Apologies; this is a link to the Daily Star...

[tree_and_leaf]

... who are running a ridiculous silly season story about a photo alleged to show Norwich Cathedral being haunted by the ghost of a bishop.* It's obvious nonsense, but I was amused by the final lines of the report:

Builders are said to have sparked poltergeist activity during the 1980s.

The incidents stopped after a visit from Church of England officials but other eerie figures have since been seen roaming the building. (emphasis mine).

Assuming that this is accurately reported (dangerous, I know), "visit" implies that this wasn't just a member of Chapter splashing some holy water around, and does strongly suggest that they got the diocesan exorcist in. As the Star has no interest whatsoever in making a story like this less sensational, I wonder if the diocesan press officer is to be congratulated on making an exorcism sound so dull that no-one wanted to ask for further details....


* Actually, in as much as it looks like a human figure at all to me, it looks more like a member of one of those Spanish penitent guilds that parade in Holy Week, or possibly the KKK, neither of whom seem likely to be haunting Norwich.

Comments

other eerie figures

[lilliburlero]

The Star's syntax is delightful. I hope it's deliberate.

[caulkhead]

I'd have thought a bishop in a cathedral was fairly benign, as hauntings go.

[tree_and_leaf]

Quite, though it probably depends on the bishop!

(Bit of an obvious photoshop job, though...)

Re: other eerie figures

[tree_and_leaf]

It is, isn't it?

[ellid]

"Nobody expects the Spanish Penitentials! Our Weapon is haunting and making woo-woo noises - our *two* weapons are haunting, making woo-woo noises, and blowing cold drafts up ladies' skirts - our *THREE* weapons are haunting, making woo-woo noises, blowing cold drafts up ladies' skirts, and chanting in very deep voices at inappropriate times....."

[el_staplador]

I hope Fr Lewis Hall was on the case.

[sir_guinglain]

Obviously the deprived seventeenth-century nonjuring bishop, William Lloyd, I'd say.

[tree_and_leaf]

I certainly don't!

[tree_and_leaf]

If only tracking down Daily Star journalists and glaring at them!

[tree_and_leaf]

Now there's a thought!

[em_h]

Or, on the other hand, the Star is in fact sensationalizing what might have been a couple of church bureaucrats doing a walk-through and asking people not to be silly (which I suspect might be part of the protocol previous to involving the diocesan exorcist, not that I would know for sure -- although I do happen to know our diocesan exorcist, who is a lovely man, I've never asked him for details of that part of his work).

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, that is of course also possible!

[lizbee]

My family used to attend Mass at a church haunted by a late Monsignor -- a very unpleasant fellow, by all accounts, and not an especially benign haunting if you were a young woman.

[tree_and_leaf]

That sounds decidedly unpleasant.