Michael Browne was bishop in Galway from 1937 to 1976.
He forbade the wearing of two-piece swimsuits in his diocese.
On one occasion, walking on a Galway beach with his secretary, he spotted a woman wearing a bikini.
He told his secretary, who was a priest, to approach the woman and tell her the episcopal ruling.
The servile, compliant secretary went up to the woman and told her that the bishop did not allow woman to wear bikinis in his diocese.
The woman, who spoke with an English accent, told the secretary to ask the bishop which part should she remove.
Clever, funny too.
But on a more serious note, is it any wonder that the Irish Catholic Church is where it is today.
It's a true story and a great one too.
Well done to the woman. A tale of the damage that clerics can do.
4 comments:
Two-piece surely?
An interesting development in the Dominican world.
Link
Thank you and apology. Well spotted.
A reader sent this:
Priests of the Galway diocese were forbidden to smoke in public.
Bishop Michael Brown was on his way back to the cathedral in Galway in his car when he saw a cleric sitting by the side of a bridge smoking. He instructed his driver to stop, and tell the cleric to stop smoking.
The driver approached the cleric and told him "Michael of Galway has asked me to tell you that priests in this diocese are not allowed to smoke in public. “Ah," said the cleric, "you can tell Michael of Galway, that James of Chicago will smoke when and wherever he likes.”
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