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109 pages

English

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Like most children brought up Roman Catholic, Richard regularly attended confession. He never quite know why but until he was in high school, he never questioned the purpose, if not the substance of the sacrament. An incident involving a priestly vestment, a confession in a cathedral, overhearing an admission by an elderly lady in an adjacent confessional, the surprising registration for a universe theology course, and Richard leads to a renewal of his faith and an obsession with confession. Further, he accidentally overhears an elderly lady's admission in an adjacent confessional, prompting an investigation into the balance between the harm caused by the sin and the absolution provided by confessors. Over several months, he finds himself investigating misdeeds that would give rise to exceptional measures issued by priests sitting in darkened booths in which divine forgiveness is furnished. A homeless man without a name is murdered and Richard has found the misdeed that he hopes will be absolved by confession. Although his pursuit does not result in anything approaching exoneration, it does provide the murdered man with a name and a mystery with a conclusion.

Sujets

Adventure (Guyana)

Confessional

Mike Robertson

Mystery

Adventure

Fiction

Action

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Publié par	AuthorHouse
Date de parution	09 mai 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798823007733
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

CONFESSIONALS

MIKE ROBERTSON

AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: 833-262-8899

© 2023 Mike Robertson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/08/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-0774-0 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-0773-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023908359

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
The Vestment
Introduction to Confession
After the Confession
A Change of Heart
Richard Returns to Church
A Chaste Romance Ends
Faith Renewed
Listening Through The Screen
Confession Research I
Confession Research II
Confession Research III
Confession Research IV
Imaginary Confession I
Before and During Confession I
After Confession I
Back to the Church
Another Proposal
Final Proposal I
Final Proposal II
Final Proposal On His Own
Possible Absolution
Finally, A Story
A Conclusion
THE VESTMENT
H is family was religious, seriously religious. The fact was that religion had dominated a good part of his childhood. The family believed in the divine authority of the Almighty or, more accurately perhaps, they were afraid not to believe. They were Roman Catholics, Catholics who were comfortable in the knowledge that they belonged and were, therefore, pursuing the one true faith. They were convinced, somehow, that billions of people who were enlightened by some other spiritual belief, would be consigned to the perpetual damnation of hell once their time was up. When he was younger, he was familiar, maybe too familiar with all the trappings of that one true faith. There were the sacred signs watching over him, watching over everything he did. The symbols of the Supreme Being and the faith in that Being were everywhere it seemed. He thought about them all the time, the curious ceremonies of the Church, the mysterious Latin words muttered during Mass, the reliefs representing the Stations of the Cross on the walls of the church, the spectres lingering in the confessional, the strange theatre of the benedictions, the solemnity of communions, novenas, even vespers, whatever they were supposed to be, all intended he thought to ensure that he stayed on the right path to heaven. They all belonged to him at one time or another, all of them.
Then there were the priests, the caretakers of the doctrine. They were mysterious men, odd individuals who were cast out of the most mystifying of circumstances, curious characters who Richard thought were out of place almost everywhere but in a church. The parish in which he attended church was fortunate enough to be blessed with three priests, all different in character but all similar in function. There was Father Purchell, the senior partner and principal navigator of the theological fortunes of his congregation. Then there was Father Quinn, a perplexing man who had a well meaning manner as well as a well known drinking problem. And finally, there was the younger but much admired Father Griffin who, at least in comparison to his two colleagues, appeared to be a recruit barely out of the seminary. The two older clerics were fat, clumsy men, Friar Tuck types, who had presumably lost much of their hair and almost all of their theological zeal. On the other hand, Father Griffin, while he was given to a penchant for serious prayer compared to the tepid passion exhibited by his older colleagues, at least was thin and was often celebrated for his full head of head. Richard's mother, in a moment of weakness no doubt, thought he was sexy although she didn't use the word. Richard's father objected although without much conviction. But one could tell that his mother's remark, however inappropriate it may have been, still must have bothered him.
All of them, himself, his brothers Jack and Stephen and his best friend Peter had frequent opportunities to observe liturgical procedure first hand, all being pupils in an elementary school which, being across the street from the church, conducted much business with the Almighty. By the time he had graduated to high school, Richard had experience with all manner of prayer and worship. Aside from significant events like Christmas, Easter and Lent, there was first Fridays, second Tuesdays, rosary weeks, holy weeks, and special liturgical spectaculars like Ash Wednesday and Corpus Christie. There were also regular benedictions, occasional retreats, novenas, devotions, high mass on Sundays, and the occasional marriage and funeral. All of them, all four of them were being employed as altar boys at one time or another, slowly had grown weary of such gatherings. They had grown bored with the gospel, particularly it seemed with the continual tedium of having to kneel, sit and stand as they participated throughout the services.
They had grown frustrated, in so far as any twelve year old could become frustrated, with the tyranny of certain elements of religious ritual. They had become tired with having to file up for communion, God help anyone who failed to make their way to the rail, their sins absolved, their parents there to witness. They were also apathetic with the lassitude of still another round of religious homilies by that spellbinder of a speaker, Father Purchell, whose sermons often sounded like presentations at an insurance seminar. They would squirm, restless in the pews like prisoners in a cell, waiting for the festivities to be over. The boys would whisper urgently to each other until caught, whisper again, and then wait with the sweeping of an invisible ecclesiastical clock, for the conclusion. Church please be out.
Still, despite his growing reluctance to continue to pursue their spiritual beliefs, Richard and Peter both received documents entitled a “Certificate For Religious Instruction” signed by Father John D. Purchell himself. It was a verification of their profession of faith and renewed their promises of the Christian life. The certification was witnessed by the Inspector of Schools, whose signed name could not be distinguished. It was provided to the both of them a month before they received their grade seven report cards. Both Jack and Stephen presumed they would receive certificates when they graduated from grade seven the next year.
Despite their reservations with their fading faith, the group still held in high regard in those days when they were the altar boys, a group to which they thought they were obliged at one time to join, much to their parents' relief, in order to escape, even for one moment out of many, the boredom of sitting in the pews with their prayer books in their laps. Still, the entire experience was adventurous enough Richard had recalled, the black or red cassocks, the stiffly starched soutanes, and the prospects of an appearance before a packed house on Sunday the main pleasures. To continue with their piety, or whatever spiritual ambitions they still maintained, they soon continued to accept their careers as acolytes. They found themselves sacrificing early morning sleep and some weekday evenings in order to fulfill their obligations to religious service. So it came as no revelation that barely into the second year of their tenure, Richard being almost out of elementary school, almost thirteen years old by then, all three of them, Peter's brother Stephen having been excluded as a conscientious objector for reasons he never did disclose, were still celebrants. He did, however, remember that the three of the remaining altar boys had embarked on the hazardous course of laughing at the hand that blessed them.
At first, it seemed little more than harmless fun, a way of passing the time before and after the occasional tedium of their sacred duties. It was there on the altar, the sword battles, mock fights, and imagined attacks on each other, all of which employed, in one way or another, some religious article as a prop. The church, of course, provided the enterprising acolytes, much in the way of utensils for their entertainment: candles snuffers with long ornate handles, innumerable crucifixes, chalices, cruets, silver containers of unknown purpose, and many other curios of the religious theatre. It was like being backstage on Broadway. They eventually expanded their taste for such improprieties, extending their unacceptable behaviour to include the looting of the lost and found cabinet, the unauthorized ringing of the church bells, and their continued standby of on altar pugilism, a relatively obscure art in which Richard and his brother attempted to hit each other with whatever was handy during the consecration of the mass. Still, they only tussled during the early morning services on the weekdays, hoping that there were few or no parishioners to witness their nonsense. After all, such behaviour would normally be considered disturbing enough to prompt even the most casual of the faithful to demand they be suspended from service and banished to the basement. In fact, one such critic of their heretical performance, having collared them at a boy scout meeting, condemned them to the eternal fires, a power whi