Cardinal Mahony: A Novel (Paperback)

by Robert Blair Kaiser (Author)
Key Phrases: Iván Díaz, eucharistic sacrifice, Juana Margarita Obregón, Cardinal Mahony, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
This is a rollicking good tale by the esteemed American Catholic journalist and writer . It's a sort of cross between a Morris West novel ??? with its superb understanding of Catholic Church culture and politics ??? and a Tom Clancy action thriller. West went to some trouble to disguise the identity of the people his characters were based on. Kaiser does not need to do that. His central character, Cardinal Roger Mahony, is in fact the present archbishop of Los Angeles ??? and a guy not exactly enjoying the best press at this moment. Most readers will not warm to him in the opening chapters of Kaiser's novel. By the end of the book though, they will warm to him considerably. Mahony in a sense ends up as an Oscar Romero-type hero. This novel has pace, it has action and above all, it has a point. I suspect this novel ??? perhaps like the novels by Morris West ??? might achieve more than a thousand homilies, papal encyclicals and serious commentaries that are endlessly dissecting the problems of the Catholic Church. Kaiser paints a picure of a different kind of leadership, a leadership that will have no fear in facing their final judgment. This is a leadership that great masses of ordinary people might be able to identify with again. This is a leadership that both tells the truth and is not afraid to face the truth. This book will also annoy the hell out of those who think the Church is headed in the right direction as it sinks toward Remnant status. Let us hope it does finally annoy "the hell" out of them, enough to realise that the present direction is a one-way ticket to oblivion. --Brian Coyne "Editor and Publisher of Catholica Australia"

Product Description
An American bishop gets kidnapped outside his cabin in the High Sierras one snowy morning in November 2008 by three liberation theologians who look like terrorists. They take him off to southern Mexico in his own helicopter and put him on trial for his sins in front of an international television audience. A jury of his peers, six retired Latin American bishops, find him guilty, and give him a surprising sentence. He falls in love with his kidnappers and leads the American Catholic Church into a radical new way of being, still Catholic, but aggressively accountable to the people, which is to say aggressively American. The fictional bishop in this novel is, obviously, based on Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles in a piece of reality fiction that pushes the envelope. It is set in the reality of the current priest-sex-abuse scandal, and it projects ahead in time to tell the story of a colorful crewand a new Cardinal Mahony working to give Catholics a voice, a vote, and citizenship in their Church

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Product Details

• Paperback: 257 pages
• Publisher: Humble-bee Press; 1st edition (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964664291
• ISBN-13: 978-0964664296
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #651,283 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's Think Outside the Box!, November 27, 2007

By	Theresa Padovano (Morris Plains) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a delightful read! This mix of fact and fantasy keeps you reading as you try to figure the names of the real "characters" in the tragic story line in the Church today. Kaisers characterizations were right on target. We all need a little humor and thinking outside the box during these dark days and this book might just be the right medicine for what ails us.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cardinal Mahony Would Love This Book, January 15, 2008

By	James E. O'Leary (Corpus Christi, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At first I worried that this great novel would not get the attention it deserved because it seemed to appeal to Catholic insiders but after a second reading, I think it will sell. The characters, dialogue, plot are all too good not to ring the bells. It is true that every Catholic you ever heard of is in here including the pope and including my own Catholic hero, Michael Moore, whom I learned, to my disappointment, is not a regular church goer. I learned this when one conservative bishop in a typical remark by a conservative bishop, said, "Well, I hear he never attends Sunday Mass."

You will read it straight through whether you give a hoot about the Catholic Church or not. But if you do care about the Church, which to some eyes, seems on its last legs, you will see it doesn't have to die a sudden or lingering death. One good thing about the book is that it makes out the Church and its hierarchy to be worse than it is, and the book proves that even at that, the Church is well worth saving, in fact, one of the world's last best hopes.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CARDINAL MAHONY, A Novel, November 16, 2007

By	Eva R. Weber "Justice in the Church" (San Rafael, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a captivating read! Wishful thinking? Of course not, although I never had expected to find courage for church reform in a novel. However, in order to clean up the horrific scandals the Church gives to the world, we will have to step up and take action. In the story of CARDINAL MAHONY, a Novel, by Robert Blair Kaiser, answers are given chapter and verse, as the plot unfolds. What ought to happen is the following: We do not need kidnapping as we have Canon law.
1. This work by Robert Blair Kaiser should be compulsory reading for all students in Catholic colleges and universities, because they are hopefully going to be the future leaders of integrity for the faithful.
2. It should be required reading for all adult Catholics, who have become demoralized and discouraged. They will find hope in Kaiser's book. But most importantly, all the faithful people who are in denial about the abysmally evil deeds done by the clerical leadership need to read this. "You cannot change what you don't acknowledge." You do not want to become complicit by denial, and distortion of documented facts, or silent consent, do you?
3. Where are the charismatic leaders among the faithful, to sacrifice their time and effort; to claim the rights and live up to their baptismal responsibilties, by implementing the canons provided in this book? Catholic organizations have to make common cause with the help of this book, standing on those canon laws. There is strength in numbers to restore credibility to our beloved church Jesus founded.
4. With the laity taking the lead, hopefully, the partially coward and partially corrupt hierarchy will have a real conversion of spirit. Reform has always come from the bottom up, not from the top down. Just brush up on Church history.