When the history of the Tridentine secular priest is written decades from now, hopefully by somebody like Bernadette Wong (whom you will remember from past posts) at the New Vatican University in Perth, Australia, to find its place in the Catholic University of Shanghai Library, there will be more than a footnote about Father O’Flynn – the one from the Irish song.
If my readers are unfamiliar with it, the words are on the internet. Father O’Flynn was the ultimate archetypical Irish Catholic priest , an idealisation of the secular priest to the millions of the Irish diaspora all over the world, and to millions more on the “ foreign Missions “.
Younger readers – the word “younger” here is fairly elastic- will remember how quickly Hollywood seized on the meme. Spencer Tracy was perhaps its ultimate archetype, along with Pat O’Brien and even Bing Crosby . I recommend “Hollywood Priests” on Google. We must not forget Ingrid Bergman and Deborah Kerr as Hollywood nuns. Karl Malden as Father Barry, SJ, in “ On The Waterfront” , of course, moved the image forward into social action, and occasionally a tougher kind of priest appeared , like the immortal Charles Bickford as Canon Peyramale in “The Song of Bernadette”.
But even then Ward Bond, as the parish priest in “The Quiet Man”, capable of “ reading out names in the Mass” (and I quote) also appeared. According to any police procedural TV series ever made, there was also a type of nun, immortalised even locally in Glasgow, as a “Sister Mary Carnaptious”, whose quick-draw with a ruler over the knuckles helped to form many a good policeman.
Ironically, as many local journalists would say, even when they actually mean ironically, we have to remember again the song. It said, “Father O’Flynn, had a wonderful way with him /All the younger children were running to play with him”. As a certain type of twitterer might say, now they are running away from him. All Catholics except unfortunately possibly some Catholic priests, are aware of what a permanent stain the paedophile priests have left on the Tridentine priesthood.
But apart even from that, there was another kind of Hollywood Catholic priest. There was the Farley Granger and Henry Fonda kind of Catholic priest, admittedly tortured and disturbed by confessional and persecution problems , but probably not a bundle of fun in any case.
Our point is this. There are still Tridentine priests whose wonderful dynamic personalities can dynamically invigorate their parishioners. Some will say that if ordination is extended to parish congregations, we may lose something. But how many of them are there ? Was the accident of an outgoing and extrovert personality at any point mentioned during the Last Supper? How many of us every Sunday had a very different kind of parish priest from Spencer Tracy or Bing Crosby ? Fill in the spaces to suit yourselves. Yes, old Canon Whatsit, and his like, although he means well, etc, etc.
But does it matter ?
What matters is the provision of the Eucharist for the Flock, and the transformation of the world which would ensue . That its provision would benefit from that by the personality of a used car salesman manqué is interesting, but irrelevant . Perhaps indeed a used car salesman might be more effective, in some ways, in terms of persuasion techniques, people being what we are.
The point is that the world needs the Eucharist. It is not being provided at the moment by the Tridentine priest .
Why can’t the Flock be allowed to receive the Eucharist, even if it means the provision of duly Ordained
Celebrants from every Catholic parish , even if they are car mechanics, or shopkeepers, or bricklayers ?
Why can’t we receive the Body and Blood of Christ ?

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