MacIntyre鱿鱼视频app protagonist in The Bishop鱿鱼视频app Man isn鈥檛 the sort of assassin with a gun in his pocket. But he learned the psychology of his trade from a Honduran policeman and assassin, a man who did do the job with a bullet to the brain. Fr. Duncan MacAskill, the bishop鱿鱼视频app man, is known among his brother priests in Nova Scotia as the Exorcist and the Purificator.
His job is to make offending priests disappear with a complete absence of publicity, fuss and lawsuits. He visits priests who have got their housekeepers with child, who have groped young boys, who have left a string of victims across a series of Maritime parishes. He carries with him a one-way plane ticket to Toronto and an appointment at a treatment facility. Pretty soon the priests are living anonymous lay lives somewhere far away.
{sa 0307357066}This work has not been good for MacAskill鱿鱼视频app priesthood. The other priests he meets are a bit stand-offish, or they are the kind of priests no one wishes to meet. His bishop is a paranoid politician and a bit of a buffoon.
What was good for MacAskill鱿鱼视频app priesthood was the two years he spent in Honduras, discovering how the beatitudes matter in the lives of desperate people.
When he finds himself back in his tiny hometown of Creignish, masquerading as a parish priest after years of a vague posting at the university, MacAskill finds himself alone wondering what happened. What happened to the urgent reality of the Gospels he saw in Honduras after 20 years of fixing the bishop鱿鱼视频app problems in Cape Breton? He takes to drink.
The hard part about writing the novel was imagining himself into the life of a priest, MacIntyre told The Catholic Register recently.
鈥淭he success or failure of a work of fiction depends to a certain extent on the authenticity of the voice,鈥� said MacIntyre. 鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app always difficult to imagine your way into anything you鈥檙e not. And I am not a priest.鈥�
Like any good journalist, he researched the subject. Before he was ready to go to press, he sent the manuscript to a friend, now married, who had been an active priest for 25 years.
鈥淚 told him... I just want you to listen to the voice. If you hear your friend the reporter talking, then this book isn鈥檛 going anywhere,鈥� said MacIntyre.
The friend told MacIntyre his priest was believable 鈥� a man with human flaws, struggles, doubts and courage.
鈥淚 care about a lot of the priests,鈥� MacIntyre told The Catholic Register. 鈥淚 mean, priests are like soldiers. They鈥檙e on the ground dealing with combat. I鈥檝e got less sympathy with the generals.鈥�
MacAskill鱿鱼视频app bishop is not portrayed in a positive light.
鈥淚f you have to have a villain it is more the personification I have created of a bishop,鈥� said MacIntyre. 鈥淚 have never known a bishop like this, but I suppose if you made a composite of a number of people you would get this.鈥�
But the bishop doesn鈥檛 take up a lot of space in the novel, and MacIntyre isn鈥檛 interested in simply assigning blame.
鈥淥ne of the things I did not want to do is adopt a simplistic approach to a very complex problem, like sexual abuse,鈥� said MacIntyre. 鈥淲e never fully understand causes and we never fully understand effects. It鱿鱼视频app dangerous in either form 鈥� either journalism or fiction 鈥� to pretend you know outcomes, or to pretend you know with any absolute certainty causes. Because they鈥檙e very amorphous, murky and complex.鈥�
That leaves MacIntyre with the dynamics of a mystery tale. All sorts of crimes have been committed. Who committed which ones is not the central question of the novel. But MacAskill wants to know how we live on after we know that the sin we have encountered is part of us 鈥� that we are part of a world of victims and victimizers. That鱿鱼视频app the mystery.
鈥淯nfortunately, we labour on in an unfolding dynamic where people victimize other people.鈥� said MacIntyre. 鈥淭he fundamental message of the Gospel should have cured us of that by now, a couple thousand years on. It hasn鈥檛. And that鱿鱼视频app not because of anything that was missing from the message. I believe it has to do with the way the message has been handled.鈥�
Having grown up in the parish library, and in a Cape Breton culture that lived on stories, MacIntyre has chosen to tell a story that won鈥檛 be easy reading for people who put their trust in the church. But MacIntyre isn鈥檛 unsympathetic.
鈥淢y 93-year-old mother, I used to razz her all the time about the superstition,鈥� said MacIntyre. 鈥淎nd she stopped me one day, and I鈥檒l never do it again. She said, if I didn鈥檛 believe literally in a hereafter I would not want to live another minute. I realized that faith is a gift.鈥�