A catholic priest was giving confession¹ one day when members of his
congregation walked in and said, "Forgive father for I have sinned...I
cheated on my husband/wife this week and I have no one else to turn to."
The priest would reply, "You are forgiven my child...but try to keep from
repeating this sinful nature."

Sunday morning comes and he decides to direct his sermon to all of those
people who had committed adultery. The congregation was observant in the
priest's actions because he said if they couldn't do better than this he
would leave the church. The congregation liked the minister, so they came up
with a code word for every time they had committed adultery...they would go
into confession and say that they had "fallen" that week.

A couple of years later, that priest had died and was replaced. It came time
for the new priest to do confessions² and he noticed that many of his members
were coming in, saying they had "fallen". The new priest was concerned about
his congregation and took it upon himself to go to the courthouse and talk
to the mayor.

The priest walks into the mayor's office and says, "Mr. Mayor, you have to
do something about your sidewalks and walkways in the community."

The mayor looking puzzled asks, "Sidewalks?"

The priest says, "Yeah. Many of your citizens have fallen this week!"

The mayor realizes what the priest is talking about and says, "There's no
need to be concerned father. Don't worry about it and go home."

The priest replied, "No need to worry about it...I think if anyone should be
worried it should be you; even your wife has fallen 3 times this week."