TRILOGY: Bk I (Jackass for the Hour), Ch 13

[[ Translations of two short phrases in this chapter: Another penalty and a just penalty. // While the jackass is tied up... // May the souls of the faithful [departed], through the mercy of God, rest in peace. ]]

[[ Disclaimers... Dear (Chinese) readers: this is all fiction. That should be clear... but just to make sure everyone understands this, I repeat, this is all fiction What is said about Rome is just for the sake of the story. Really.

Also: Many past readers told me that this was a rather dark chapter. However, there will be more character development! Ch 14 lightens up, and then the next chapters bring us to the other side of the world. ]]

You are out for his blood

Don Hash repeated himself: “I would not like to see Father Alexámenos burnt.”
“Nor would I,” answered Cardinal Fidèle, smiling. “Nor would any of us here.”

“But…” said don Hash, trying to get the Cardinal to give some hint of where he was going.

“But there will be a trial with a death penalty,” said Cardinal Fidèle.

“I am overwhelmed,” replied don Hash.

“Don’t worry, Hash,” said Cardinal Fidèle in a lighthearted manner. “It is not as if he will not repent. He will not be harmed, just put on trial. We want what is best for him.”

“What is best? It’s just too dangerous, Fidèle,” said Cardinal Francisco.

“Apparently, our wanting what is best for someone is not the same as what you want, Fidèle,” Cardinal Froben said, continuing to defend Father Alexámenos despite himself.

“Besides,” said Cardinal Francisco, “the doctrinal oversight of any trial would belong to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, not you.”

“Everyone knows you are the Grand Inquisitor,” replied Cardinal Fidèle, “a Torquemada redivivus.” This comment lightened the atmosphere as a round of laughter went around the room. No one could imagine the meek Cardinal Francisco – a perfect gentleman given over to the more extreme refinements of diplomatic etiquette – as the head of any Inquisition, a term which, in itself, to him, begged for copious apologies. He was convinced that his job was to keep his more zealous inquisitors in check, not letting them work, keeping everyone else happy.

“Enough of all this fooling around, Fidèle,” said the Cardinal Secretary of State, finally saying something. “Tell us about your conveniently off the record conversation with the Pope.”

“I thought you would never ask, Elzevir,” replied Cardinal Fidèle.

“Don’t tell me you have spoken to the Holy Father about Alexámenos,” said don Hash, becoming ashen as the reality of the situation started to hit home. As an historian, don Hash had seen this turning of events time and again throughout history, in any country, and in any culture, and had already concluded in prayer that he himself would always be the one lighting the fire unless it was the Lord who would give him the strength and Charity to be the one who is, instead, burnt. He said: “This kind of thing happens precisely when people say: “Peace and security!” and congratulate themselves with the words, “We would never do that kind of thing. We would never, ever burn anybody again. Never again! We’re nice people! It’s unimaginable today! We’re better than people of the past! The Lord was surely wrong about us, predicting that when we say ‘peace and security,’ there will be none. We’re nice! The Lord was wrong to ask, if we brutalized Him as we did when the wood was green, what we would do when it was dry. The Lord was wrong, because… we’re nice! It can’t happen today! Never again! Nice! Nice! Nice!…”

“The Pope is most interested,” interrupted Cardinal Fidèle. “Elzevir is a witness.”

“Is that true, Elzevir?” asked Cardinals Francisco and de Colines simultaneously, incredulously.

Don Hash stared into the fire, which had now burnt down to a calm blaze. The sharp odour which hung in the air of the study was now from the burning of the copies of Father Alexámenos’ study. It was the laser-toner used for the printing of the multitude of graphic images of ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures which the copies of the study contained.

Carpe Diem was also staring into the fire, which was a new experience for him. “Jesus, carpe diem! Burning… Burning…” he softly repeated again and again, lost in his own world underneath the protection of the fiery love of the Word of God, to whom he was ‘listening’ intently.

“Go on, Fidèle,” commanded Cardinal Elzevir once again.

“I think you should summarise the meeting, Elzevir,” said Cardinal Fidèle purposely staring hard into the fire, imitating don Hash.

“The Holy Father agrees that a public trial is to proceed,” stated Cardinal Elzevir. “The penalty hanging over the result of the trial for any unrepentance is to be… burning at the stake.”

After a full minute of everyone staring into the fire, Cardinal Froben broke the stunned silence and stated, “So, all our fears with this Pope have come true.”

“On the contrary, Froben. It is now that all our hopes for ecumenism are clearly seen on the horizon,” answered Cardinal Fidèle.

“You had better explain that, Fidèle,” said Cardinal Elzevir.

“The Holy Father will brook dissent no longer,” Cardinal Fidèle replied.

“But what he means and what you mean can be two different things,” said Cardinal Froben.

“Which is precisely the reason for a trial,” replied Cardinal Fidèle.

“A trial you’ll manipulate to cover over differences with the Pope,” insisted Cardinal Froben.

“The facts will speak for themselves,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “The Pontiff has reserved any final decision for himself. Alexámenos is to be treated well, and, at the end of the trial, the Holy Father will visit him regularly. There will be no burning at the stake. That’s a pedagogical show.”

“Burning at the stake was a civil penalty inflicted by the state in the distant past,” padre Absj offered. “Today’s Canon Law doesn’t permit that kind of penalty.”

“You know nothing of Church Law, Absj,” said Cardinal Elizevir.

“Alia poena or iusta poena,” is the exact wording, said Cardinal Fidèle. “Burning at the stake is within the range of penalties. His Holiness can also establish law at will.”

“I was hoping that this meeting we are having would end in rebellion against the Pope, but you’re merely trying to manipulate him,” said padre Absj. “I want nothing to do with this.”

“It’s a good thing you are not the Confessor of His Holiness, Absj,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “Yet, you are at the Pio Decimo Centre, are you not?”

“I am a free and accepted member, yes,” Absj replied.

“And part of that membership is taking a vow to be obedient to the Holy Father, is it not?” asked Cardinal Fidèle.

“What are you getting at?” asked padre Absj, clearly upset with such questions.

Ignoring him, and turning to the other Prelates, Cardinal Fidèle asked, “And we are sworn to assist the Holy Father, are we not?” They all nodded their heads in the affirmative. “Now, Hash. The Holy Father has a special role for you to play,” said Cardinal Fidèle.

“You want me to light the fire if Alexámenos, in your words, doesn’t repent?” asked don Hash.

Carpe Diem kept repeating himself, changing the names, “Don Hash, carpe diem! Burning…” but then suddenly put the bible on the carpet, lay down himself in front of the warmth of the fire, and went to sleep as quickly as he was innocent.

“You rush to conclusions, Hash,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “I repeat. None of us here wants to see Alexámenos burn. The best example we can get from him is his repentance. You are his friend. You are to convince him of his error. The Holy Father desires it be you who carries out this task.”

“And?” asked don Hash.

“And….” continued Cardinal Fidèle, “the Holy Father insists that it be you who encourages Alexámenos to trust in the mercy of God if, God forbid, the worst comes to the worst.”

“And?” asked don Hash.

“Hash… You fret over nothing. It is true that the Holy Father does not wish to turn him over to the state, and that, if there is a penalty, he desires that it be his own friend who executes it.” Don Hash’s eyes widened. “It won’t happen,” added Cardinal Fidèle. “Don’t worry.”

“You can’t do that,” exclaimed Cardinal Francisco. “The reality would be too much.”

Don Hash was thinking about what his Confessor, padre Emet had told him about reality.

“It’s damn good pedagogy – as long as nothing really happens,” said Cardinal Froben, “but the reality is that even the thought of it is impossible in this day and age. The media would make a circus of the whole affair. Any severe penalty would be the object of protest from the World Court and the United Nations. The World Council of Churches would openly mock us. The trial itself would simply grind to a halt. It is just not possible.”

“Is it not possible, Froben?” asked Cardinal Fidèle, “Isn’t it really that, for you, the trial cannot go forward for the reason that you think that everyone is so nice, and that, at worst, it is better for people to pretend to be nice, even though most of them are denying the God of Life, and so contracepting, aborting, euthanatising, and then themselves dying along with their own culture of death in suicide and genocide? Without God, people are not nice, and will not be nice, ever.”

“I do not follow,” said Cardinal Froben, even though he understood all too well.

“It is for these very reasons that the trial will go ahead,” replied Cardinal Fidèle. “It is precisely in proportion to how much people are lackadaisical in regard to religion that they are easily manipulated to take up a religious cause they think will do good for their kind of society.”

“Give an example, Fidèle,” said Cardinal de Colines.

“Of all people, you should know, de Colines!” exclaimed Cardinal Fidèle. “Take the sex abuse crisis in English-speaking countries. How many bishops, archbishops and even Cardinals retired early? And how many of their priests have been suspended? All one has to do is listen to what makes people angry, justly angry, and then show a connection between immorality and heresy, so that they see that heresy breeds immorality. Then one watches society become angry with heretics. Then we provide the heretic of heretics, and they will want to vent their anger upon him. Providing millstones for the removal of those who scandalise others is a religious cause, which has a basis with the words spoken by our Lord on the matter. Taking up this particular religious cause of the purification of the Church is a good for society. Everyone knows that already. Everyone will want to join in. Just look at how much the ‘orthodox’ Catholic media pitches in. For years their symbol for sex abuse has been the neck of a young priest dressed in a roman collar, as if young priests were abusers by vocation, and as if it were not the older generation who have committed almost all these crimes.”

“We pray that the time of darkness will be short, lest even the elect fall through bitterness,” said don Hash. He added, “If they provide millstones in bitterness instead of zeal, they, in mere reaction, will all too soon also be insisting on the rights of Sodomites and Gomorrahites, from youngest to eldest, to rape anyone to death, saying that error has rights, that truth is relative. Today, we see that…”

“None of what you say is true in this case,” stated Cardinal Fidèle coldly, nervously. “Moreover, conformist reactions of the masses can be adroitly manipulated through the media, if one knows how to manipulate the media.”

“But is any of that kind of thing true of Alexámenos?” asked Cardinal Elzevir. “Those guilty of boundary violations were mostly priests ordained around Vatican II, who shoved their own version of that Council down people’s throats for years. How old is Father Alexámenos?”

“How old are you?” asked Cardinal Fidèle incisively. “He isn’t half your age. Alexámenos will be, as he already is, a good example to follow, both morally and doctrinally…”

“Except for one heresy,” interrupted Cardinal Francisco.

“Heresy is not the only reason for a death penalty,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “Grave imprudence can strike at the very unity of the Church.”

“Corrupt morals follow corrupt doctrine,” said Cardinal Francisco.

“Others will understand his imprudence in reference to error, and that is not good, however sincere he happens to be,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “Some of those who listen to him will fall apart morally in other ways.”

“But it is you who have set him up teaching in your old seminary, Fidèle,” said Cardinal Elzevir. “We heard you on the phone yesterday, and from what we heard, he is repentant.”

“We all hope that sentire in et cum ecclesia will be his motto,” replied Cardinal Fidèle.

“It’s surely mine,” said Cardinal Froben. “But what, then, has he done wrong if he is already so much in and with the Church, if he has already repented?”

“Did he repent?” asked Cardinal Fidèle. “His agreeing to go to Haïti means nothing.”

Carpe Diem, stretched out on the carpet, turned over, for the fire was too hot. Though hardly awake, he heard Cardinal Froben interject: “But Alexámenos said he was a jackass and useless.”

“That doesn’t mean he repented,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “It would not mean you repented if you said it of yourself, Froben. I can easily prove that Alexámenos is not repentant.” Turning to padre Absj, Cardinal Fidèle asked, “How did your meeting with Alexámenos go this morning?”

“That was a private conversation,” said padre Absj, immediately fidgeting.

“Just give us an indication of the direction Alexámenos was heading,” said Cardinal Fidèle.

“Alexámenos seems confirmed in his ways,” replied padre Absj, “because you, your Eminence, verified everything for him in the Secret Archives.”

“Verified what he wrote, yes, but not his imprudence,” replied Cardinal Fidèle. “His imprudence cultivates a perspective dangerously limiting the activity of the Holy Spirit in the Church today. I told him that the publication of his study would do great harm to the Church. If Alexámenos is confirmed in his ways, it is entirely your fault, Absj. You should have read his study to help him understand that his viewpoint is a danger to the unity of the Church. You did not. It is you who have failed both Alexámenos and the Church. This means that there will be more work to be done in the trial. Your lack of concern, Absj, will be a stumbling block for him. You represent the Centre for him. This may harden him, embitter him. And now, there is even more pressure on Hash to convert Alexámenos.”

“Must the trial go on under these circumstances?” asked Cardinal Francisco.

“Now, more than ever,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “Alexámenos is increasingly dangerous.”

“If Alexámenos is held up as an example of what is responsible for the world’s woes, won’t everyone want his blood unfairly?” asked padre Absj. “There are countless people like him.”

“It is interesting that you should say that, Absj, but you are wrong. Only Alexámenos has gone to the heart of the matter, however imprudently, and must be, shall we say, controlled.”

“So you are out for his blood?” asked Cardinal Froben.

“Not in the least. Just the opposite. When the trial threatens to become violent, everything will be reversed in favour of a much more effective pedagogy,” answered Cardinal Fidèle.

“Meaning?” asked Cardinal Francisco.

“His repentance, of course,” replied Cardinal Fidèle. “Not only will Hash help him to repent, but the Holy Father has insisted that his Confessor, Cardinal Emet…”

“Emet!” exclaimed Cardinal de Colines, disturbed with Father Alexámenos’ choice.

Carpe Diem looked like he was going into slight spasms as he slept, and then started ‘talking’ in his sleep. “Ee-aagghh, ee-aagghh, ee-aagghh,” he said, in a fairly accurate rendition of a jackass.

“As I was saying,” said Cardinal Fidèle, “Emet will be available to Alexámenos throughout the trial. He will come around with many others and be forgiven. Unity will be established…”

Cardinal Froben interrupted, saying, “Well, if it’s for unity, and no one gets hurt, I’m for it.”

Having successfully manipulated the others, Cardinal Fidèle turned to finish off don Hash, saying, “You would agree with repentance and forgiveness, wouldn’t you, Hash?”

“I agree,” said don Hash, “that we are all in need of repentance, forgiveness and absolution for the sins by which we have crucified Him who is the Living Truth. It is one thing to speak of these things while at the same time throwing stones at someone who is merely accused of being an adulterer, but it is quite another thing to know the mercy of Christ in one’s own life, that mercy with which there is no room for anything apart from God’s victory of Truth.” He could not tell if his statement registered with them due to the blank stares he received.

“Ee-aagghh, ee-aagghh,” Carpe Diem said again, looking like he was stamping his feet.

“The Day will belong to forgiveness and mercy,” said Cardinal Fidèle, categorically, trying to make it seem that he and don Hash agreed, claiming victory by proclaiming victory.

Don Hash was relieved when Cardinal Fidèle addressed the others: “Each of you is important to the successful outcome of the trial. The public must be educated.”

“If they must be educated, as you put it, they will never accept it,” said Froben. “You have to learn to live with the lowest common denominator, where no education is possible.”

“When I say educated, Froben, I mean guidance of the lowest common denominator of irrational emotions. There is a values clarification process by which the muddled thinking of society is brought to the truth. At any rate,” Cardinal Fidèle continued, “Francisco has already stated that he will be in charge of the doctrinal aspects of the trial…”

“I did no such…” interrupted Cardinal Francisco.

But Cardinal Fidèle cut him off, continuing unabated: “De Colines will be busy instructing episcopal conferences and any individual, troublesome bishops, while Elzevir deals with civil concerns. Froben can handle the ecumenical front with ease, so passionate is he that the present way of ecumenism is the quickest path to unity.”

“Well, that’s true, anyway,” said Cardinal Froben.

“Meanwhile, all of you can take your cue through the press conferences I will be presenting in preparation for the trial and in summary of each session of the trial. Since the matter is particularly difficult, I will try to facilitate the outcome of each session.”

“I must object,” said Cardinal Francisco.

“What is it now?” asked Cardinal Fidèle impatiently.

“How am I supposed to run an Inquisition,” asked Cardinal Francisco, “if I don’t know what the charge is, and if there is no evidence? Have you forgotten? You had burnt everything.”

“And tell me, Francisco. What has the problem with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith been all these years? Isn’t it true that you have been delaying, sometimes for very many years, the correction of any heretic because your protocol goes out of its way to avoid the spoken word of a heretic? And isn’t it true that any process, including this one, will move ahead quickly because of dealing with the spoken word?”

“But what has he said except that he’s a jackass and useless?”

“It is what he will inevitably say, and sooner than later,” replied Cardinal Fidèle. “The topic is not one he can simply not talk about. He knows that there is a great deal riding on this. We will be ready. The charge, as I told the Holy Father, is the practical denial of the authority of those in charge of the day to day running of the Church. It is not so much what he wrote in his paper, as his attitude.”

“Oh, I see… I guess,” said Cardinal Francisco, upset with the unusual, ungentlemanly process. “His attitude…”

“And what he will say very shortly,” replied Cardinal Fidèle sharply. “It won’t take long to gather enough testimony to get him to the trial. He will condemn himself out of his own mouth the first chance he gets. We are almost finished here, for now. Don’t forget that we are to keep the Holy Father out of this as much as possible. There is just one last matter…” He then turned and exclaimed, “Absj!”

“Yes?” said padre Absj, dejectedly.

“Tell us some good news about Hash,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “Will he have something to keep him occupied in the coming months?”

“He has three courses to teach this Semester, starting tomorrow,” said padre Absj.

“Good,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “You will be busy, Hash. I realise it is only your second day on the job, but I am sure that you understand. Your job is over. Your pay is two good meals.”

“Don’t be such a miser, Fidèle,” said Cardinal Froben.

“I didn’t want to say, but you will find an envelope waiting for you at the Casa, Hash.”

“Thank you, your Eminence. May I be excused now?”

“We will be seeing you soon, anyway, friend,” said Cardinal Fidèle, who, as don Hash left the study, repeated in a disquieting, sarcastic, all too familiar melody: “Friend, friend, friend…”

With this, don Hash picked up his pace down the corridor and, once again, Carpe Diem, still sound asleep, said, “Ee-aagghh, ee-aagghh.”

Carpe Diem woke up with a start when he heard don Hash walk on the wood floor near the door. Being woken in this fashion left Carpe Diem very tense. He jumped up, ran to the door, and started turning the light switch off and on. Cardinal Fidèle, ignoring this, listened for the front door but had only heard don Hash’s footsteps in the corridor. He grinned wryly, thinking that he had stopped in the chapel. In fact, don Hash was rifling through the vestment cabinet, and soon came upon the key for the tabernacle. He opened the tabernacle and… it was empty… The unburnished metal inside the tabernacle had not been covered with damask. There was only dust, a few dead bugs, and a small card which hung down from the top of the inside of the tabernacle, declaring the names of the artists and workmen who had been involved in its creation, along with the address of the religious goods store from which it was acquired so long ago. “It’s never been opened,” Don Hash whispered to himself. “The Blessed Sacrament has never been here.” The “Friend, friend, friend” melody came back to his mind, reminding him of his ‘vision’ at the Basilica across the river. He heard a noise coming from the study, not knowing it was Carpe Diem. He swiftly closed the tabernacle door, returned the key, closed the cabinet door and made his way through the front door of the apartment, closing it after himself. He rounded the corners of the walkway on the roof and started going down the steps, too impatient to wait for the lift. He couldn’t fathom what he had just seen, or not seen. It was just then 3:00 P.M., so he took out his Rosary and began praying the Mercy Chaplet as he hurried down the steps. It struck him that there were much worse things in the world, and that our Lord would soon use someone, like a jackass, to ride into the soul of the Cardinal, there to take up residence by grace, as in a living tabernacle.

Up in the apartment, Cardinal Fidèle excused himself to go to the toilet. While he was away, the other Cardinals and padre Absj complained to each other that the whole thing was just too much, and that they had to confront Cardinal Fidèle before everything went out of control. “He’s obviously senile,” said Cardinal Froben loudly just as Cardinal Fidèle entered the study once again.

“Who would that be, Froben? Are you talking about yourself again?” asked Cardinal Fidèle.

“We’ve agreed it’s all too much, Fidèle,” said Cardinal Elzevir. “We’ve changed our minds. Let people say what they want. Life will go on. End of story.”

“Father Li does not agree,” said Cardinal Fidèle, calmly sitting down. But as he said this, the room instantly became intolerably tense.

Without hesitation, Cardinal Elzevir shouted, “Damn you, Fidèle! What does China have to do with this?!”

“It seems that Emet has played the courier boy for Alexámenos. Emet handed Tsur-Ēzer a full report on Li within hours of his election.” They all looked at him, dumb-struck. “The report includes a dossier on each of your connections with Li,” continued Cardinal Fidèle.

“How do you know anything?” demanded Cardinal Elzevir. “Not to mention Alexámenos.”

“Technology and betrayal,” said Cardinal Fidèle flatly. “Sit down. All of you.”

“Now there’s no way that the Pope will approve Li’s nomination for bishop by the Chinese government,” said Cardinal de Colines. “Had he done it, concessions granted by China would…”

“The Chinese government gives concessions for the Olympics, for business, for imperialistic expansion and influence, but then, afterwards, it gets worse,” said padre Absj. “The government lies, saying it gets bad press because of a renegade, overly zealous Patriotic Association, which alone is guilty of torturing Catholics. Instead, the Patriotic Association and the government are one. If only we had listened to the voice of Cardinal Piccolaforesta for these past years and politically dealt with both those who are underground and the Patriotic Association as one entity – and through the government alone – and we wouldn’t be in this mess today.”

“You speak with a forked tongue, Absj,” said Cardinal Fidèle.

“Not at all,” padre Absj tried to object. “If we had only stayed the course and tried to…”

“If the Pope approved Li,” Cardinal Fidèle insisted, “you would all look good. But, now, that is not at all the case. Li has just killed a bishop.”

“I didn’t know this!” Cardinal Elzevir tried to protest. “We… I have tried to follow The Letter to the letter!”

“I believe you,” replied Cardinal Fidèle. “Will anyone else? And you, Francisco, unbelievably, approved Li’s becoming an ordinary professor at the Pontifical…”

“How do you know about that?” interrupted Cardinal Francisco.

“You approved his thesis, which I find incredible. You know such an approval must be made before anyone becomes an ordinary professor. It was entitled Fidelity to the Bishop of Rome as Mediated by the Chinese Government. It couldn’t have been more ecclesiologically heretical. You think that imprudence does not preempt scholarship. But imagine, Li flies to China to torture a bishop who is faithful to Rome, and then returns to teach! Teach what?!”

Cardinal Francisco also protested: “I didn’t know. Why didn’t Alexámenos come to us first?”

“He did, before Christmas, about all Li’s activities. It’s all on record, all witnessed,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “He’s done the same with all of you – including Propaganda – using different people.”

“He’s got nothing on me!” exclaimed Cardinal Froben. “I only want unity!”

“At any cost, Froben? You’re the one whose been most active with him, having him attend dialogue sessions of every sort, giving him an international platform.”

“Unity with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association is important for ecumenism,” protested Cardinal Froben. “I did not know he had some missteps in his past.”

“And his present,” said Cardinal Fidèle. “At any rate, Alexámenos’ report also makes me look evil. My lines of communication with the Chinese ‘Pope’ are well known. And as for you, de Colines…”

“Yes?” said Cardinal de Colines innocently.

“Why is it that you’ve been promoting bishops who will give parishes to the Patriotic Association in their own dioceses?” asked Cardinal Fidèle.

“You don’t know the kind of pressure I am under,” said Cardinal de Colines, flustered.

“You, Absj,” continued Cardinal Fidèle, “were second reader for Li’s thesis. Was that supposed to be enculturation similar to Ricci?” There was no response.

“This Alexámenos is interfering in what he does not understand,” said Cardinal Elzevir.

“As far as the Pontiff is concerned,” said Cardinal Fidèle, “nothing will change regarding ourselves. He cannot say anything publicly.”

“But we can’t be sure Alexámenos will say nothing further about this,” said Cardinal Elzevir. “There is too much riding on China. We have to remove him. We have to… Oh… I see… The trial… Dum ligatur asinus, we are free. Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“The reason for the trial is what we’ve been discussing. I have only just found out about Li. The Holy Father will say something to you privately if he so chooses. I doubt it. I am at risk in telling you all this, but there was no other way. You are as blind as the Reformers before the Reform, not knowing the implications either of reverencing or manipulating God’s Revelation. I now simply play on your own self-interest in having a good name. As it is, you know nothing of the implications of Taiwan falling to Beijing.”

Cardinal Fidèle walked the Cardinals and padre Absj to the door of the apartment. They said goodbye to Signora Gagno, who was just leaving for the day with Carpe Diem. Cardinal Fidèle then entered his chapel, blowing out the oil lamps, again shaking his head, complaining that the day’s events had been too easy. He had expected more of a fight from the Pope, and it troubled him that, instead, the Pontiff seemed too easy to win over.

•••—•••—•••

Don Hash left the gate of San Calisto, turned left and crossed Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. He quickly passed over the river, using Ponte Sisto, and made his way to Campo dei Fiori, there being reminded of everything by the statue of Giordano Bruno. He passed the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso and, then, Piazza Navona with its fountain depicting the lost and found Garden of Eden. He was just finishing the Mercy Chaplet when, for the first time in his priesthood, he sensed that he was praying to God the Father through, with and in Christ. He thought he understood something of Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘seeing’ the Father through, with and in the Son, with those He saved, the members of His Body, all of whom were seeing the Father through, with and in the Son. This brought an enthusiasm to witness to God’s Charity, regardless of the gravity of one’s sin. His own Confessions would now begin to become more like those of Augustine, a thanksgiving for the mercies of the Lord.

Within fifteen minutes of having left San Calisto, he fell on top of his bed at the Casa, asking the Holy Souls in purgatory for their intercession that he might get some needed rest. He had been going non-stop since the previous day. He often prayed for the Holy Souls, and was always granted this request. “Fidelium animæ per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace,” he said.

His phone started ringing twenty minutes later. “Pronto,” he said with energy, as he picked up the receiver, thankful that he already felt quite rested.

“Hey!” said Father Alexámenos.

“Alexámenos? Don’t tell me you had trouble sending your books at the airfreight desk.”

“That’s done. I’m in a taxi, just now passing the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. We’re coming to pick you up. Can you meet us down on Corso del Rinascimento?”

“We?” asked don Hash.

Ignoring his question, Father Alexámenos said, “There’s someone we would like you to meet. If we make it through all the traffic lights, we’ll be there in just a few minutes.”

“Right,” said don Hash, hanging up the receiver. He thanked the Holy Souls, for he truly felt rested. He grabbed his Liturgy of the Hour and was soon going out of the main entrance of the Casa. As he turned left, it started to thunder loudly. The doors of the Augustinian Church were being opened for the evening, so he bounded up the steps and knelt down inside. He thanked the Lord and Saint Augustine for what he was gaining by reading the Confessions. He stayed kneeling for some minutes. A particularly loud clap of thunder crashed just above. Don Hash knew he would only have seconds before it would start to rain. By the time he genuflected, left the church and went down the large staircase, the first large drops had already begun to fall. Fortunately, the end of Corso del Rinascimento was only a few steps away. A taxi pulled up beside him, dropping off padre Emet and Father Alexámenos. Don Hash asked who it was that they wanted him to see, but just then Father Lia-Fail pulled up beside them, saying, “Cead milé failté!” The answer was obvious. Padre Emet took the front seat, while don Hash and Father Alexámenos sat in the back.

As they turned the corner, don Hash saw the same Chinese priest he had seen that morning. “Who’s that?” he asked loudly. Everyone looked, but it was Father Alexámenos who said, “That’s Father Li, from China. Real trouble. You would do well to stay far away from him.”

This put don Hash on edge. He was thankful that the car had tinted windows. No one would see them as they drove to Vatican City and then to Mater Ecclesiæ convent.

“I wish we could firstly stop at the icon of Mater Ecclesiæ in the Basilica, a mosaic of which is now high above Piazza San Pietro, but we cannot,” lamented padre Emet.

Don Hash had to fight his military-instilled paranoia. “Why,” he wondered, “did we avoid filling out entry forms at Porta Sant’Anna for our visit to Vatican City?” He remembered a scandal that had been reported in all the Italian newspapers, and asked himself, “Could it be that the anti-terrorist mercenaries paid by the CIA in northern Italy without the knowledge of the Italian government had a few individuals in the Holy See?” He knew that some governments put the Holy See under frightful pressure to appoint bishops who, for instance, would do the bidding of those governments. They knew the Church had such influence that entire empires could crumble. He dismissed the idea that Vatican security could be so incredibly careless.

==================

Chapter 14 coming soon…

Don’t hesitate to use the comments box.

© 2007-2008 Renzo di Lorenzo — All rights reserved

Tags: Allah, Bible, Catholic, Child Abuse, Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Interreligious Dialogue, Islam, Israel, Jesus, Jews, Judaism, Muhammad, Muslims, Palestine, Politics, Qu'ran, Religion, Spirituality, Terrorism, Theology, Vatican, Zionism