The Parchment (40 page)

Barbo rang Cardinal Galliardin's room at Gemelli Hospital. A nurse answered the phone. “This is Cardinal Barbo. Could I speak with Pierre?”

“Cardinal Galliardin died at noon today.”

Barbo uttered a gasp. “What happened?”

The nurse looked at the cardinal's medical chart. “It was complications from the cancer. The cardinal had been in great pain the past few days. He was taking large doses of morphine.”

The news of Pierre Galliardin's death left Barbo empty inside. Cardinal Galliardin had been Barbo's close personal and professional friend for many years. Galliardin had handpicked Barbo to be his successor at the secretariat of state. If only the two of them could have spoken just one more time. Barbo had so many questions to ask him — about corruption in the Sacred College, about Calvaux's election, about the Mafia. But that conversation was not meant to be.

T
HE PRIME MINISTER
stormed out of the cabinet meeting. Erika Wasserstein, his chief of staff, knew there would be fireworks.

“Erika, you'd better have a goddamned good reason for calling me out of the meeting. Those sons of bitches in Likud are threatening to pull out of the coalition.”

“It's about the pope, Mr. Prime Minister.”

“The pope! You call me out of a meeting about my political survival to speak to me about the pope!”

“Yes. That's what....”

The prime minister seethed. “Go ahead, but it had better be good. First of all, which pope are you talking about—the new one or the old one?”

“The old one. There's just been an announcement on Vatican Radio. He's coming here.” Wasserstein ran her hand nervously through her short-cropped hair.

The prime minister slammed his fist on Wasserstein's desk. “No he's not. This is not the time for a visit from a senile old man. Tell the Vatican ... we are, of course, honored, but the timing for such a visit is not opportune.”

“It's not a visit, Shimon.” Wasserstein knew that there was no way to sugarcoat the information.

“Well, what the hell is it then? I don't have time for this, Erika.”

“He's coming to live in Jerusalem — permanently.”

The prime minister slammed his fist on Wasserstein's desk again. “You must be joking! He'd be dead in a week. Some Palestinian would shoot him, and Israel would be blamed for it. The answer is ‘No!’ Now I've got to go back to the cabinet meeting.
The Vatican is just as out of touch with reality as these Likud ministers are.”

Wasserstein stood blocking the door to the room. “Mr. Prime Minister, we have been receiving dozens of calls since the announcement was made. The White House even called. The president wants to speak with you before you release any statement on the matter.”

“God damn it! Erika, I don't need to get into a pissing match with the United States over this sort of thing. Get the president on the phone.”

Minutes later, Erika Wasserstein stuck her head into the prime minister's office. “He's on line two.”

The prime minister picked up the receiver and pressed button two. “Mr. President, good to hear your voice. I'm returning your call.”

“Thanks, Shimon. I guess you've got a problem with this decision by Pope Benedict to come to Jerusalem to live. The old pope was much loved in the Catholic Church. Catholics you know make up about thirty-five percent of the U.S. electorate. In the last election they backed me three to one.”

“So you want me to allow this old man to live here. If he get's shot, it'll worsen the situation here dramatically.”

“There is a story told about an early pope — I think his name was Leo. When a barbarian army surrounded Rome, he rode out to the enemy camp unarmed and asked them to spare the city. And they did. No one could explain why.”

“I'm still not convinced, Mr. President. It's only a story.”

“Shimon, did I ever tell you my wife's a Catholic? She is terribly fond of Pope Benedict. By the way, before I forget — the shipment of the T-l tanks Israel requested seems to have gotten tangled up in DOD bureaucracy. I'll try to move things along, but you know how slow a government bureaucracy can be.”

“Mr. President, Pope Benedict can come to live in Jerusalem. We will, of course, protect him.”

“Could you hold for a minute, Shimon? Someone is waving a message at me....You won't believe the coincidence. The DOD now tells me the T-l tanks can be shipped next week.”

The prime minister smiled. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

“Thank you as well, Shimon. Pope Benedict may turn out to be a blessing in disguise — like his predecessor Leo, he may accomplish the unexpected.”

When Pope Paul walked onto the stage, the audience broke into enthusiastic applause. Accompanying the Holy Father were Cardinal Francesco Barbo, former Vatican Secretary of State and now Director of the Center for Interreligious Studies in Jerusalem, and Archbishop Michael Finnergan, the newly appointed director of the Vatican Library. When the applause subsided, Cardinal Barbo walked to the podium.

“On behalf of the Holy See, I wish to welcome all of you to the formal opening of the Vatican Library's exhibit entitled “Parchments from the Apocrypha: The Life and Legend of the Magdalene.” Although the exhibit contains many important manuscripts, the centerpiece of the exhibit, of course, is the newly discovered Magdalene parchment. Not since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has a manuscript so excited the scholarly imagination. We are honored today to have in the audience the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Dr. Have Mendellson, as well as the First Lady of the United States. The governments of Israel and the United States have both been extremely generous in supporting this exhibit. Finally I must single out for special mention two men — Professor Victor Baldini from the University of Rome and Martin Fellows, Curator of Hebrew Manuscripts at the Vatican Library. Without their invaluable assistance in authenticating the manuscript and in organizing this exhibit, we would not be here tonight.”

When Cardinal Barbo had finished his prepared remarks, Pope Paul rose from his chair and walked to the podium. The papal chamberlain looked startled. The pope had been scheduled to cut the ribbon opening the exhibit, but was not expected to speak.

“My Sisters and Brothers, the manuscripts that you are about to see this evening will deepen your understanding of this woman we call the Magdalene. You will see her as the partner of John the Baptizer and the mother of his children. You will see her as a woman
for whom Jesus risks his own life. These documents will help you understand why the Magdalene stood bravely with Jesus at the foot of the cross. God has his reasons for things. It is not a coincidence that this Magdalene parchment has been discovered in the twenty-first century. Others down through history have kept it safe so that it could be shown to us today. It is for us to learn its message.

“Before we proceed to the ribbon-cutting, however, I wish to attend to one matter of unfinished business. Before Pope Benedict abdicated, he had appointed a cardinal
in pectore
. That person was Archbishop Michael Finnergan, who has recently been appointed director of the Vatican Library. I have decided to follow my predecessor's wishes and name Archbishop Finnergan a prince of the Church. He will be given his red hat at the next consistory.”

Pope Paul's announcement was met with wild applause. The Holy Father smiled at the Irish archbishop. “I would ask our new cardinal-elect and director of the library to join me in cutting the ribbon to open the exhibit.”

As the invited guests followed Pope Paul and Archbishop Finnergan into the exhibit rooms, Father Alessandri walked over to an elegantly attired man who was quietly waiting his turn to enter the exhibit rooms. “Mr. Chiaramonte, Cardinal Barbo has told me how generous you were in helping to fund this exhibit.”

“It was nothing. My clients are always willing to help the Church when they can. By the way, I understand your name is on the list of newly appointed monsignori.”

Alessandri nodded. “To celebrate, I hope you would join me for a glass of Tignanello after the exhibit.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

The two men walked together into the exhibit gallery.

G
ERALD
T. McL
AUGHLIN
was born on September 16, 1941, in New York City. He earned his BA degree summa cum laude from Fordham College in 1963. In 1966, he graduated from New York University Law School, where he was managing editor of the
Law Review
and a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduating from law school, McLaughlin became a legal writing instructor at Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley Law School) and later an associate in the New York office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen &Hamilton. Following teaching stints at the University of Connecticut, Fordham, and Brooklyn Law Schools, in 1991 he became Dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he currently serves as dean emeritus and a professor of law. He has lectured and written extensively in the field of commercial law, with particular emphasis on letters of credit.
The Parchment
is his first novel.