Page 43 - What They Did to the Kid

What They Did to the Kid 31

Flemish Renais sance tone. The suite for the Apostolic Delegate,
Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, is always kept available
for his frequent visits from Rome. Apostolic Delegates to the United
States eventually always become cardinals, and, sometime, someday,
Pope.”
In that main residence lived the forty or so priests who were to
teach the hundreds of us boys how to be priests. In the building
nearest to the priests lived a small group of students, ages twenty-one
to twenty-five, closest to Ordination to the priest hood. The forty
or fifty of them studied theology in Latin textbooks and learned to
administer sacraments like Confession and Extreme Unc tion and
practiced saying Holy Mass. Between their theology depart ment and
our high-school building lived the colle gians, two hundred of them,
who studied the humanities and majored in philosophy, and who
never spoke to the three hundred of us high-school boys.
Like Gaul, the seminary was divided into three parts, but all three
parts were united like the Trinity. All these buildings connect ed with
one another through off-limits tunnels and forbidden corridors that
passed under and through the chapel, the one place priests, theology
students, collegians, and high-school boys congregated. All told, five
hundred boys and young men made their way through the twelve
years of study for the priesthood.
“Misericordia is a community built around the tabernacle,” I
said.
“But you better never find any communication between depart-
ments,” Peter warned. “We can’t speak to theologians or collegians,
or them to us or to each other. There’s three departments. Four years
each. High school, college, and theology. If you fraternize across the
boundaries, you’ll get shipped.”
“Why?” I asked. “The collegians and the theology students are
closer to the priesthood. I’d think they could help us some.”
“It’s part of the plan, part of the game. Rules. Penalties. Go
directly to jail. Collect two-hundred dollars. You’ll get a rule book,”
was all he said, dropping the subject.
For the first time I sensed the boundaries and secrets signified,
but not re vealed, in that calibrated tangle of sacred buildings. I
determined then and there to learn the mystique, for that mystery

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