Page 233 - What They Did to the Kid

What They Did to the Kid 221

they hoped sometime to have his movie where he played Father
Duffy to show the seminarians. They were sorry they could never
remember that picture’s name. I could not see the visitors’ faces, but
I knew they were the army of parents and relatives and nuns who fol-
lowed the Pope’s admonition of “nurturing vocations.” I wondered
if I invited President Kennedy or Princess Grace if I’d even get an
acknowledgment.
Actual Ordination occurs when the bishop anoints the young
man’s hands, which are tied together with white cord. The bishop
lays his hands on the young man’s head and says, “Thou art a priest
forever according to the Order of Melchisedec.”
At that moment, God brands an indelible mark on the soul of
the new priest—a mark so indelible that no one, not Rector Karg
nor the Pope himself, can ever take it away.
So great is the sacrament of Holy Orders that all the clergy in
the sanctuary rise up and join in a long line. While the bishop and
Rector Karg and two dozen monsignors and the hundred visiting
priests imposed their hands one after the other on each of the sixteen
heads, in the choir we sang the surging hymn, “Holy God, We Praise
Thy Name.”

“Holy God, we praise Thy Name.
Lord of All, we bow before Thee.
All on earth Thy Scepter claim.
All in heaven above adore Thee.
Infinite Thy vast Domain,
everlasting is Thy Reign.
Infinite Thy vast Domain,
everlasting is Thy Name.”

Chills ran through me. Boys were changing into priests, their
souls marked for all eternity.
Their mothers and fathers pressed and craned toward the sanc-
tuary where the drama of the ancient ritual unfolded in incense,
robes, and music. I could see perfectly down into the sanctuary, but
somehow my vision veered off-kilter. I wanted to witness the miracle
of Ordination without fearing that a jaundiced old priest like Rector
Karg might steal my Ordination away. I wanted to anticipate the

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