Windswept House: A Vatican Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "IN THE VATICAN of early May, no one was surprised that the Holy Father would depart for yet another pastoral visit abroad..." (more)
Key Phrases: supplemental initiatives, papal resignation, papal study, Holy Father, Slavic Pope, Holy See (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Black Mass in the Vatican in 1963 gets Malachi's first novel since Vatican (1985) off to a wicked start. A potentially gripping conflict between two American brothers?one a priest, one a lawyer, both heirs to a fortune and to the family manse of Windswept House?follows. But as Martin, a former Jesuit and veteran Church commentator, develops his complex plot, he begins to dwell to a fault upon the themes he's explored in numerous books, most recently The Keys of This Blood, 1991. Martin's concern is what he sees as the erosion of the Church's moral authority, both from within and without. Here, a Slavic pope who's obviously John Paul II is being maneuvered into approving the Resignation Protocol, which, if enacted, will force him to resign in the name of Church unity. Martin attributes this erosion to a global conspiracy among world powers both East and West, fueled by Satanic influence and by the failure of John XXIII to act upon the Third Prophecy of the Fatima Letter in 1960. The narrative is richly detailed with Church lore, but the sermonizing is incessant, with dialogue often sounding more like editorial commentary than speech. Many think of the current pope as theologically conservative, but Martin, through one of the brothers who have been caught up in the struggle, takes him roundly to task: "You have abandoned your seminarians to heretical teachers... your nuns to a destroying wave of secularizing feminists," and so on. What could have been a smart and shocking thriller winds up instead as an onslaught of ecclesiastical facts and religious opinions occasionally interrupted by plot. The wind that blows through this rambling shack of a novel is, ultimately, angry and hot. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The author of Vatican (1986), among others, returns with a mammoth meditation on the troubled state of today's Catholic Church. So troubled, as one of the characters reports to the ``slavic Pope'' who is the central figure here, that ``it's going down.'' In his opening scenes, surprising for this measured writer, Martin portrays an animal sacrifice straight out of Stephen King, and Lucifer's plan is unveiled: to penetrate the Church hierarchy and eventually the Holy See itself with corrupt priests. They are bent on merging with economic and ethical universalists in the public arena, but their true agenda is the ascension of Satan and the annihilation of humankind. A young American priest, Christian Gladstone, from a place of peace called Windswept House, attempts to reverse these trends in his audiences with the slavic Pope; his twin brother, a lawyer, is embroiled in the impending new world order. They are light and dark, but, curiously, the slavic Pope is gray. He as much as anyone stood against Stalinist forces in Eastern Europe, but at a cost to the private message of faith and redemption the Church always has symbolized. But, while he himself has secularized the Church, his personal faith is deeply traditional. He seeks a revelation from an aged nun who participated in the Marian manifestation at Fatima. Can she tell this weary old man when Jesus will return? Does he have the strength for one last battle, as Lucifer stands poised to become Pope? Slowly, indeed, Martin's passions--and his agony over the dire straits of his faith--build into a deeply felt moral crisis. Martin is a close associate with Pope John XXIII, and his knowledge of Vatican politics is extraordinary. He pauses just short of the Apocalypse, but should find readers among Catholics and many evangelicals. Too slow-moving, and too specialized, for everyone else. (Author tour; radio satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Main Street Books (July 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385492316
• ISBN-13: 978-0385492317
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #168,727 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FASCINATING!, December 31, 1999

By A Customer

In a radio interview, Malachi Martin said this book was about 85% true, and that he changed only the names and certain identifying particulars, for obvious reasons. In that same interview, Father Martin was asked if he feared for his life since writing this book. Father Martin said he did, but that he was too old to change his ways. Since then, Father Martin died under very suspicious circumstances. He was found unconscious and bleeding in his home with hard wood fragments inbedded in his skull. He was taken to the hospital, and eventually woke from his coma for an instant and said it was a murder attempt, but he didn't get a chance to see who did it. Then he fell back into his coma, received the sacrament of Extreme Unction, and died. If you read this book, you'll know why his enemies couldn't let him live. He blew the lid off the satanic cabal in the church, and he even went so far as to describe their black mass in detail. As a prolific excorcist, he knew a lot more than most about Freemasons, satanists, and the communists in the Vatican. The Church is in crisis, with a war between the good guys and the bad . . . and if you ever doubt it then just check the news and ask yourself why so many murders have occured recently in the Vatican.

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ugly truth behind the Conciliar Church, February 23, 2000

By	Darian Fisher (Alpharetta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is extremely shocking to say the least and I have had to put the book down at times because I broke down in tears. The opening pages are a true shock, especially when you know the actual names of the characters who presided at the satanic events in Rome and South Carolina. I have received a list of of the real names of the people who are portrayed in the book, including Cardinal Bernadin and Bishop Russell who participated in the actual Satanic event in 1963. If anyone who has read the book and is interested in obtaining a list, I will be happy to email it to you. The names on this list are shocking to say the least, but sometimes the truth is shocking. Any Catholic who reads this book should be prepared to see that the Church we see today has become the apostate Church set up by these top Vatican officials who sold their souls to the "dark side."

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challenging but Necessary Book, January 12, 2000

By	[e-mail] "dnaglieri44" - See all my reviews

To all you rationalist, cynical, scornful readers who consider "supernaturalists" uneducated and ignorant you have finally met your match, and be forewarned you will indubitably become a fan of this pious yet brilliant priest-scholar. Combining sheer brilliance (Father Martin spoke 17 languages), with an uncanny intimacy with the divine (he also was an exorcist and a deeply spiritual man), Martin in Windswept House paints an astonishing picture of the Roman Catholic Church as an institution honeycombed and totally controlled by a satanic "superforce" which thwarts the will of the "Slavik Pope". There are some extremely shocking revelations in this book. One reason for the novelistic framework within which the novel is set is due to the astonishing charges leveled at beloved clerics such as Cardinal Bernardin and New Yorks John Cardinal O'connor. Without a doubt the circumstances surrounding the death of Malachi Martin do not smell of heaven and after reading this novel and investigating the condition of the church you will better comprehend the dynamic other worldly forces at work within christianity.