His pray-and-tell memoirs document his intimate friendship with Tony and Cherie Blair, how he hobnobbed with the Queen and billionaire John Paul Getty, and converted public figures like Ann Widdecombe and John Gummer to Roman Catholicism.Now, just weeks after the publication of his autobiography, Sinners And Saints, celebrity priest Fr Michael Seed is facing the potential wrath of another high falutin' acquaintance, namely His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
I understand his book has made Seed the subject of a detailed complaint to the Pontiff in Rome and the U.S-based head of his religious order, The Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. His alleged crime? Bringing the Church into disrepute.
The formal complaint, from a senior Roman Catholic Church figure, has caused Fr Seed considerable distress and he fears being summoned to Rome and to upstate New York to explain himself. It is not clear if Fr Seed could be defrocked or simply reprimanded.
He already has black marks against his religious CV, having upset his superiors, notably the late Cardinal Basil Hume and his successor Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, by highly entertaining past antics, including plying 'Fat Lady' Jennifer Paterson with whisky at a dinner, causing her to heckle Cardinal Hume during grace.
Supporters of the Westminster-based cleric, who last year retired as the Archbishop of Westminster's Adviser on Ecumenism, blame the vindictive action on envy and jealousy of Fr Seed's high profile and well-placed chums.
Said one well-disposed friend last night: 'There are a lot of priests who resent Fr Seed's access to high society and senior figures in the worlds of politics and media. But he's been a tremendous PR for the Church, lending it an air of fashionability.'
However, retired Vatican diplomat Monsignor Basil Loftus tells me: 'I think his disclosures are execrable and appalling. The book is tawdry.'
Comments Fr Seed: 'I know I do have enemies in the Church and if they have reported me to the Pope and to my Order, I am sure the powers-that-be will see through this for what it is.'
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