The Accidental Pope

by Ray Flynn

  “Colleen, would you like a drink?” Ed Kirby offered. “I know your dad liked Irish Mist.”

  She nodded.

  “See what the others want too,” said the president.

  Ryan and Paula also accepted the offer of an Irish Mist. The steward took the orders and soon returned with the drinks.

  “Ms. Kelly,” the president went on, “your father made quite an impact on everyone, and all Americans are truly proud of you and your family. The Massachusetts congressional delegation and I would be honored to name, in his memory, a commercial and recreational fishing pier and park to be constructed next to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay. I know your father loved the area very much. My staff has already talked to the officials in the town and at the academy. They say that they would be delighted.”

  “If you think it appropriate, Mr. President, our family would be honored,” Colleen said.

  “Then it’s settled,” said the president.

  The Kellys regaled the president and First Lady with funny stories about their experiences at the Vatican together. It was a kind of wake now commencing. Meghan told the president and First Lady how her brother had had to get stitches over his eye when, skateboarding inside the Vatican, he crashed into one of the Swiss guards wearing armor and carrying a large steel ax. Roger told how his sister had fallen into the tomb of St. Paul. A wistful Colleen indicated she would miss her Swiss guardsman, but that he was going to come over to visit her on his next vacation. The entire flight home was taken up with enjoyable stories about the Kelly family’s days at the Vatican.

  As they neared their destination, flight commander Colonel Rossi said to Ambassador Kirby, “Air Force One has been called into the service of our country on many important and historic missions, but I can’t recall one with the pride and the love that accompanied this one.” The plane landed at Logan Airport in Boston, where many friends and public officials were waiting to greet it.

  The First Lady and president exited by the main door, followed by the Kelly children close behind. As they stepped out onto the platform and stairs, the president held Colleen Kelly’s arm and looked out at an enormous crowd as it came to attention as the National Guard military band played “God Bless America.”

  The Kellys bade farewell to the president and stepped into the cars waiting to take them back to their home on the Cape. Two state troopers on motorcycles escorted them for the hour-and-a-half drive.

  When they came to the narrow dirt road approaching the house where the Kelly children had lived almost their entire lives, twenty-one years of happy memories flashed through Colleen’s head. It was an overcast day. Just as her car pulled up to the modest house, recently painted for the wedding, Colleen saw Bishop Sean Patrick and Trooper Collins standing on the front steps. It was almost as if nothing had changed during the past eleven months.

  When Colleen stepped out of the car she could immediately smell the ocean. She stared down at the fishing docks below and whispered under her breath, “You’re home, Daddy. You’re home.”

  44

  NO UNCLE GINO

  Colleen Kelly and her sister Meghan were just pulling up to the driveway of their home on Buzzards Bay after doing a little shopping when they heard Roger shout, “Girls, come quick!”

  Colleen and Meghan hastily ran into the living room and saw Roger’s eyes riveted on the TV. “What is it, Roger? What’s wrong?”

  “I just saw all the cardinals.” On the screen the members of the college of cardinals were walking majestically into St. Peter’s Basilica to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance as the conclave at the Sistine Chapel was about to start.

  The procession was headed by Eugenio Cardinal Robitelli, a man of the Roman nobility and the odds-on favorite to become the next pope, according to TV commentator and Vatican Church expert Father Ron Farrell. He had been reporting all week on the event and authoritatively pretending to provide his viewers with inside information about the conversations and deals going on behind the Vatican walls.

  “Look! There’s Uncle Brian!” Meghan excitedly pointed to the TV. “And there’s Uncle Gus!” When Cardinal Robitelli walked in front, of the TV camera, there was conspicuously no “There’s Uncle Gino!” from the Kelly children.

  Ordinarily, Cardinal Robitelli would have had the conclave wrapped up, but Pope Peter II’s first and only encyclical was released on the very day of his death, which happened to be August 15, the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption. His death had completely taken the Church by surprise. The encyclical created a debate like nothing ever heard before. He had taken on issues that nobody wanted to touch: marriage annulments, the role of women in the Church, the poor, disease, birth control, and famine.

  Senator Lane and his divorced wife were fortunate beneficiaries of the encyclical, as were many other divorced Catholic couples. The pope spelled out Church dogma that impinged upon civil law was no longer mandatory and divorced couples with or without annulments were still welcome communicants.

  “What he said about Africa, the family, faith, and social and economic justice was profound and visionary,” wrote the Washington Post. “Church to Lead U.S.” is what the headline of several prominent newspapers read.

  Bill Kelly’s encyclical demanded attention all around the world. His thoughts, following those of his predecessor’s avviso, would challenge the Church and its followers as both advanced into the third millennium.

  Had the family structure permanently endangered society? Were decency and respect no longer important in today’s world? Was this a what’s-in-it-for-me society? The question asked more and more was, Were the people of the world experiencing a culture of death and violence? Since the release of the encyclical all these questions and others were open for discussion on street corners and in newsrooms, boardrooms, college campuses factories, and especially in Churches of all denominations, synagogues, and mosques. The New York Times had a lead editorial on the encyclical and printed a twenty-three-page supplement. Magazines had the encyclical featured prominently on their covers.

  The pope’s words on the life issue remained firm and unambiguous:

  Good moral principles must create good civics and good policy. Everyone must exercise strong personal standards on the questions pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor, and other matters upon which the Church has clear views. However, Catholic politicians may be comforted that their Church will not desert them when they are abiding by the civil law of their land, but they must personally vote for those measures which are fundamental to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

  “This was only the second occasion in our lifetime when a Church matter dominated the news. The first was Vatican II,” declared the secretary-general of the United Nations.

  Cardinal Robitelli might have had enough votes locked up at the upcoming conclave, but Billy Kelly’s last message was building and beginning to have a powerful impact. “It will change the debate if not the direction of the Church and society forever,” said religion editor Ken Woodward of Newsweek. Time magazine, in a cover story by Jay Carney, wrote under a picture of Billy Kelly, MESSAGE WON’T DIE!

  People were talking about the message all over the world, and for the first time in the history of the Church, Catholics in America could feel that somebody really understood their concerns in the new millennium.

  In talking about the conclave, TV analysts were trying to sound knowledgeable in predicting the winner. “It will be the Jesuit from Milan,” said one.

  “No, definitely Robitelli,” said another. “Definitely another Italian noble.”

  “What about the cardinal from Africa?” queried the next. “Or maybe the cardinal from Munich? He is certainly a contender. Is a black pope possible?”

  All these remarks and predictions were generating big news from the Vatican. “Who will be the next pope?” was the title of a one-hour special on ABC.

  “The Catholic Church is at a crossroads,” pronounced NBC. Comiskey and Motupu got prominent mention, but not
as much as Robitelli.

  Ed Kirby had just returned to his post in Rome from a private White House meeting with the president. After the Mass at St. Peter’s as the conclave began, Ed and Kathy joined the ambassador to the Holy See from Slovenia, Steve Frietz, and his wife, Josephine, for lunch at Ignazio’s Ristorante in Piazza Sant’Ignazio. Also along were the ambassadors from Brazil and Canada and their wives.

  “We can hear on the television if there is any news from the conclave,” said Josephine. Steve had been a personal friend to three popes.

  “Nothing is going to happen for at least a few days. They’re more concerned with the incredible impact of the encyclical than with electing the next pope. That was an unintentional master stroke by Kelly. He is the only pope who is more powerful in death than he was in life. Salute! God bless the pope,” Steve toasted.

  “Hear, hear!” the other ambassadors agreed.

  The group talked affectionately about the Kelly encyclical over lunch and its effect in their respective countries. But they kept coming back to the conclave.

  “But don’t you think Robitelli has it locked up?” the Brazilian ambassador asked.

  “Locked up?” Steve questioned. “The conclave? Let me tell you an old saying around here. You walk in the favorite, you walk out … a cardinal.”

  “A wiser voice in Rome doesn’t exist,” Kirby complimented his friend.

  Mario, their waiter, had served food to some of the world’s top academics, statesmen, clerics, and businessmen for thirty years. He never hesitated to converse as though he were seated at the table and asked the ambassadors what five things the college of cardinals should be looking for in the new pope. Kirby wrote his top five requirements on the menu, which, as it happened, would be framed and hung on the restaurant wall.

  1. A humble man with a deep religious faith, but who sees the many challenges and threats to the Church ahead.

  2. A consensus builder, especially with fallen-away Catholics and women. Very important.

  3. A person who possesses administrative as well as diplomatic skills.

  4. Able to rebuild the foundation of the Church in the new millennium.

  5. An effective communicator who is multilingual.

  The ambassador from Canada examined the menu adorned with Ed Kirby’s words of wisdom and said, “I don’t need five. There’s only one question to answer. ‘How are you going to get Catholics to come back to hear and learn the message of Christ?’ That’s the single biggest challenge.”

  In the Brazilian ambassador’s opinion, “The most serious problems facing the Church and the next pope will be the spread of militant religious extremism, especially Islamic fundamentalists and the Eastern Orthodoxy.”

  All nodded wisely. It was known among Vatican diplomats that there was a strong possibility that the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy, encouraged by certain neo-Communists in the government, might well have been behind the pope’s mysterious exposure to the African virus that killed him. But no member of the international diplomatic community would ever be caught openly expressing the view that such a possibility was valid, now that Russia was part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and had helped settle the Balkan wars diplomatically.

  “In any case,” Kirby said to his peers, “Bill Kelly, whether or not intentionally, delivered a stroke of public relations genius in the content and timing of his encyclical. Perhaps the work truly is a case of divine intervention. It gives the world and media something healthy to focus on instead of treating the conclave and the election like an American political campaign with all its negativism.”

  In the back-and-forth banter among these expert Vatican watchers, each tried to extract something of value from his fellow ambassadors that he then could pass on to his head of state. Then Ed Kirby made a telling observation.

  “After Pope John Paul II broke the four-hundred-and-fifty-year streak of Italian popes and Bill became the second to do so, we have acquired many new non-Italian cardinals. In some ways the leading princes of the Church have lately become traveling salesmen, visiting each other, helping out in national emergencies like hurricanes and revolutions, subtly promoting themselves. They also travel to Rome more often.”

  Ambassador Frietz leaned across the table. “That’s right, my friend. Frequent travel to meet and assist other cardinals is apt to be a clear sign of papal ambition. Maybe we ought to start recording certain travel schedules.”

  “Sì, like Frequent Flyer Pope,” said the ever-engaging Italian waiter.

  The last word the gathered ambassadors heard was that the conclave had retired for the evening without electing a pope and would resume the following day. No surprise. Saying buonasera and ciao to their fellow ambassadors and their wives, Ed and Kathy headed back to the residence at the Gianicolo. His voice mail had a few messages from the State Department along with several press calls. Ed turned on the TV in his study and began to write his letter of resignation to the president of the United States. Five years as ambassador was enough. He loved the job, but without Billy Kelly around, he wanted to go back to Chicago.

  At five A.M. the letter was finished, and with a few hours of sleep behind him, Ambassador Kirby went for his usual several-mile run through the Roman streets and paths. When he got to St. Peter’s, he could see hundreds of people on an all-night vigil, looking up at the balcony as if expecting a pope to appear. That of course was not about to happen, at least not for a while.

  After returning from his run, he showered, shaved, dressed, and went to his office across the street from Circo Massimo, where the famous chariot race took place in the movie Ben Hur. For a moment he visualized the early Christians being mauled by wild beasts here and in the Colosseum. Then the realities of the day set in. Several additional messages had around from the State Department wanting to know who was going to be pope and asking if Opus Dei still would be in power at the Vatican with the new one.

  How stupid, Kirby thought. The State Department thinks Opus Dei is some sort of militant anti-American group of right-wing extremists. They actually believe that.

  “It is amazing how out of touch State has become,” Ed Kirby said to Kathy as he showed her his letter of resignation. “Even worse is how inept the White House is in evaluating the culture, tradition, and importance of religion in various countries. The Vatican is a valuable source of important information from all around the world. But sometimes Foggy Bottom seems more concerned about trade and how the new pope will get along with Opus Dei than about human rights and peace and stability in the world.”

  “It will be nice to go home again,” Kathy mused.

  “It suppose Maureen will miss Rome and the excitement here.”

  Kathy shook her head. “Maureen will be happy to go back to the States. She and Colleen became great friends, and I guess our daughter is thinking of going to a college in or near Boston.”

  “It’s been a great experience, Kathy, for all of us. Who knows what’s next? Hopefully we’ll have some grandkids and we can tell them about Bill Kelly the pope fisherman.”

  * * *

  Meghan Kelly was putting Roger’s new back-to-school clothes away and looking out of the corner of her eye at the TV. Roger was watching the events from Rome. She also noticed a photo of Bill and Mary Kelly’s wedding on the fireplace. Just then the phone rang. “Hello. Colleen, we were wondering where you were. Still at the admissions office?”

  Meghan listened a moment and let out a joyous cry. “How wonderful! A full scholarship? Books and everything?”

  “That’s right, Meg. Boston College said they recognized that popes do not have pensions or life insurance policies. I’ll be home as soon as I can make it.”

  “We’ll be waiting. We’re watching the conclave. It’s kind of strange. Being on the outside looking in on the Vatican again through TV.”

  Meghan hung up the phone and stared out the window, looking down to the fishing dock below. The beautiful, bright, late-August sunlight was glancing off the bo
ats. She saw a tall, young, rugged, and handsome fisherman walking toward the house carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder. She froze for a few seconds. Then she heard Roger call out, “Meghan, it’s Ryan. He’s home from the sea!”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to dedicate this labor of love, The Accidental Pope, to my loyal and wonderful wife, Kathy, and our six children, Ray Jr., Edward, Julie, Nancy, Kate, and Maureen. And of course, our grandson, James Flynn Long, and his dad, Jamie Long.

  Thanks to my brothers Dennis, Steve and wife Bridie, and Al for their loyalty and support throughout the years. In telling Dennis how much he means to me, I also want to thank his wife, Rosemary, and their four wonderful children—Sheila and Danny Kelly, Colleen, Dunnie, and John Mannion, Tara and Kaitlyn and their special grandson Brian, and also Jake for their love.

  To our trusted friends the Foley Family—Jerry, Marianne, and son Michael—who is a real credit. A special thank-you to Matthew from Catholic University of America for his help and research, along with Patrick, Caitlyn, Meghan, Jeremiah, and Brendan. To Mike Degulis, a great friend, proofreader, and attorney, and his parents Janice and Dr. Joe. My deepest thanks to dear friend Kristen Hansen for her tireless effort in helping make this book a reality.

  What a pleasure to get to know a genius, noted bestselling author Robin Moore, who taught me so much about writing and the ability to express my thoughts and experiences in words. My gratitude to his dear wife, Mary Olga, and his brother, Attorney John Moore, who suggested contacting St. Martin’s Press with the draft manuscript. Richard J. Lynch and his wife, Sara, can indeed be given credit for the idea in the construction of this novel.

  To John Kilcommons and Suzie and their children Jack, Meghan, and Maureen. John is special and has always been there for me. Laurie, Brian Wallace, and sons Cullen and Brendan, you can’t get more loyal friends.