Our rector had us in stitches again this morning. He is a former RC priest who has served in many different parishes in several countries.
One of those parishes was right here in Baltimore, in a predominantly Polish neighborhood. When the priest there retired, the archdiocese, in its infinite wisdom, sent a very nice man from Louisiana, who spoke “Southern” English y’all – and Creole. At his first Mass, the crucifer held up the Bible for him to read the Gospel, and the dear man did an absolutely classic double-take. Nobody told the poor soul everything was done in Polish!
So, the crucifer whispered the words, and Fr. Creole tried to repeat them, and thus they limped along through the Gospel.
The rest of the service was done in a combined French and Southern accent. I wonder if anybody there understood anything at all.
Many, many years ago, we had a parishioner from Germany, who learned to speak English in Kentucky. Like E.F. Hutton, when that man spoke you listened.
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