Who knows.

A couple of positive cultural reflections on Catholic figures…

The film Stateside, here reviewed by James Bowman

and

the book, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul
by satirist Tony Hendra, discussed in the WSJ today.

Mr. Hendra himself has been getting sharp, humorous points across for decades–as an original editor at National Lampoon magazine, a cast member of the movie “This Is Spinal Tap,” editor in chief of Spy magazine, and author of a history of modern American satire (“Going Too Far”).

Less well known has been the 62-year-old’s spiritual side, which first came dramatically to the fore when the future satirist was an English 14-year-old. Caught in dalliance with a neighbor’s wife, young Hendra was taken for religious discipline to an extraordinary Benedictine father on the Isle of Wight. So beneficent and charismatic was the priest that the teenager declared he, too, wished to join the Benedictine order.

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