The Recovering Choir Director

Rocketeer (UK band)

It seems to have made the rounds before, but this story about the rock band who got VIP club access for professing their faith is new to me.

My brother…asked if the club owner was Catholic.

“Yes”, he answered, “staunch.”

Now my brother had found common ground – most of Rocketeer went to Catholic schools – so he tried to exploit it.  “We’re all Catholic too, you know. Go on, let your fellow Catholics in.”  The club owner roared with laughter: “Yeah, sure guys. An English Catholic rock band!  Give up and go home.”

By now it had started to rain.  The band were feeling despondent, and they realised that the owner was not going to give way.  But, ever resourceful, my brother had an idea.

He began to confidently intone the Credo III: “Credo in unum Deum…”  The Irishman, it seemed, might let them in if he believed they were Catholic.  So there was only one thing for it.  The band loudly followed: “Patrem omni potentem, factorem caeli et terrae…”

By the time they got to “ante omnia saecula” the Irishman relented.  Accepting their Catholicism and no doubt taking pity, the door was opened and Rocketeer were ushered, grinning, to the VIP section.

Go get the beginning of the story from Will Heaven.  Note the bit of false witness attempted seconds before…which was quickly exploded.  And the surprising tidbit about the band members having gone to Catholic schools that actually taught the Credo…in Latin.  (In the business world, this is what’s called a “unique selling point”.  In today’s — yesterday’s? — ecclesiastical world, this is what some decry as “returning to the Dark Ages” — never mind that Credo III was penned during the Renaissance…)

This reminds me that I need to update my recordings of the Credo for greater accessibility.  That’ll happen soon.

(Via Thomas Peters, the American Papist.)