The Priest's Woman: And Other Real Life Stories

By John Stephen Ayliffe

Keeping the Faith in spite of the Church: True love triumphs against the Catholic Churchs most outdated law, a gay priest is hounded by the Vaticans Secret Police, a courageous young journalist takes on Nazi Germany and exposes the Pope who aided Hitler - Composed over three decades my stories from real life are about the struggle between Faith and organised religion, its hierarchical duplicity, shameful denial and lack of justice and compassion. Id love to be a Catholic, but the Church is in the way, says Jimmy, who wants to make love not war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479723614

John Stephen Ayliffe

John Stephen Ayliffe has published two books. Blind Mans Bluff is the story of a blind man who took on the world. Hitch-hiked India, swam in shark-infested waters, sailed the forbiddingly challenging Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and all while conducting a business aimed at keeping the media on its toes. John co-wrote My Brothers Eyes with his brother, David, who survived 16 years in a destructive cult, a life episode that tore the brothers apart. Download the book on Amazon Kindle. Buy both books on goodsects.com.au.

Book preview

The Priest’s Woman

And Other Real Life Stories

John Stephen Ayliffe

Copyright © 2012 by John Stephen Ayliffe.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and places are works of the author’s imagination. One hears of something, sees something, and so a story takes root.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-800-618-969

www.Xlibris.com.au

[e-mail]

502111

Contents

A Woman Saved

The Decline

The Pickpocket Priest

The Priest’s Woman

The Man in the Holy Trinity Tie

Confession

Jimmy’s Peace

The Father Who Wanted to Be a Priest

What Goes Around

Author’s Note

Acknowledgements

The Atheist Delusion

Bibliography

Keeping the Faith in spite of the Church

I was in Rome during the wonderful, hopeful years of Vatican II. Since then, I have seen the progress which was then begun—which I saw and still see as a progress of charity within the Church—grind to a halt. I have seen, on the other hand, the processes of alienation quicken and more and more people standing outside the doors of the Church, which seem closed against them because the cost of re-entry appears beyond their strength and the grace beyond their reach.

(Morris West, author of The Devil’s Advocate)

From today’s crisis, a church will emerge tomorrow that will have lost a great deal. She will be small and, to a large extent, will have to start from the beginning. She will no longer be able to fill many of the buildings created in her period of great splendour. Because of the smaller number of her followers, she will lose many of her privileges in society.

(Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—speaking on German radio in 1969)

Life remains a deep mystery to me, on the whole, and is only made sensible through love, gardening and music, plus the occasional book. I gave religion a good long try but it failed to engage the intellect. Happily those years were not wasted: they left me with a love of sacred music that still inspires and comforts when required.

(Alan Kohler, eurekareport.com.au)

If what he said is good, and so much of it is absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not? But if Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be a human being. I’d just as soon be a rattlesnake.

(Kurt Vonnegut, from his memoir A Man Without a Country)

In memory of Pope John XXIII

A Woman Saved

‘Thanks for sparing me the time. I appreciate you are busy. It’s not a five-minute chat I need. I want you to hear my story. I’ll try not to be too long.’

‘That’s quite all right, Jenny. We have known one another awhile.’

‘Yes. It’s not that I’m in trouble, you understand.’

‘No? I mean I’m pleased. If you have something you want to talk about, I am all ears.’

‘Thank you and I would like that cup of tea you offered. If you don’t mind me rabbiting on—I am known for it, talking the leg off. White and one would be nice. Father, you’ll remember I got pregnant to Joe Riordan. Sweet sixteen and never been kissed, I don’t think! Joe was two years older.’

‘We were—I was—proud of you, Jenny, when you decided to keep the child.’

‘Your memory’s failed you there. Not everyone felt that way, but thanks. It’s good of you to say that. Actually, Joe and I thought it better to move away. So I left school. Well, that baby was born—a beautiful little girl. She’s sixteen now—funny that. Thankfully, she doesn’t appear to be following her mother. I wasn’t much at school, but Sinead’s a good student. She’s top of her class, hasn’t the time for boyfriends. She wants to be a teacher. She will make a good one too. But let me go back. Joe had got a job labouring. But it wasn’t long before I had another bun in the oven. We got married then, made us no longer outcasts. Thanks, I always fancy a big cup—not too strong. Yes, thanks. It’s just how I like it.’

‘That’s good. Pray continue.’

‘Mmmm—oh yes, you make a nice cuppa. Sorry, I’ve come over all nervous. But I will get on with it, shall I? As I said, I do rabbit on, so don’t expect me to draw breath.’

‘Think nothing of it.’

‘Anyway, I went on to have six bairns. They just kept popping out until we found out what was causing it. Sorry, my little joke, couldn’t resist.’

‘Oh, that’s all right. It might be an oldie. But it is very Catholic, I’m ashamed to say.’

‘Oh yes, good tykes we were, Joe and me. Stupid of us, in hindsight, but I wouldn’t give one of them back, not one. Anyway, we finally found the remedy, and I went ahead against the church and had my tubes tied like so many do these days. Once Joe only had to look at me, but might as well be shooting blanks now.’

‘Yes, well, these days, it is a matter of personal conscience. I think so anyway.’

‘You do? Oh, that’s a relief.’

‘Of course it is. Biscuit?’

‘That’d be nice. Ah, a McVitie, my favourite. Anyway, that isn’t what I came to talk about.’

‘Go on.’

‘You see, Joe and me, we like nice things. It is nice to have the latest, but on Joe’s wage—well, along came the credit cards. We had no idea how easy it is to get access to money. Mind if I pause for a bite?’

‘Go right ahead. Glad you like them.’

‘Hmmm, I do. Well, we started buying—improving our lifestyle, like. A couple of grand bought some nice furniture—a bed, a lounge suite—good brands, like I said we only ever buy quality. Of course, the kids started wanting things then. They wanted to be part of it. It’s their right, and we found we could get more credit cards, and not just from banks, we had retail stores offering, airlines, phone companies. It seemed everyone was willing to come to our party.

‘And what a party it was! Soon we had the latest of everything—plasma television, DVD, a kitchen full of electronic gizmos. And all we had to do was pay the minimum each month.’

‘You found it easy to do that?’

‘At first we did. But we were soon in trouble. You see, then came the transfer offers. We could transplant all our balances to new cards and pay ridiculous interest rates that were even lower than our mortgage. We were off and running then, that’d be nothing surer!’

‘Let me stop you there. You have your own home?’

‘Yes. After we got hitched up we had family help. But at that stage, it wasn’t going to be for much longer, barring a miracle. Joe’s wage isn’t much. He’s a carpenter’s assistant, still has no qualifications to speak of, learnt on the job. Neither of us had much schooling, you see, not with that first one coming at sixteen. I got into sales part-time, two days a week. Naturally, it was when the older ones could look after the younger ones. Anyway, you can imagine there wasn’t much money to be had there.’

‘I imagine it all went on living expenses?’

‘While the debts piled up, you’ve got it, and let me tell you, at twenty per cent interest, it doesn’t take long to get into a right pickle. I can assure you of that.’

‘I can see that. Something so plain as day—as usury, that’s what twenty per cent is, usury—shouldn’t be permitted. So, Jenny, what did you do? How did you get out of it? I’m intrigued.’

‘This is the hard bit and why I nearly didn’t come. But here goes—there was always going to be a day of reckoning, at least I did think that. Joe has always been one to turn the blind eye. The unpaid bills began mounting up and then the threats started coming. They were going to wind us up, throw us out in the street, with only the clothes we could stand up in. It was desperate times! Now I’m shaking. Oh yes, I will thank you for another cuppa.’

‘Are you sure you want to go on?’

‘I have to go on.’

‘Well, then?’

‘I began to notice the ads. You would have seen them. They were all over the trains and still are to this day—Earn $1,000 a Week in Just a Few Hours. Become an Escort. Can you see where I’m leading? Aren’t you horrified? Soon you will understand why I nearly didn’t come. I know what you will be thinking.’

‘Slow down. Apart from the reality of your life, I am not thinking anything. I thought I was here to listen.’

‘You are? Of course, you are. Well, now that you are prepared, at first I thought, No, that’s not for me. But they were there every day, those ads. Their messages were like devils on horseback, and they were staring back at me, like they were my saviours. So I began to investigate.I couldn’t believe how much of that kind of work is out there. Apart from the trains and buses, there were pages of advertisements in the papers—every second classified is one, and they were crying out, No experience necessary. They were the magic words—for someone like me, they were.’

‘Someone like you? You have a low opinion of yourself, Jenny. I would describe you as someone with a beautiful heart and a good mother.’

‘Thanks for saying so. But I’m not trained for anything—and there are obviously hundreds of women out there like me with no normal way of making money—and with all of them doing it, I thought, "Why not me?" You understand that, with all that money, I’d be solving all our problems.’

‘So you went ahead?’

‘I did. I knew I’d be taking a big risk. But by then, our worst nightmare had arrived. If we didn’t pay, we’d be sold up. I couldn’t bear that—Joe and me with all those kids. I couldn’t face telling them.

‘So I thought, Well, perhaps if I just did it for long enough to get us out of trouble. Of course, I had no illusions what escort meant and in that department, well, it is the one thing I am good at. Sorry, but I have to say it—Joe says I’m a good bash.’

‘Joe was happy to go along with your… plan?’

‘Oh, I couldn’t tell Joe. He’d kill me—as I suppose any man would. But I kept reading all that new stuff in the women’s mags —’

‘What stuff?’

‘About it being my body, and I have control of it. I decided to give the game a try. But first, I had to devise a cover.’

‘I’m interested.’

‘Yes, well, the latest and greatest selling tool in the shop trade are the spruikers. You know, they stand outside the shops drumming up customers—the tourist areas are full of them, and the shops there stay open at night, late. I could say that’s what I was doing, and it wouldn’t be disbelieved. Joe would be at home with the kids, and if any of them wanted to talk to me, they could do so on the mobile phone.

‘Anyway, by now, Joe was as worried as I was about our plight. Neither of us was sleeping. I would tell him I had found a way to make more money, by getting paid on commission. It’d only be for two nights a week. He said all right then, as long as I wouldn’t interfere when he went to the pub.

‘Being a woman, and young, I easily secured the spruiker job. Then it was on to the escort agency, and wasn’t that a revelation!’

‘Tell me.’

‘I don’t know what I expected, but, right off, the woman at the agency made me feel important. She was the patient type—kind and gentle. She told me the booking fee would be twenty quid, and I would get the remainder. That would depend on what was required—by that, she meant how far I was prepared to go with the client. She assured me the agency would have vetted him first. But I see I have made you nervous. Perhaps I shouldn’t be telling you all this.’

‘Oh no, please don’t think that. Go on, I am curious.’

‘Yes, well. You know, there was just one thing.’

‘Oh? And that was?’

‘My contact—the woman I described—didn’t ask me anything. No whys and wherefores. In a funny way, it was respect—she was showing me respect. Of course, she must have known I had my reasons, but she didn’t want to know about them. We were entering into a business arrangement, pure and simple, and for my part, I was thinking, Well, it is my body, but now it is also my mind—to do with what I wished. Good feeling that—to have no pressure, I mean.’

‘It was entirely up to you?’

‘Yes, but not quite. And when she touched on the inevitable, it was in such an oblique way that I had to help her out there!’

‘And how did you manage that?’

‘Oh, I said, You mean, do I like fucking?’

‘I see. And —’

‘I said yes, of course. We didn’t say anymore after that. I see I have got you intrigued, knew I would. You’re a man, after all, and you’re all the same. It’s always on your mind, no matter who . . . eh?’

‘Please… please don’t think I’m —’

‘Getting horny? Sorry, couldn’t resist. You have got me relaxed. It was like the answer I gave the nice chubby lady. I’ll suck it and see, I said, just sort of fell out. Oh dear, you’re embarrassed. You’ve spilt your tea, Father. Here, take my hanky, don’t worry, it’s clean.

‘Anyway, that was that. Joe bought the spruiker story—I could see he was relieved—but there was only one thing.’

‘And that was?’

‘Him. No, it’s not what you think. You see, I had only done it with Joe. I suppose I thought if I could only get over my first, I’d be all right.’

‘And were you? Was your… first… all right?’

‘You were going to say satisfactory, weren’t you? Actually, it was pretty terrible. He was drunk and ugly and old. He hurt me. There was one consolation—it didn’t take long. A quickie Joe calls it when he’s had a few.’

‘I thought you said the agency would —’

‘When I told Mrs Patterson—that’s her name—all she did was scrub him off the books. But then, I met my doctor.’

‘Your doctor turned up as a client?’

‘I don’t mean my doctor—not in that sense—I mean my doctor. God smiled on me—I scored what every pro wants, a regular.’

‘Oh.’

‘He—I still don’t know his surname—but he is altogether different. Raymond—doc I call him—he’s a real gentleman, lives in one of those big houses, where the rich are. Lots of land and a long driveway, discrete but posh, you wouldn’t believe it. He says he lives alone. He has a housekeeper of sorts, Mrs O’Malley, lives elsewhere and comes in. I’ve only met her once and that wasn’t supposed to happen, apparently. He is very protective of me, my doctor.’

‘You speak of him with affection.’

‘Well, yes. He’s no trouble, you see. He knows about Joe and the kids. Said it was one of the reasons he took me on as a regular, at first. Said he felt he was helping. It’s every Tuesday right at eight o’clock, and he always makes sure I’m in a cab in plenty of time to be home by midnight.’

‘Seems he’s looking after you… pretty well. You said at first?’

‘I’ll come to that. But to begin, at the beginning, and when I had told the doc about Joe and my predicament, he started giving me more money. It’s enough to cover two nights’ work! As I said I’m only doing it because we do need the money, and with the amounts the doc is giving me, I have to keep up the pretence. Anyway, I get to go to the movies the other night. It was perfect… until I got raped.’

‘Holy Jesus and Mary… you were raped?’

‘Everything had been humming along nicely for over