Bless Me, Father

- Season 3

(1981)

Molly Downes, wife of P.C. Johnny Downes (Neil's closest friend), has Father Neil come round for a series of private talks. She fears her husband is fooling around and seeks advice, but it's Father Neil's visits to Molly that set tongues wagging against the curate's clandestine behavior.

A few days without Mrs. Pring show Father Duddleswell that he needs at least one woman in his life.

Hoping to curb the decay in family values, Father Neil initiates family group counseling sessions which produce quite the opposite of the intended effect of bringing and keeping couples together.

St. Jude goes through Hell week, so to speak. Father D's sermon on the fires of eternal damnation has everyone abuzz about it, from Father Boyd's private instructions to Mrs. Rollings to his newly appointed lessons for ten-year-olds, to the family of an angry patriarch as he nears death, and to an interfaith conference between the Fathers and the Anglicans, with Mother Stephen and Billy Buzzle attending.

New Year's Day finds Father Duddleswell more irascible than ever thanks to neighbor Billy Buzzle's all night party next door. Now the old priest's lumbago is ailing him terribly, but the topper comes with the sudden visit of Father Abe, the wild old priest to whom Father D was once a curate - an inveterate smoker, drinker and gambler who feels his arrival comes just in time to help ailing Father D run his parish.

With a new stench about the church, the livin' ain't easy. Neighbor Billy Buzzle's built a sty next door for Porgy and Bess, his two newly acquired pigs. When Father D takes action against Porgy's roving and destructive habits, Billy takes Father Duddleswell to court.

Father Duddleswell and Mother Stephen are equally distressed about Christine Hammond, who grew up in their orphanage and now wants to marry a Jewish boy.