Pierced by a Sword (54 page)

This meek black man kneeling beside him was one of the reasons he had been spared.

Pope Patrick raised his voice: "These are extraordinary times! Like the Son of Man, your weary vicar has no place to rest his head. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary decisions!"

He turned
back to Lee. His next words were a prayer:

"By the authority granted me by the merits of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, and in His All Powerful Name, you shall have a new name. Your priestly name will be Phillip, after a martyr and saint who gave his life, so that you may give life to others. May you be a Bearer of Christ in humility, bravery, and obscurity."

As Angus finished his words,
the last wisp of sun disappeared behind the horizon.

The pope turned to his flock, his remnant, and said, "Let's take care of James Sullivan. Ladies, the men will prepare the body while you prepare whatever is in your cupboard for a meal. Select the finest foods, however poor or humble they may be, in his honor.

"We'll do this right–an Irish wake! I hope there's some good whiskey stashed here
someplace. I'll say a funeral Mass for him tomorrow morning. I am weak. I need to rest while you prepare things."

And that is how the first and last Irish Pope came to celebrate the death of Jimbo Sullivan with the Paynes, the Jacksons, and a former drug dealer named Lee Washington in the darkest days of the tribulations.

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The pope slept on Becky and Joe's marriage bed for three hours before
rising to preside over Jimbo's wake. During the pope's nap, Lee drove over to Tom Wheat's farm to tell Jimbo's parents the tragic news. He then drove James Sullivan to Nathan Payne's house, where Doris and the boys had lived since moving from Virginia. James told Doris about her husband's death. She had three sons. The oldest, James III, was ten. Lee then told everyone about the unusual guest
who would say the funeral Mass the next day. Neither Doris nor James III shed tears over Jimbo. The younger boys cried inconsolably.

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Angus remained silent after being introduced to the inner layer of Paynes, Sullivans, Wheats, and Jacksons during the first hour of the wake. As much as the guests tried, they found it difficult to act naturally. Jimbo was dead. The pope was alive. It was
all too strange. There were no rules or previous experiences to guide emotions, actions, and words. Everyone kept glancing furtively over to the pope, thinking in unison:
How did he get here?

Finally, Nathan Payne stood up and raised a toast to Jimbo: "To Jimbo Sullivan, son, husband, father, Catholic, patriot, Marine. Semper Fi."

They drank Maker's Mark, including Jimbo's seemingly shell-shocked
wife, Doris. Her two oldest sons sat silently next to her on the couch. Her youngest son, Mark, who was three, slept in the arms of Mary Sullivan.

No one knew where Tommy and Mike Sullivan were. They had both moved from Boston to Texas at the beginning of the wars to fight in the Lone Star Army. One letter made its way to Indiana after the battle of Austin; both had survived to that point. But
that had been months ago.

Nathan Payne told how Jimbo had stuck up for him on the playgrounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Grammar School. Then he retold the story of Jimbo's Right Hook. He took his time. He recounted Jimbo's bravery and leadership in Anderson. "He told me to tell Doris that he'll take care of her and the boys from heaven."

When Nathan was finished, James Sullivan, remaining in his
seat, talked about what a fine son Jimbo was, and how the boy had been like a second father to Chet, Tommy, and Michael. He spoke with trembling voice at first, growing stronger as he went on.

Others took turns. Joe silently went around the little living room, refilling drinks from the last two bottles of Tom Wheat's stock of Maker's Mark.

Throughout the stories, Doris sat silently. She shed no
tears. Finally, she spoke up in her almost gruff, matter-of-fact voice, "I knew when I married Jimbo that this might happen, and I've tried to prepare for this day. But I guess nothing could prepare me. Jimbo told me not to expect him to come back from Anderson.

"I appreciate all your wonderful words about him. I really do. I just..." she trailed off.

Nathan realized why Jimbo had chosen Doris.
She was tough. Tougher than Jimbo. She was taking this better than anyone else.

"I'm just thankful that he died doing what he loved, and that he died in a state of grace," Doris continued, regaining her composure.

Amazing,
Joanie thought,
she's so much stronger than I am. These times really are separating the wheat from the chaff.
She felt a tinge of shame for resisting Nathan's participation
in the Resistance, and for her first reaction when she saw Jimbo's dead body:
Thank God it wasn't Nathan.

A heavy silence followed Doris's words.

Becky broke it: "Holy Father?" she began tentatively.

"Call me Father Angus if that's more comfortable, dear," he said. "Or just Father. Pope means father."

"Father," she began again, "tell us what happened. Tell us how you got here, and why you're here."

Everyone was looking at the pope as Becky finished her question. After so many awkward silences during this astonishing evening, it seemed like the pope might be justified in waiting a long time to answer her bold question.

But Angus didn't hesitate.

"I'm not completely sure of why yet, Becky, but I'd be happy to tell you how. It's been so long that I've kept it inside, feeling, as it were, until
tonight, that my silence was required by the Holy Spirit."

They were struck by the energetic life in Pope Patrick's eyes–and how uncannily he reminded them of another Irish priest, Father Chet.

"But it begins with a seminarian, hero, and martyr named Thomas Phillips..." For the next two hours, Angus recounted the incredible story.

He told them about his efforts to reunite the Eastern Orthodox
church. The night of the assassination. His fantastic rescue from the Tiber by an Archangel.

"His name was God Conquers," Angus said, smiling at Lee.

The harrowing journey to Holy Blood Monastery. The coma. The shock of discovering how much the world had changed in the months he had been unconscious. And how he came out of the coma just as a journalist from Galway began pestering the Carmel regarding
a wild rumor that the pope was alive. His long journey across the Atlantic in a passenger ship, always incognito, to Boston Harbor. Hitch-hiking and walking across Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in disguise for two weeks. Regaining his sense of God, like an Old Testament prophet entering the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days. Saying Mass in a small Catholic Church in Emlenton, Pennsylvania,
for several Catholics who did not know that he was the pope. And finally, demanding to be dropped off by a truck driver on the back road on which Nathan found him.

"I've come to rely more on the Holy Spirit and less on my intelligence, which at times misled me before the assassination attempt. It was the Holy Spirit who persuaded me to get out of that truck so Nathan could pick me up and bring
me here. It was the Holy Spirit..." he trailed off, looking down at his battered shoes.

Contrition had crept into Angus's voice. "I may be a pope, but I don't have a secret book of instructions to turn to in this situation–besides the Holy Scriptures, of course. In some ways, I'm more confused than you are. I'm afraid that I've been a failure as your pope. I failed miserably shepherding the Church
during these times of great trials."

They were shocked by the self-castigation in his voice. Angus had always been hard on himself. The pope's spiritual director from days gone by, the Bishop of Belfast, would not have been surprised.

The only one in the room who was not surprised by the pope's dismal summary of his papacy was Nathan Payne. This was partly because he had sensed the pope's dejection
during the car ride to Mishawaka.

But he was not wholly listening to the pope. A part of his mind was filled with joy and hope. And a plan. A simple plan.

I have to talk to Joe about this. I have to talk to Pope Patrick...
he thought.
I have to talk to Karl Slinger!

It was a unique part of Nathan's nature that he was not intimidated by the presence of the pope. After Nathan confessed his sins,
there had been a connection between the two men. Both were natural leaders. Both were men of sorrows. Both needed the other in order to fulfill their destinies.

Nathan decided that he would try with all his persuasive might to convince the pope to execute the plan.

He downed his last shot of Maker's Mark, excused himself and Joanie from the room, and went out on the porch to have a smoke and tell
his wife that he finally realized what the Blessed Mother had meant when she called Nathan Payne a warrior.

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The following day, Pope Patrick presided over the Requiem Mass for James Ronald Sullivan, II. They buried Jimbo in the cemetery next to Immaculate Conception Church.

The day after the funeral, Pope Patrick ordained Lee Washington as a deacon in the morning, and a priest in the early
afternoon.

Father "Phillip" Washington began hearing confessions that evening.

8

Sunday Morning
4 May
Salt Lake City, The Mormon Nation

John Lanning stood on the steps of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, baptizing. He had been baptizing for three straight days.

Months earlier, when the LDS had declared Utah the Mormon Nation, Slinger had packed his bags and moved to Houston with Dottie. He had
also resigned from the Chairmanship of SLG Industries. Lenny Gold went with him. At Karl's request, Denny Wheat flew to Wyoming and picked up Karl's two daughters and their families and followed him to Texas. Since the secession of Texas, Karl had spent most of his time in Houston.

Lanning had refused Karl's offer to leave Salt Lake City, and stayed behind in Karl's house on the hill. Before the
Mother of God began appearing, he had spent most of his time praying at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, writing a second book on Mormonism, and meeting with fellow Catholic converts at the Truth Societies around the state. He did not expect religious freedom to last long in the Mormon Nation.

As in Zeitun, the Mother of God appeared every night, between one and four o'clock in the morning, and
always in the "holographic" image. She never addressed or acknowledged the crowds which gathered there in ever larger numbers. She seemed to be looking directly at Temple Square. At times, a shining dove appeared to be flying over her head–a symbol of the Holy Spirit. One time, a young man tried to climb up on the roof of the cathedral and the vision quickly disappeared.

An investigation by the
Salt Lake City police department found no evidence of holographic or other electronic devices on or near the church. An official report by the police declared the apparition "unexplained phenomenon not caused by human agents." The crowds grew larger.

The LDS remained silent about the growing spectacle. Mormons believed that Mary was the mother of Jesus. But Mormons did not believe in the Holy
Trinity. They believed that Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit were separate beings. In fact, they taught that the Father was Adam, the original husband of Eve, and
also
that the Father later came to earth from his own planet and sired Jesus through Mary! The Father was not even the creator of the universe–"God" was a god no greater than the god every good Mormon believed he too would become
after death. (Mormons also believed that Mary had other children, including a son who was the direct forefather of Joseph Smith.)

In short, Mary played a small, almost inconsequential role in LDS theology. She was not considered the Theotokos–the Mother of God. To Mormons, she was just someone who was randomly chosen by the Father to bear the physical body of the "spirit child" Jesus.

When Lanning
began preaching on the balcony in front of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, certain members of the LDS shadow hierarchy became nervous. Then thousands of Mormons–most of them Jack Mormons–began to ask to be baptized by Lanning.

Without the legal restrictions of membership in the United States, the LDS was planning to publicly resurrect the teaching of Blood Atonement. According to this teaching,
"sins against the Holy Spirit" could not be forgiven by God; they could only be atoned by the shedding of the sinner's blood.

More and more, Lanning came to be seen as just such a sinner. John kept baptizing.

9

Tuesday Evening
6 May
Notre Dame, Indiana

The Holy Father and his four new friends sat together under the Father Sorin statue. The late evening sun was just beginning to set, casting a
beautiful glow on the statue of Mary on the Golden Dome. Nathan looked over to the pope, who was dressed in black with a simple Roman collar. Angus was wearing Chet's clothes. The resemblance to Father Chet was uncanny. It was more than the pope's slight build and strong Irish features–it was the spring in the step, the twinkle in the eye, the willingness to listen. And the collar.

The campus
was practically empty. Few people had the money to send their children to college. Word spread quickly that the pope was alive. Hundreds of people had come to Lee's ordination several hours earlier. His first act as a priest was to enter the confessional. Angus heard confessions himself for almost three hours.

Earlier in the day, before the crowds came to Immaculate Conception Church, Nathan had
asked the pope to set aside some time to discuss "a plan of action." The pope had agreed enthusiastically. It was a chance to get away for a relaxing, restful walk with his new friends after a physically draining day. His joints still ached as a result of the coma, despite the physical therapy he had received from the Carmelite nuns. He found during his long journey to Indiana that constant movement
helped keep him from tightening up. That, and five aspirins a day, allowed him to limp along.

They all crammed into Joe's Buick and drove to Notre Dame. Anne and Tom Wheat were watching the two babies back at the farm. The pope had never seen the beautiful campus before, but he was well aware of its existence, because the university had played a major role in undermining the teachings of the Church
since the early 1960s. The administration was now actively lobbying for Indiana to join the World Union so it could reopen its doors in the more vibrant, peaceful economy promised by the New World Order, its debit cards, and its World Dollars. Tom Wheat had been laid off. His tenure meant nothing in the existing legal and economic chaos.