Peccadillo Parlour

{ Father Jude Bates }

Faceclaim: Alex Price
Age: 31
Gender Identity & Pronouns: male; he/him
Sexual & Romantic Orientation: celibate (pansexual, romantic orientation unknown)
Occupation: associate pastor at St. Christopher’s
Religion: Roman Catholic
Tag: c: hey Jude refrain

Starters

History

Emma Bates was working as an administrator in Hedgehill elementary when she took an interest in the bedraggled state of the school troublemaker, eight-year-old Jude Kilgair. An investigation led to Jude being picked up by child protection services. Emma formally adopted him a year later, a process that was sped up by both of Jude’s parents signing away their rights without a court order.

Devoted Roman Catholics, Emma and her husband Julian raised Jude in the faith. He turned out to be clever, studious, and intensely interested in the church. He took two years to get three bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy, Religious Studies and English History at the University of Gloucestershire, and surprised no one by going into a seminary for his master’s.

He’s now taken position as an associate pastor at St Christopher’s in East London, having spent the last few years in a priory in the Cotswolds. His hobby, inherited from his adoptive father, is the repair and restoration of antique clocks.

Personality

Father Bates’s candidacy was a head-scratcher, and his placement more so. Though his knowledge of the tenets of the faith is encyclopedic and his manners towards superiors exemplary, there was something disquieting about him, and a few too many cases where he was suspected, if not caught, misbehaving. However, priests were needed, so out her went to a ministry at last.

Father Bates does not seek out conflict, but lies constantly, and has no compunctions against either bending the rules or using people’s weaknesses against them. Even so he relishes the performance of his duties and gives the best spiritual guidance he can, unless he has a reason not to. He is fascinated by people. That, and his love of complex bodies of data, lies at the core of his interest in religion.

Note1: This character is entirely inspired by Sid Carter’s undercover priest look in the Father Brown episode “The Upcott Fraternity”.

Note2: I have a HIGHLY UNDERDEVELOPED monster hunter AU for this character and would be willing to explore it in new threads.