Guess what? Tonight, I got a promotion, went from Catechist to Priest in the span of a day. This evening we had rehearsal for First Communion and the religious ed director made me Father Maria. See, who needs Holy Orders?!

I'm only kidding about all this. Sad to say, much to the dismay of my little feminist heart, I'm ok with a male only priesthood in the Catholic Church, but still it was fun playing pretend for a while.

The children are ready and it's going to be a lovely day on Saturday. But I seem to be getting the cold from hell! Grr.

Faking it...

Fake Priests Japanese Style. So related to the post, two posts below, the BBC also ran an article about a man who pretends to be a priest in Japan for business.

Bless Me Father... wait... you're not a priest...

This might make you think twice about going to confession, especially in place where you really don't know the priest. Vatican Unmasks Fake Priest.

A man posing as a priest has been caught trying to hear confessions in St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, a judge in the city-state has said.

Judge Gianluigi Marrone said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano the man had clerical robes and documents.

Judge Marrone did not say when the incident took place.

He said the man was tried by a Vatican tribunal but would not reveal the verdict or any punishment.

'Unmasked'

Judge Marrone said the man claimed he was a priest.

"He was caught by surprise in the basilica while he was trying to take his place in a confessional.

"He was wearing clerical garb, but the expert eye of our personnel didn't need much to sense something strange in his behaviour."

The documents and Vatican pass appeared legitimate but checks with Italian authorities "unmasked him", Judge Marrone said, as having posed as a priest before in Italy.

"It was a case of usurping an ecclesiastical title, and thus he was tried by our tribunal."

The judge said much of the work of the tribunal involved petty thefts of Vatican visitors' wallets.

From BBC News