The Second Messiah Read Free

one that would require your help and support.”
    The chapel was terribly still.
    “Tonight, as we sit beneath Michelangelo’s vision of the Creation and the Flood, as we witness his frightening images of the Apocalypse, I am certain that what I propose may be seen by many among you as a threat. But I want to assure you it would not be so. It is something I am convinced Christ would have wished and which the church desperately needs. My promise was this: there would be absolute openness and honesty. There would be no more lies. No secrets kept from our flock or from the world. The church belongs to us all, not only to those who control the Vatican.”
    A wave of disbelief spread through the astonished crowd.
    “What exactly are you suggesting?” asked one elderly cardinal, ignoring protocol. “That we open the Vatican’s doors to public scrutiny?”
    “That would be one intention of mine,” Becket answered firmly. “Nothing would be concealed. Even the darkest secrets hidden in our archives would be made public.”
    There was a gasp from the audience and then silence. Cassini, standing in front of Becket, felt his chest about to explode. Never in the history of the church had anything like this ever happened.
    Another cardinal asked, “And the Vatican’s finances?”
    “Made public also.”
    There was a murmur of disbelief from the listeners. Then Becket’s voice carried firmly over the hot, crowded chapel. “Did Christ want lies told? Did He want secrets kept? Did He want those of us in authority to behave like secretive, petty bureaucrats and banking officials? I cannot believe that He did. Above all, Christ believed in truth, as we should.”
    Another elderly cardinal spoke up. “John, there are some things too dreadful for the world to know.”
    Becket looked at the speaker, but his words were addressed to everyone present. “You mean there are some things the Vatican would not want the world to know. Things it has kept secret by design, unpleasant mistakes it has made that its flock should never know of. But they should know. Not just Catholics, but Christians everywhere. Our archives will greatly concern them too. Christians all over the world share a common purpose, and they have a right to know the dark secrets that have been kept in Christ’s name.”
    Becket stared out at his audience, his arms held wide as if in pleading. “We ask our flock to confess the error of their ways yet we refuse to confess our own sins. How can this be right? You have chosen me and those are my intentions upon accepting the papacy. It will mark a new day, a new beginning that will return all of us to the ways of Jesus Christ. I have spoken.”
    Some of the older cardinals looked deeply shocked, as if the devil himself and not the pope had spoken in their midst.
    But most were profoundly moved, for it seemed a fresh blast of wind had suddenly blown through the musty Vatican corridors with the force of a hurricane. Every one of them knew he was in the presence of a man who radiated charisma and authority.
    Umberto Cassini was quite dumbfounded and suddenly fearful. He looked up at John Becket, who settled his piercing, honest blue eyes on his audience.
    “As for your fears, I will ask only one question. Have you no courage, my friends? The Lord may give us the burden. But He will also give us the strength to carry it. I accept my nomination as Supreme Pontiff. Ego recipero in nomen of verum . I accept in the name of truth. And the name I choose will be Celestine.”

3

    TWENTY MILES EAST OF JERUSALEM
    NEAR THE DEAD SEA
    ISRAEL
    THE ANCIENTS BELIEVED that the spirits of the dead lingered near their tombs. Jack Cane wanted to believe in that too as he drove toward the gravesite.
    The Toyota Land Cruiser bumped over the desert trail and where it ended Cane cut the engine, jerked on the handbrake, and climbed out.
    The grave stood near the curve of a ridge, four miles from the Dead Sea. It had a neat stone border filled with