“There are many in the Church who can be great popes. And they need not be Italian.” His listener gave him a strange look. “What matters is their devotion to the Lord.”
He knew that of the thousands gathered around him, only he and Katerina truly understood. God was alive. He was there. Listening.
His gaze drifted from the man standing before him to the basilica’s magnificent facade. For all its majesty, it was still nothing more than mortar and stone. Time and weather would eventually destroy it. But what it symbolized, what it meant, would last forever.
He turned back to the man, who was saying something.
“It’s finished, Father. The pope is dead. Everything is finished before it even started.”
He wasn’t going to accept that and he wasn’t going to let this stranger accept defeatism, either. “You’re wrong. It’s not over.” He threw the man a reassuring smile. “In fact, it’s only just beginning.”
WRITER’S NOTE
In researching this novel, I traveled to Italy and Germany. But this book grew out of my early Catholic education and a lifelong fascination with Fatima. Over the past two thousand years, the phenomena of Marian visions have occurred with surprising regularity. In modern times, the visions at La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima, and Medjugorje are most notable, though there are countless other lesser-known experiences. As with my first two novels, I wanted the information included in the story to both educate and entertain. Even more so than with the first two books, this one contains a wealth of reality.
The scene at Fatima, depicted in the prologue, is based on eyewitness accounts, most notably Lucia herself, who published her version of what happened in the early part of the twentieth century. The Virgin’s words are Hers, as are most of Lucia’s. The three secrets, as quoted in chapter 7, are verbatim from the actual text. Only my modification detailed in chapter 65 is fictional.
What happened to Francisco and Jacinta, along with the third secret’s curious history—how it stayed sealed in the Vatican until May 2000, read only by popes (chapter 7)—is all true, along with the Church’s refusal to allow Sister Lucia to speak publicly about Fatima. Sadly, Sister Lucia died shortly before this book was published, in February 2005, at the age of ninety-seven.
The La Salette visions from 1846, as mentioned in chapters 19 and 42, are accurately related—as is the history of those two seers, their biting public comments, and Pope Pius IX’s poignant observations. That particular Marian vision is one of the strangest on record and was mired by scandal and doubt. Secrets were part of the apparition and the original texts are indeed missing from the Vatican record, which further clouds what may have happened in that French Alpine village.
Medjugorje is similar, though it stands alone among Marian visions. Not a single event, or even several visions spread over a few months’ time, Medjugorje involves thousands of apparitions over more than two decades. The Church has yet to formally acknowledge anything relative to what may have happened, though that Bosnian village has become a popular pilgrimage site. As noted in chapter 38, there are ten secrets associated with Medjugorje. Including this scenario within the plot seemed hard to resist, and what happens in chapter 65, linking the tenth secret of Medjugorje and the third secret of Fatima, evolved into the perfect way to finally prove that God exists. Yet, as Michener notes in chapter 69, even with this proof, the ultimate belief still comes down to faith.
The predictions attributed to St. Malachy, as detailed in chapter 56, are all true. The accuracy of the labels associated with the predicted popes is uncanny. His final prophecy concerning the 112th pope, one to be named Peter II, along with his statement that “in the seven hilled city the dreadful judge will judge all people,” are likewise accurate. Currently John Paul II is the 110th pope on St. Malachy’s list. Two more to go to see if St. Malachy’s prophecy will be fulfilled. Similar to Rome, Bamberg, Germany, was once labeled
Sadly, the Irish birthing centers depicted in chapter 15 were real, as was all the pain they caused. Thousands of babies were taken from their mothers and adopted away. Little or nothing is known of their individual heritage and many of those children, now adults, have wrestled, as Colin Michener did, with the uncertainty of their existence. Thankfully, those centers no longer exist.
Equally sad is the plight of the Romanian orphans depicted in chapter 14. The tragedy befalling these children is ongoing. Disease, poverty, and desperation—not to mention exploitation by the world’s pedophiles—continue to ravage the ranks of these innocent souls.
All of the Church’s procedures and ceremonies are accurately reported, save for the ancient silver hammer being tapped on the dead pope’s forehead in chapters 30 and 71. That procedure is no longer used, but its former drama was hard to ignore.
The divisions within the Church between conservative and liberal, Italian and non-Italian, European and rest-of-the-world are real. The Church currently struggles with this divergence, and the conflict seemed a natural backdrop for the individual dilemmas faced by Clement XV and Alberto Valendrea.
The Bible verses noted in chapter 57 are, of course, accurate and are interesting when read in context with the novel’s plot. Likewise the words of John XXIII in chapters 7 and 68 when, in 1962, he addressed the opening session of the Vatican II council. His hope for reform—so
The third secret itself was released to the world in May 2000. As Cardinals Ngovi and Valendrea discussed in chapter 17, references to a possible papal assassination could explain the Church’s reluctance to publicize the message sooner. But overall, the riddles and parables contained within the third message are far more cryptic than threatening, which caused many observers to wonder if there might be more to the third secret.
The Catholic Church is unique among man’s institutions. It has not only survived for more than two millennia, but continues to grow and prosper. Yet many wonder what will be its fate in the coming century. Some, like Clement XV, want to fundamentally change the Church. Others, like Alberto Valendrea, want a return to its traditional roots. But perhaps Leo XIII, in 1881, said it best.
ONE
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
TUESDAY, MAY 15
12:40 PM
COTTON MALONE TYPED THE WEB ADDRESS WITH TREMBLING fingers. Like a phone that rings in the middle of the night, nothing about an anonymous message was ever good.
The note had arrived two hours ago, while he’d been out of his bookshop on an errand, but the employee who’d accepted the unmarked envelope forgot to give it to him until a few minutes ago.
