episode_0041

The Protestant priests who came to see me were restless and looked around.

They seemed to be afraid of something. Just like a person standing in front of a gun that smells like gunpowder usually does.

It was quite surprising considering that these were priests who would stand firm even in the face of gunpoint.

“Uh, I don’t understand the situation. What are you asking me to scold you for?”

“We sinned.”

“Yes?”

“I will speak slowly. The sins we committed… .”

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A priest of the Protestant Knights Templar.

Ignatius was originally a nobleman with a bright future guaranteed. As the eldest son of a renowned central nobleman in the empire, he chose the path of priesthood purely because he was chosen by God.

Spiritual experience. One day, he woke up from a dream to an angel’s call and realized that he had been blessed.

And despite opposition from his family, he devoted himself to a monastery. After learning theology there, he received the sacrament of Holy Orders and became a priest. Because of his unusual history, he had a different personality from other priests who had been deeply immersed in religion since childhood.

Because of that, I couldn’t get along well with other priests.

Rather than saying that other priests ostracized Ignatius, it was closer to Ignatius himself ostracizing other priests. All priests are like that, but he especially had pride in having been given the priesthood directly by God.

“In fact, the priests of our Protestant Knights Templar are all people who could not get along with the priests of the existing church. We… I think I felt a little proud of that shortcoming. The duty of a priest is to consecrate himself to God, and therefore personal relationships that do not benefit God are useless. As I said this, I became even more absorbed in theological activities. Even when I became a member of the Protestant Knights Templar, I was very happy at the thought of being able to break away from the old church customs and spread the gospel.”

“I understand to some extent. If you are a person who considers trials to be a hero’s privilege, wouldn’t you be proud of yourself even though you are subject to difficult trials?”

“As expected, Venerable Homer is wise. yes. But now we realize how arrogant we were. No, even saying this would sound arrogant. So, well, we found out that we actually didn’t know anything.”

“What happened?”

“So, um, of a certain noble… So, an agent of a fairly powerful nobleman came to visit us. I’m not sure where I heard the story, but I found a priest from our ‘Protestant’ religion and invited him to the mansion. And he asked for the sacrament of baptism for his illegitimate child. We accepted the request. Oh, I don’t mean that I received money or was promised something from a nobleman. This was done purely out of the belief that even illegitimate children should receive God’s blessings.”

bastard. And the sacrament of baptism.

The sacrament of baptism for children born to unmarried mothers has been quite a controversial topic in this world. Illegal children were often unable to receive the sacrament of baptism because they were not born in the sanctity of marriage.

In this world where God exists, this is the same as saying that one is not treated as a ‘human being’ at all.

Just like the prisoners. Priests in this world often treated illegitimate children like prisoners and refused to baptize them.

“Since then, the number of people visiting our ‘Protestant’ priests and asking them for something has increased. They were people who were discriminated against from the traditions that we considered to be the ‘old customs’ of the ‘church’. A widow who lost her husband in war asked for the sacrament of marriage with her new husband. I accepted this request. As she was grieving over the loss of her husband, she thought that the new relationship that came to her should be blessed. Thus, she received the sacrament of marriage for the second time.”

Ignatius, who had said that far, could not continue speaking and only pursed his lips.

And he covered his face with both hands as if he was devastated. After taking a few deep breaths, I calmed down and finally spoke.

“Then this time, the nobleman who divorced her husband asked for the sacrament of marriage with her new husband. From here, ‘our’ opinions began to diverge.”

Ignatius and the ‘Protestant’ priests standing behind him looked at each other.

These people were more moderate and generous than anyone else in the church. However, they could not all have the same standard of ‘generosity’.

“As a result, the nobleman received the sacrament of marriage a second time. Some priests said this was wrong, but the sacrament of marriage did not require many priests. Priests who agreed to the sacrament of marriage cited the example of a ‘widow’ and said that God’s blessings should be fair to everyone, while other priests said that this was a betrayal of God’s blessings.”

Ignatius continued to talk about what kind of ‘favor’ he had been asked to receive.

He talked about how many people were discriminated against by the church’s traditions, and how the ‘Protestant’ priests’ opinions about them differed. There were so many examples that we had to talk for nearly an hour.

Contraception, illegitimate children, homosexuality, traditions, single mothers, widows, prostitution… .

Some cases were too trivial and personal, while others were so common that even churches were constantly discussing and differing opinions.

And for them, there was no ‘standard’ to distinguish between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

This is because they were Protestants. A knightly order of seekers who forgot the words of the Pope, the old laws, and the doctrines of the Council, and spread the gospel using only the word of God as a light.

“Only then did we understand why the foolish stubbornness that we considered ‘old traditions’ existed. I realized that there are too many shadows in this world for faith and words alone to brighten the world. I realized later how many different shapes the shadows had and how deep the hole was. When I came to my senses, we were already following the old habits of the ‘church’. Instead of praying to God for wisdom, we were just following the traditions we loathed in church.”

“I understand.”

“No. no. Author Homer would not even be able to guess how evil we have become.”

Ignatius, with his eyes tightly closed, confessed like a sinner confessing to a priest.

“We refused one woman’s final sacrament. She died without even the hope of ever being able to be held in the arms of God. … Before we knew it, we had become more stuffy and conservative than the ‘church’. We were no different from the scribes in the Bible.”

“‥‥‥.”

“If things continue like this, ‘Shingyo’ will simply remain as a record of miserable failure. So, I would like to ask the Venerable Homer, the creator of ‘Father Brown’.”

And he bowed his head like a criminal asking for reparation.

“Please scold us. And please teach me.”

Their eyes were no different from the apostles looking at the Savior.

There was a mixture of longing and fear in those eyes. It seemed as if lightning would strike from the sky at any moment and condemn them.

“… I am just a writer. I don’t think it will be very helpful.”

“No. Isn’t Homer the one who received miracles from God?”

“For me, it was just a work activity.”

“You wrote Don Quixote, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Little Prince, Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, and Father Brown.”

“‥‥‥.”

“Also, didn’t you give a speech in front of your followers asking them to read the Bible?”

“It was like that… .”

“He made the greedy rich people feed the children in the orphanage to their fill, made the nobles obsessed with worldly honor sponsor the orphanage, and made sure that all children could receive an education.”

“Yes.”

“How could that be possible with human wisdom?”

Certainly, it was not something possible with human wisdom.

The works I wrote were plagiarisms of masterpieces that have been loved for the longest time on earth, the speeches I gave were plagiarisms of speeches that touched the hearts of the most people, and the businesses I did were plagiarisms of the most successful marketing campaigns.

This was the wisdom accumulated by people over a long period of time, so it was not possible with the wisdom of just one person.

“We are confident that the Venerable Homer received wisdom from God. So, I would like to borrow Ga Kyeong-ja’s wisdom.”

“… I don’t know much about doctrine. I have read the Bible, but I have never studied theology.”

“It’s okay. Please lend us your wisdom.”

“‥‥‥.”

I’m not sure if this is correct.

I am not the savior they think of, nor am I a visionary with great inspiration.

He is just a plagiarist who stole the ‘history’ of his previous life.

therefore.

“Okay. He advised me when I was writing Father Brown… It would be appropriate for me to take on an advisory role as well.”

“… Thank you!”

If they want advice from the ‘history’ I stole.

This time, it’s just plagiarism.

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“If they seek the Lord’s words and correct will, who am I to judge them? He must constantly extend his hand to lead them to the right path, but if they themselves are reverent to God and true to their faith and do not change, then there is his role.”

He also plagiarized the words of Pope Francis.

“Have you ever heard of a civil union?”

I also plagiarized the systems from my previous life.

“If a child harasses his or her parents, it is not because the child is possessed by a devil, but because he or she is hurt. I think it would be good to create ‘parenting education’ guidelines for parents.”

Teacher Oh Eun-young also plagiarized.

In this way, I discussed various moral discourses of my ‘past life’ in this world.

In the process, Shinkyo also met a pious and faithful beast named ‘Grey’.

That was how Gray received the sacrament of baptism.

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[“Father, if I have any sin, that would be it. Do you plan on giving me penance as reparation for that sin? ” Bulnoi continued speaking cautiously.]

[“I will not give you any penance.” Father Brown looked amused as he took his own hat and umbrella.”I came here to spare you the penance you may have had to endure. It’s for the sake of it. ” ]

[“Then, what is the penance that I was lucky enough to avoid?” Bulnoi asked with a smile.]

[“He is hanged.”]