FAREWELL TO FRED

I learned this week that Fr. Fred Bliss has died.

I liked Fr. Bliss - Fred. He was one of the good guys at St. Patricks College.

Fred sort of took me under his wing in the fourth form and made me a Sacristan. I think he wanted to save my soul or something. It didn't work out. See here:

MINE HOST

Fred caught me in my only ever (honest) attempt at cheating in an exam.

The exam was Christian Doctrine in the 6th Form.

I was crap at Christian Doctrine. It just didn't make sense to me. Latin and mathematics made more sense. At the end of  Standard 6 at Marist Brothers, everyone from the three or four Marist Brothers schools around Wellington who were going on to St Patricks College, had to sit a series of exams - English, Social Studies, Mathematics (or Arithmetic) and Christian Doctrine. I failed Christian Doctrine but still had accumulated enough marks from the other three test papers to get fourth highest from all the schools. They made us sit in the order of where you came in the tests for the first year in the 'P' form. Weird.

Every year from then on I kept crapping out in Christian Doctrine. In the 6th form it was expected that we would all get University Entrance accredited at the end of the year provided that the term exams were to a high enough standard. For some reason I must have thought that I needed a high standard for Christian Doctrine as well as the other subjects - brain fade I guess. I wrote some 'truths' on my hand - a couple of those ridiculous, incomprehensible and, for me, ungraspable bits of nonsense and during the exam Fred spotted me. He came over, silently so as to not interrupt the other good little catholics and tut-tutted, shaking his head. I apologised and went on to fail the exam.

Good old Fred. Rest In Peace - you will be missed.