Short story from 70s with alien parasites that enhance nervous system

I'm trying to locate a story I read sometime in the seventies in an anthology so it may have been written earlier. A plague/alien parasite has infected earth wreaking havoc. It's communicated by touch (and those infected develop a compulsion to touch other people). Those people infect have grey skin caused by, it turns out, massive nerve growth.

The protagonist might have been a priest ministering to the "sick". And in the advanced stage the infected might have grown a third eye. It's also possible the infected were called "feelies" (but using this to search only turns up stories where feelies are a future version of tactile TV).

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Answer

That is Walter Millers "Dark Benediction". The protagonist ist not a priest, but at one point he takes refuge in a place where priests tend to people who have acquired the alien "neuroderm" parasite (which is mistaken for a plague but turns out to be a good thing in the end - the protagonist infects himself voluntarily after falling in love with (not a "feelie" but a) "dermie" (i.e. somebody carrying the neuroderm symbiote)).

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