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I. INTROIT

John Cardinal Harrigan was more than a product of his environment. The result of a scandalous union between a

lonely vicar and a star-struck communicant, his life might have been governed by the ignominy of its origin. Instead

the Family Harrigan, as they were referred to in society columns of the day, protected their errant daughter and her

ill-gotten offspring. Secretly adopted by an older brother and his wife, he would carry the family name with grace

and style, working his way up the hierarchy of the very organization that sired him.

His biological father, long since perished, atoned for his sin working as a missionary in the Philippines. His biological

mother acted as doting aunt through his infancy and adolescence, revealing the full story of his lineage only when

he reached his majority. A rude awakening, but at that time he had already completed undergraduate studies with

the Jesuits, and faced his first in a long line of decisions concerning his career path.

While he relished the scholarship and challenging arguments posed by his professors, he determined to start off at

the bottom of one of the Earth’s oldest organizations. Three years at a lackluster seminary, then on to the life of a

parish priest, disappointing his family who were more ambitious about his future. In time he would come around to

his family’s way of thinking, not for personal aggrandizement, but for the greater good of those he served. “Malt

does more than Milton can, to justify God’s ways for man” 1, but money and power play a vital role in divinity.

Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are ancient examples of the social gospel. Lobbying the State

Legislature and Congress are more contemporary examples.

All through his career, Father Harrigan benefitted from the unseen hands of the Harrigan patriarch and matriarch,

for there was an equality in their relationship that belied their Irish Catholic roots. And there was not the slightest

hint of scandal when it came to Father Harrigan’s social involvement with his flock (male and female), for his own

birth bore witness to the need for celibacy. The troubles in Boston – pedophile priests and hierarchical coverup –

contributed in part to his meteoric rise in the Episcopate. His parents and grandparents also played a significant

role in the liturgical chess game, providing each parish he served with generous bequests to support building

programs, social services, recreation and education, not to mention a few staggering winter heating bills.

His superiors suspected his own administrative and evangelical skills could not account totally for the good fortune

of the churches he served, but they were too busy shredding files and pointing fingers at one another.

The youngest bishop in Massachusetts history, he fit right in at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River, Massachusetts. A

predominantly Catholic town, it achieved some notoriety as site of Lizzie Borden’s alleged matricide and patricide.

Those of you old enough to remember the Chad Mitchell Trio’s vocal tribute to her alleged depredation and

subsequent acquittal can explain that to younger readers.

It took some time for his family to maneuver him into position to become Archbishop of Boston, but his elevation to

Cardinal came rapidly, as an embarrassed Pope hastened to restore faith in the faithful. To all accounts, John

Cardinal Harrigan was squeaky clean. The ill-gotten gains of his family, which mirrored somewhat the experience of

the Kennedy Clan, were not held against him. Peter’s Pence was happy with small, unmarked bills – even large

marked bills. And the Vatican was also quite comfortable with Visa and American Express. What the Pope and his

inner circle did not know was – John Cardinal Harrigan was his own man. One who differed privately with Rome’s

edict on family planning. He was personally grateful that his family embraced the Right to Life, but his mother,

“aunt” and grandmother were circumspect contributors to Planned Parenthood at home and abroad. If this were

the CIA, the Cardinal would be a mole. Instead, he was just a caring Christian, who saw the handwriting on the

wall. Mene Mene, Tekel Upharsin. He had weighed Rome’s dictates in his own balance, and found them wanting.

Take the Philippines for example. The land where his biological father died a generation ago, murdered by rebels

on a backwater island. A piece of the planet suitable for a population of 50 million now housed close to 100 million,

due in part to Rome’s outright prohibition on birth control - an illogical regulation considering the Church’s even

greater edict concerning abortion. John Cardinal Harrigan considered such hypocrisy a highly original sin.

Little did he know he would not rest on his laurels in Boston, with box seats at Red Sox games, clam chowder and

lobster bisque. The Family Harrigan had greater things planned for their beloved son. And greater things planned

for the Roman Catholic Church. You’ve heard of Opus Dei, an arch-conservative organization formally known as The

Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei 2. The sort of group Dan Brown would castigate in The DaVinci Code. But I

bet you haven’t heard of Deus Irae 3, a secret liberal faction that planned to liberate the Catholic Church from

hidebound strictures and aging, misogynist prelates. With grizzly and imaginative measures, they had labored the

past twenty years to move like-minded clerics into key positions, removing human obstacles in their way, until the

day when Rome’s stranglehold would falter, and even their monopoly on transubstantiation would give way to a

more generic, universal celebration of the Last Supper. John Cardinal Harrigan was aware of his family’s

benevolence towards his beloved institution, but oblivious to the activities of Deus Irae, even though their efforts

would ultimately benefit him, and in their mind, all of Christendom. No secret handshake or magic decoder ring,

members identified one another by humming the opening eight notes of the Dies Irae, Dies Illa. Yes, those may be

lyrics in Mozart’s Requiem (everyone who can sit up and take nourishment in America has seen Amadeus at least

twice), but I refer to the well-known Gregorian chant.

The ultimate goal of Deus Irae was to “pack the Supreme Court”, or rather tip the balance in the College of

Cardinals, consisting of some 110 Cardinals under 80 years old, charged with electing the next pope. Continued good

health of the current Vicar of Christ and Pontifex Maximus would be guaranteed until Deus Irae was satisfied it could

swing the necessary two-thirds-plus-one vote (and you think the U.S. Senate can’t make a decision). That day was

fast approaching. Not blue smoke and mirrors, but white smoke would rule the day before this novel concludes.

But electing a new, enlightened pope would be only the beginning of the story, not the end. Consider this chapter

the Alpha of our non-scholarly tome. Even the Omega is not the end of the story.:

1 A.E. Housman

2 Work of God.

3 God of Wrath.