I Meet a Cardinal

My good friend Tina gave a celebratory party for me when Bless the Child hit the bestseller lists.

“I’ve invited the Cardinal,” she said, as if that were an everyday occurrence in Manhattan.  “He wants to ask you some pressing questions about Bless the Child.”

Super-intrigued by what a Prince of the Church might want to ask me, I went to Tina’s splendid dinner and found His Eminence had  not only read my book, but had been intrigued that I knew so much about the Church’s secrets surrounding exorcism.  He wanted to know how on earth I’d pried out such secrets in my researching.

I told him the strange story of an exorcism I’d accidently been called to participate in years before (I’ll write about that in another blog) and of my extensive research on the subject since then, that included my friendship with two quite remarkable exorcist priests.

Tea Time

Not only did the Cardinal turn out to be a far more interesting man than I’d anticipated – I’d spent umpteen years in Catholic schools and was happy to have escaped – but he invited me to tea at the Chancery Office a number of times after that, where we engaged in extraordinarily candid conversations about the nature of Good and Evil.

He was a firm believer in the value of exorcism, he said, although only after very careful vetting by psychiatric experts and theologians to ascertain whether it was genuine “possession” causing the disturbance or mental illness.  The Cardinal told me he had been a psychologist before joining the priesthood.

Cardinal Virtues

He was surprisingly game to ramble about the complexities of fighting Evil in the modern world, so our conversations were lively and revealing.  I had a chance to delve further into questions that had come up during my research and writing of Bless the Child.   His  ruminations on the state of the world’s battle between Good and Evil were metaphysically  eloquent and forthright, showing a side of him quite different from his politically polished, charming and very worldly persona I had seen in his televised interviews.

Writing books takes you to the strangest places, but I can honestly say I never imagined a series of intellectually intriguing tea parties at the Chancery Office of St. Patrick’s Cathedral would be among them!

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