This is my first stint as co-editor of Monday Murder Mysteries and I am very happy to be here.
Andrew W. Greeley is a progressive Catholic priest and sociologist. He is of Irish decent and resides in Chicago. Father Greeley was often at loggerheads with the Catholic hierarchy. He taught at the University of Phoenix and the University of Chicago. His writings spanned mysteries, fantasy, sociology, and serious critics of the Catholic Church. He was one of the earliest critics of the Church and its handling of the child abuse scandals. In November 2008 as he was getting out of a taxi his clothes got caught in the door and he was thrown to the ground suffering from traumatic brain injury. He is still recovering.
One thing Father Greeley never shied away from was the honest depiction of sex in his books. Many found his books too steamy but I have always felt he was being honest and true to his characters.
Father Greeley created one of my favorite detectives, Father John Blackwood Ryan of the “call me Blackie” fame. Many suspect that Blackie is Greeley’s alter ego. Blackie supports the Archbishop of Chicago, Sean Cardinal Cronin. Cronin plays the political game like a champ whether he is dealing with secular or religious governing bodies.
In 1996 Greeley published White Smoke: A Novel of Papal Election. With the conclave just ending after the election of Francis as the new Pope after Benedict’s resignation this book becomes very relevant. Sean Cardinal Cronin is in the Vatican, drinking too much coffee, getting little rest, and up at all hours politicking to get his candidate a moderate Spanish Cardinal Don Luis Menendez y Garcia elected as the next Pope. He is violently opposed by the archconservatives in the church and some wealthy laity. Greeley’s creation of the conservative group Corpus Christie Institute who has their fingers in every pie is a thinly veiled reference to such real groups like Opus Dei.
In addition to the story of the political intrigue surrounding the election of the new Pope you have the love story between Times correspondent Denis Michael Mulloy and his ex-wife CNN correspondent Patricia McLaughlin.
White Smoke shows a fascinating view of Vatican politics, arch conservative groups who will do anything to keep in power, the financial scandals that have rocked the Vatican, and the desire of ordinary Catholics to have a Pope who will actually listen to them and not the old men who have traditionally had the Pope’s ear. This book couldn’t be more relevant for our time.
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