On the Third Day by David Niall Wilson

Author:David Niall Wilson [Wilson, David Niall]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: miracles, stigmata, priests, thriller
Publisher: Crossroad Press

~ Sixteen ~

One week before Easter…

Father Prescott sat calmly across the desk from Bishop Michaels. It was late. The blinds were open wide, and the night sky spread out dark and glittering with stars. The Bishop stared out into that void. His fingers tapped nervously on the desk.

The silence deepened, grew too heavy, and he turned to face Father Prescott, who was watching him thoughtfully.

“You think we should go ahead with it, then?” Michaels said. “We should just open the doors, invite the parish in, and let whatever happens happen.”

“What would be your justification for canceling it, Excellency?” Father Prescott asked. “With all due respect, Father Thomas hasn’t shown any lack of ability to perform Mass. He’s been presiding over it every Sunday since his recovery without incident. I’m afraid you’d have a riot on your hands if you tried to pull him out of there, not to mention the circus the media would make of it.”

Bishop Michaels shook his head, started to speak, and then turned away again.

“I’ve been to the Cathedral,” Father Prescott said softly. “His parish believes in him. Their faith is astonishing in the face of all they saw last year. Can we do any less than match that faith?”

“If our faith was the only thing in question,” Bishop Michaels said, “I would have pulled him out of there long ago. I’m well aware of the sway he holds over those in his parish. I was there last year – or did you forget that?”

The Bishop swung back to face Father Prescott once more. His eyes were bright, intense, but for the first time since Donovan had met him, there was no arrogance.

“I was there, and I don’t begin to understand what it was that I saw, or what I experienced. The year before -- the first time it happened – it was a much weaker phenomenon. Last year there was almost a riot, and Father Thomas nearly died. What if it strengthens again, Donovan? What if we go in hoping to find a miracle, and what we get is a disaster we can neither control, nor explain?”

Father Prescott met the Bishop’s gaze calmly. “I’m not trivializing what you’ve been through, Tony, but my orders are very explicit. Pulling Father Thomas out and returning to Rome without an answer, one way or the other, was never an option. If he’s drawn the proverbial wool over all our eyes, we have to know that. We can’t leave a potentially unbalanced leader in charge of that parish.”

Bishop Michaels nodded. “They were my parish once,” he said softly. “I celebrated the Mass with them, listened to their confessions, and watched them pour in and out the doors every week. I thought I knew them.

“Then Rome sent me Father Thomas. I put him up in front of them, green and untested, and expected them to – I don’t know – eat him alive, I suppose. I wanted it to be hard. I wanted him to work for their trust and support the way I tried, and apparently failed, to do.

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