| I could, uh, I could do Father Byrne so well that I often wanted to do him in confession, y'know. |
| I
|
| wanted to get into Father Byrne's confessional one Saturday maybe a half hour before he
|
| showed up and get in there and hear a few confessions, y'know. |
| Because I knew according to my
|
| faith and religion that if anyone came in there and really thought I was Father Byrne and really
|
| wanted to be forgiven...and perform the penance I had assigned...they would have been
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| forgiven, man!
|
| 'Cause that's what they taught us; |
| it's what's in your mind that counts; |
| your intentions, that's
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| how we'll judge you. |
| What you want to do.
|
| Mortal sin had to be a grievous offense, sufficient reflection and full consent of the will.
|
| Ya had'ta WANNA! |
| In fact, WANNA was a sin all by itself.
|
| "Thou Shalt Not WANNA". |
| If you woke up in the morning and said, "I'm going down to 42nd
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| street and commit a mortal sin!" Save your car fare; you did it, man! Absolutely!
|
| It was a sin for you to wanna feel up Ellen. |
| It was a sin for you to plan to feel up Ellen. |
| It was a sin
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| for you to figure out a place to feel up Ellen. |
| It was a sin to take Ellen to the place to feel her up.
|
| It was a sin to try to feel her up and it was a sin to feel her up. |
| There were six sins in one feel,
|
| man!
|
| But confession had another..there was another aspect of confession for me. |
| Our neighborhood
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| was right between Columbia University and Harlem. |
| Juilliard School of Music, Grant's Tomb. |
| Uh,
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| two seminaries- Jewish Theological and Union Theological Seminary. |
| I said Harlem was there and
|
| then to the north...a Puerto Rican and Cuban section and as Puerto Ricans began to move into
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| our neighborhood, the diocese, in this rare display of tokenism in the early Fifties sent one
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| Spanish priest...Father Rivera...to hear Spanish confessions. |
| And all the Irish guys that were
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| heavily into puberty... would go to confession to Father Rivera. |
| 'Cause he didn't seem to
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| understand the sins, y'know...or at least he didn't take them personally, you know. |
| It wasn't an
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| affront to him. |
| There was no big theological harangue; |
| he didn't chew you out. |
| He was known as
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| a "light penance"; |
| in and out, three "Hail, Mary's"; |
| you're back on the street with Father Rivera,
|
| man. |
| You could see the line move; |
| that's how fast he was working. |
| But he wasn't ready for the
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| way Irish boys were confessing at that time and that place...
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| ('3rd generation' Irish accent) "Uh, bless me, Father, for I have sinned...Uh, I touched myself in an
|
| impure manner. |
| I was impure, impurity and impureness. |
| Thought, word indeed. |
| Body, touch,
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| impure, sex, dirty. |
| Impure legs, impureness. |
| Touch, impure dirty body, sex, rub and covet; |
| heavy
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| on the covet, Father, uh.." (Rivera "That's OK, man! Tres Ave Marias!"...You'd be home in five
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| minutes, you know?
|
| The Irish priest, on the other hand, nice guy, but, uh, first of all, he recognized your voice 'cause
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| you'd grown up there, right? |
| He knew everyone- "What'd you do that for, George?" |
| "Oh, God, he
|
| knows, man!" And the Irish priests were always heavily into penance and punishment, y'know?
|
| They'd give you a couple of novenas to do, nine first Fridays, five first Saturdays, Stations of the
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| Cross...a trip to Lourdes, wow! |
| That was one of the things that bothered me a little about my
|
| religion was that conflict between pain and pleasure.. 'cause they were always pushin' for pain
|
| and you were always pullin' for pleasure, man. |
| ..." |