> a devout priest who went berserk after VII and then turned out to be carrying on an affair with a woman he had met at her husband’s funeral
Not so devout. Sounds like BS.
He had actually been very good. VII had been a problem (he was from the generation of priests just before it) but the real crunch came after the introduction of the new Mass in 1970. He was devastated, because he used to celebrate beautifully, and he was indeed very devout.
But he had no support. The pastor was so upset by all of this that he literally retired to his room and he was drunk every time I saw him. And the other assistant suddenly discovered in his inner gay, pot-smoking guy and was out with the teenage boys, smoking dope and helping them fix their cars...well, sort of. I think, though, that he did leave the priesthood before approaching any of the boys, because he was gone not too long after the introduction of the New Mass.
The other priest hung on for a while, but then was captured by this rather predatory woman and left the priesthood and married her. I will say that he acted honorably, because he no longer believed the religion or accepted its dictates. So after the initial year or so, when he was evicting people from the confessionals because of his own conscience, he gave up and went off, married the woman, and ended up as an alcohol counselor in an oil camp somewhere.
VII was the source of incredible misery.