Archbishop Mark Doyle, a church reformer and a martial arts expert, falls wildly in love with his therapist, Miriam Faberini. Their love affair would be enough to complicate a celibate bishop's life, but his troubles multiply when two of his priests are murdered. A clandestine Catholic group claims responsibility for both killings, and vows to eliminate Doyle as a symbol of corrupt liberalism. The Vatican demands that Doyle account for damaging allegations against him. His shadowy nemesis, a priest defrocked for sexually abusing teenage boys, dogs the Archbishop's every step. His story displays key tensions agitating the still medieval structures of  today's church.

"Eugene Bianchi's fast-paced novel centers in the liberal reforming bishop of San Francisco, Mark Doyle, in love with his therapist. Around them swirl all the conflicts of contemporary Catholicism: liberation theology, the role of women in the Church, celibacy, homosexuality, pedophile priests. Dark forces opposed to Church reform conspire against them, plotting violence and assassinations of priests, in a story that ranges from Nicaragua to Northern California and Rome. A fun read you will not be able to put down until you finish."

--Rosemary Radford Ruether
Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

"Surprising, shocking piece of fiction from a well known scholar quite obviously off on a lark. He's created a bigger-than-life bishop, a liberation theologian who does akido, drinks Dewars, canoodles on a regular basis with his shrink-lover and leads his flock into near-schism while the Vatican pushes for his quiet resignation and a psychotic stalker tries to kill him. If this novel is a mischievous preview of the Church-to-come, we're in for quite a roller-coaster ride. What fun! "

--Robert Blair Kaiser, author, contributing editor, Newsweek magazine

Autographed copies will be available directly from Eugene for $10.00 (including shipping). Please email me at releb@emory.edu with any request for a more personalized autograph. Orders may be sent either through PayPal (below) or by sending a check for $10.00 to: Eugene Bianchi, 1860 Barnett Shoals Rd. Suite 103-494, Athens, GA 30605.