grasses and blossoms joined to form an ornament.

I had to walk in the procession. But my father didn't. I don't know where he was. The sky was overcast when the train started at the church. I was in the back third. Father Seedorn ran with the monstrance under the canopy. Four strong altar boys carried him and had to take care that Pastor Seedorn was in his midst. We visited several stations, including some wayside shrines in the forest. It started to rain. The priest and his altar boys were not disturbed.

The rain accelerated my walking. I didn't have any rain gear on me. Most other believers don't either. Slowly I approached the canopy. The cloth got wet. And heavier. The altar boys now lifted the rods up with more force. Then I saw that the cloth had formed a depression in the middle. At the canopy bump the water collected, which came through the cloth and destroyed on priest Seedorns bald head to small particles. But he didn't let on and did his job.

On the day I learned that he was leaving, I was uncomfortable because Pastor Seedorn would take away all my sins. He knew all my sins. After all, it was I who entrusted her to him. This obese priest. This man who criticized other men who went to pubs during his sermon and came back before the end of the service. Who complained during the sermon that some men were peeing on the church wall.

He knew more intimate things about me than my parents did.

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