Bless Me, Father

- Season 1

(1978)

Father Neil, the young new curate, arrives at the Parish of St. Jude, and crusty old Father Duddleswell wants to know what kind of man he's been sent. For Father Neil's baptism of fire - his very first confessionals.

An old church bell seems like the solution to St. Jude's pigeon problem.

Father Duddleswell sets himself the lofty goal of raising 600 pounds in this year's parish bazaar - over twice what they barely pulled in the previous year. Despite the many doubters around him, Father D moves doggedly forward while insisting all should have faith, but is his faith blind?

The absence of true faith always leads to superstition. That's Father Duddleswell's stand which he must now back by challenging the local legend of the doomsday chair - a cushioned seat, situated in a local pub, that reputedly brings death within a week to whomever sits on it.

A dour portrait of the saintly french nun who founded the orphanage near St. Jude is damaged, revealing a rare and valuable work beneath it. If taken to auction, to whom should the money go, or should the only known image of the orphanage's foundress be preserved instead? Father Duddleswell must reluctantly meet with the imposing and humorless Mother Stephen about it.

The town of Fairwater will get its first Catholic mayor and Father Duddleswell asks him to remain open about his faith. There's a price. The mayor-elect needs to show that he's not in the priests' pocket, so he asks Fathers Duddleswell and Boyd to agree to play doubles against the Anglicans in a clergy tennis match. Father D agrees superficially but then schemes to prove he can win without ever touching the ball.

"Faith comes from hearing" says the good book, but St. Jude's needs some sound help: it's confessional walls are cardboard thin and it's pulpit speaker system hums loudly. While Father Duddleswell okays these improvements, Mrs. Pring's treatment of Father Neil's earwax buildup leaves the curate with temporary hearing problems, but the real disaster descends when Father D forgets to shut off his new cordless mic while in the otherwise soundproofed new confessional.