The Ghostly Priest

In 1996, I was living in Sussex on the South Coast, UK, at the time I was a Catholic, and in charge of the music for the Saturday Night Mass. Sometimes I would have to go into the Presbytery to use the photocopier to copy some music, but unfortunately, the photocopy machine often malfunctioned, and had done so again much to my annoyance. The Priest’s quarters were upstairs and the Parish facilities were downstairs, so I shouted up the stairs to Fr. David:

‘Father! The photocopier’s not working again!’

I was at the foot of the staircase. As I turned my head to look up I saw a Priest standing about midway on the stairs, I realised I hadn't heard him descend (the stairs were very creaky) and he did something which chilled me to the bone. He turned his head very slowly until he was finally facing in my direction and looking straight at me. He didn't say a word. He had round glasses on and was dressed in full white vestments as if he was going to celebrate a Marian Mass. Strangely, I panicked and shouted up the stairs:

‘Oh never mind....’

and ran out of the presbytery into the Church. Trying to be rational, I presumed the figure was a visiting Priest and waited to see if he con-celebrated Mass with our Parish Priest as this was not an unusual occurrence. He did not appear and it was only later when the Mass started that I remembered it wasn't a minor feast day either and Fr.David did not mention (in the end notices) that we had a visiting Priest.

The next day I happened to be travelling somewhere in the car and it suddenly came to me that this Priest wasn't real, that he was a ghost (all I could say was that it was like an inner inspiration). Me and my husband went over the facts and came to the conclusion that it probably was a ghostly but the only way to find out was to ring Fr.David.

So, with curiosity killing me, I decided to ring Fr.David, bearing in mind that lots of strange, supernatural events were starting to happen at home and in the Parish, this may or may not be because of me and my husband but either way, Fr.David was very apprehensive about such matters!

I rang Fr.David and asked him, he assured me that there was no visiting Priest in the Parish, he was obviously shaken and made it clear he didn't want to discuss the matter further.

About two months later, during our preparations for the Parish Centenary, me, my husband and Fr. David were going through some old Parish pictures to use for the hall display. I hadn't seen these photos before; it was great to see pictures of the bare field where the Church building was proposed to be built but then I gasped — Fr.David pulled out a photo of the first Parish Priest and a parishioner digging the first hole in the field, he looked remarkably similar to the Priest I saw on the stairs! Round glasses etc.

fr webb.jpg

I turned to my husband and whispered that he looked like the Priest I saw on the stairs! Fr.David chose to ignore my comment, my husband gave me a look as if to say, ‘we’ll discuss it later.’

This was just one of many strange events that happened to me and my husband... and still does in 2017...