The Bishop of San Francisco: Romance, Intrigue and Religion by Eugene C. Bianchi |
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Eugene Bianchi, an emeritus professor of religion at Emory University, is the
author of nine other books and many essays. His topics range
from church reform, religion and ecology to creative aging. Bianchi,
a former Jesuit, is presently writing a memoir about changes
in his spirituality over the years. His personal experience and
scholarship gives him a unique perspective on church conflict
that allows him to shape a story that rings true. He directs
the Emeritus College at Emory, a faculty retirement organization.
Bianchi hails from Oakland, California, and presently makes his
home in Athens, Georgia with his wife, Margaret Herrman, a Siamese
cat, Max, and a standard poodle, Rhainy. His most recent book
is Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits,
co-authored with Peter McDonough.
Atlanta Athens |
 Mark
Doyle, a unique Catholic bishop, is a church reformer
and a martial arts expert. He falls wildly in love with his therapist,
Miriam Faberini, a Central American with Italian family roots.
Mark and Miriam met during the Nicaraguan civil war. Such a love
affair complicates a supposedly celibate bishop’s life,
especially since Mark wants to continue his work as the youngest
Archbishop of San Francisco. His troubles multiply when two of
his priests are murdered: Gus D’Amato, a gay pastor in the
city’s Castro district and Roger Moriarty, a close friend
and liberation theology activist just returned from Latin America.
A clandestine Catholic group, Ordo Novus, claims responsibility
for both killings, and vows to eliminate Doyle as a symbol of
corrupt liberalism and naïve leftist politics in the church.
The Vatican denies any links to Ordo Novus, but calls Doyle to
Rome to answer damaging allegations against him. His shadowy nemesis,
a priest defrocked for sexually abusing teenage boys, dogs the
Archbishop’s every step. Catholic clergy might deny any
similarity to the controversial Doyle. Yet his story displays
deep tensions in priests’ personal lives and in the still
medieval structures of today’s church. |
| "Eugene Bianchi's fast-paced
novel centers in the liberal reforming bishop of San Francisco,
Mark
Doyle, in love with his therapist. Around them swirl all the conflicts
of contemporary Catholicism: liberation theology, the role of women
in the Church, celibacy, homosexuality, pedophile priests. Dark
forces opposed to Church reform conspire against them, plotting
violence and assassinations of priests, in a story that ranges
from Nicaragua to Northern California and Rome. A fun read you
will not be able to put down until you finish." --Rosemary Radford Ruether Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California |
"Surprising, shocking piece
of fiction from a well known scholar quite obviously off on
a lark. He's created
a bigger-than-life
bishop, a liberation theologian who does akido, drinks Dewars,
canoodles on a regular basis with his shrink-lover and leads
his flock into near-schism while the Vatican pushes for his
quiet resignation and a psychotic stalker tries to kill him.
If this
novel is a mischievous preview of the Church-to-come, we're
in for quite a roller-coaster ride. What fun! " Click here for additional information and to purchase Press Release with more information
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Emory University
Department of Religion | Emory University
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