He is the best-known Catholic priest in Britain after Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster.
So
it was only fitting that Father Michael Seed, 53 — the man who helped
convert former Prime Minister Tony Blair to Catholicism — should mark
25 years in the priesthood with a mass at the Church Of The Immaculate
Conception in Mayfair earlier this month.
So far, so acceptable.
I
can reveal, however, that Seed also had a second, rather less devout
celebration — a champagne-fuelled party with entertainment provided by
transvestites dressed as nuns.
A close friend of Father Seed’s
arranged the bash at the Pigalle Club — housed in a pink basement in
London’s Piccadilly and known for racy floor shows — to mark the
anniversary of the well-connected priest’s ordination into the
Franciscan Friars Of The Atonement.
The 200 guests, many of
them fellow clergymen, were startled to be greeted at the door by four
burly transvestites, who took their coats.
Party-goers — who ranged from clerics from the Diocese of
Westminster to millionaire benefactors who had flown in for the
celebrations by private jet — were again taken aback when the
transvestites appeared on stage later wearing nuns’ habits.
The
6ft ‘nuns’ proceeded to give what can only be described as a rather
unsuitable cabaret act.
‘A female singer came on first. She sang rather
good, classic jazz songs, which was fine,’ says one wide-eyed reveller.
‘But then these transvestites came on stage. Mouths dropped. Quite a few people scuttled off to the bar in embarrassment. Lots of champagne had flowed and I can’t recall the songs that the nuns sang. Needless to say, they weren’t singing vespers!’
Father
Seed — who also converted politician-turned-dance queen Ann Widdecombe
and the late MP Alan Clark — is used to causing a stir.
His
2009 autobiography revealed he had met the Queen, how Miss Widdecombe
organised an exorcism of the Home Office to rid the place of the evil
aura left behind by Michael Howard, and how he often gets mistaken for a
strippagram vicar.
Despite all this,
Father Seed — who once acted as unofficial chaperone to Blair’s
daughter, Kathryn — is currently setting up the Catholic Church’s
committee on human dignity.