the Third Secret

FIVE

Michener strolled into the midday sun. The morning rain had dissipated, the sky now littered with mottled clouds, the patches of blue striped by the contrail of an airplane on its way east. Before him, the cobbles of St. Peter’s Square bore the remnants of the earlier storm, puddles littered about like a multitude of lakes strewn across a vast landscape. The television crews were still there, many now broadcasting reports back home.

He’d left the tribunal before it adjourned. One of his aides later informed him that the confrontation between Father Kealy and Cardinal Valendrea had continued for the better part of two hours. He wondered about the point of the hearing. The decision to excommunicate Kealy had surely been made long before the priest had been commanded to Rome. Few accused clerics ever attended a tribunal, so Kealy had most likely come to draw more attention to his movement. Within a matter of weeks Kealy would be declared not in communion with the Holy See, just another expatriate proclaiming the Church a dinosaur heading toward extinction.

And sometimes Michener believed critics, like Kealy, might be right.

Nearly half of the world’s Catholics now lived in Latin America. Add Africa and Asia and the fraction rose to three-quarters. Placating this emerging international majority, while not alienating the Europeans and Italians, was a daily challenge. No head of state dealt with something so intricate. But the Roman Catholic Church had done just that for two thousand years—a claim no other of man’s institutions could make—and spread out before him was one of the Church’s grandest manifestations.

The key-shaped square, enclosed within Bernini’s two magnificent semicircular colonnades, was breathtaking. Michener had always been impressed with Vatican City. He’d first come a dozen years ago as the adjunct priest to the archbishop of Cologne—his virtue having been tested by Katerina Lew, but his resolve solidified. He recalled exploring all 108 acres of the walled enclave, marveling at the majesty that two millennia of constant building could achieve.

The tiny nation did not occupy one of the hills upon which Rome was first built, but instead crowned Mons Vaticanus, the only one of the seven ancient designations people still remembered. Fewer than two hundred were actual citizens, and even fewer held a passport. Not one soul had ever been born there, few besides popes died there, and even fewer were buried there. Its government was one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies and, in a twist Michener had always thought ironic, the Holy See’s United Nations representative could not sign the worldwide declaration of human rights because, inside the Vatican, there was no religious freedom.

He gazed out into the sunny square, past the television trucks with their array of antennas, and noticed people looking off to the right and up. A few were crying “Santissimo Padre.” Holy Father. He followed their upturned heads to the fourth floor of the Apostolic Palace. Between the wooden shutters of a corner window the face of Clement XV appeared.

Many started waving. Clement waved back.

“Still fascinates you, doesn’t it?” a female voice said.

He turned. Katerina Lew stood a few feet away. Somehow he’d known she would find him. She came close to where he stood, just inside the shadow of one of Bernini’s pillars. “You haven’t changed a bit. Still in love with your God. I could see it in your eyes in the tribunal.”

He tried to smile, but cautioned himself to focus on the challenge before him. “How have you been, Kate?” The features on her face softened. “Life everything you thought it would be?”

“I can’t complain. No, I won’t complain. Unproductive. That’s how you once described complaining.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“How did you know I’d be there this morning?”

“I saw your credentials application a few weeks back. May I ask what’s your interest in Father Kealy?”

“We haven’t spoken in fifteen years and that’s what you want to talk about?”

“The last time we spoke you told me never to speak of us again. You said there was no us. Only me and God. So I didn’t think that was a good subject.”

“But I said that only after you told me you were returning to the archbishop and devoting yourself to the service of others. A priest in the Catholic Church.”

They were standing a bit close, so he took a few steps back, deeper into the shadow of the colonnade. He caught a glimpse of Michelangelo’s dome atop St. Peter’s Basilica being dried by a brightening midautumn sun.

“I see you still have a talent for evading questions,” he pointed out.

“I’m here because Tom Kealy asked me to come. He’s no fool. He knows what that tribunal is going to do.”

“Who are you writing for?”

“Freelance. A book he and I are putting together.”

She was a good writer, especially of poetry. He’d always envied her ability, and he actually wanted to know more about what happened to her after Munich. He was aware of bits and pieces. Her stints at a few European newspapers, never long, even a job in America. He occasionally saw her byline—nothing heavy or weighty, mainly religious essays. Several times he’d almost tracked her down, longing to share a coffee, but he knew that was impossible. He’d made his choice and there was no going back.

“I wasn’t surprised when I read of your papal appointment,” she said. “I figured when Volkner was elected pope, he wouldn’t let you go.”

He caught the look in her emerald eyes and saw she was struggling with her emotions, just as she had fifteen years ago. Then, he was a priest working on a law degree, anxious and ambitious, tied to the fortunes of a German bishop whom many were saying could one day be a cardinal. Now there was talk of his own elevation to the Sacred College. It was not unheard of that papal secretaries moved directly from the Apostolic Palace into a scarlet hat. He wanted to be a prince of the Church, to be part of the next conclave in the Sistine Chapel, beneath the frescoes of Michelangelo and Botticelli, with a voice and a vote.

“Clement is a good man,” he said.

“He’s a fool,” she quietly stated. “Just somebody the good cardinals put on the throne until one of them can muster enough support.”

“What makes you such an authority?”

“Am I wrong?”

He turned from her, allowing his temper to cool, and watched a group of souvenir peddlers at the square’s perimeter. Her surly attitude was still there, her words as biting and bitter as he remembered. She was pushing forty, but maturity had done little to abate her consuming passions. It was one of the things he’d never liked about her, and one of the things he missed. In his world, frankness was unknown. He was surrounded by people who could say with conviction what they never meant, so there was something to be said for truth. At least you knew exactly where you stood. Solid ground. Not the perpetual quicksand he’d grown accustomed to dealing with.

“Clement is a good man charged with a nearly impossible task,” he said.

“Of course if the dear mother Church would bend a little, things might not be so difficult. Pretty hard to govern a billion when everyone has to accept that the pope is the only man on earth who can’t make a mistake.”

He didn’t want to debate dogma with her, especially in the middle of St. Peter’s Square. Two Swiss guards, plumed and helmeted, their halberds held high, marched past a few feet away. He watched them advance toward the basilica’s main entrance. The six massive bells high in the dome were silent, but he realized the time was not that far off when they would toll at Clement XV’s death. Which made Katerina’s insolence all the more infuriating. Going to the tribunal earlier and talking with her now were mistakes. He knew what he had to do. “It’s been nice seeing you again, Kate.” He turned to leave.

“Bastard.”

She spit out the insult just loud enough for him to hear.

He turned back, wondering if she truly meant it. Conflict clouded her face. He stepped close and kept his voice down. “We haven’t spoken in years and all you want to do is tell me how evil the Church is. If you despise it so much, why waste your time writing about it? Go write that novel you always said you would. I thought maybe, just maybe, you might have mellowed. But I see that hasn’t occurred.”

“How wonderful to know you might actually care. You never considered my feelings when you told me it was over.”

“Do we have to go through all that again?”

“No, Colin. There’s no need.” She retreated. “No need at all. Like you said, it’s been good seeing you again.”

For an instant he registered hurt, but she seemed to quickly conquer whatever weakness may have swelled inside her.

He stared back toward the palace. Many more were now calling out and waving. Clement was still waving back. Several of the television crews were filming the moment.

“It’s him, Colin,” Katerina said. “He’s your problem. You just don’t know it.”

And before he could reply, she was gone.