cover image Pope Patrick

Pope Patrick

Peter de Rosa. Doubleday Books, $23.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-385-48548-7

In 2009, a mild-mannered Irish cardinal is elected pope as a compromise candidate-and turns the Church and the world upside-down. Former Irish Catholic priest de Rosa (Bless Me Father) wrings gentle humor out of an easy target in this tale by contriving to have Brian Cardinal O'Flynn conked on the head by a pillar while being anointed pope. Prior to this accident, Brian was an undistinguished prelate whose chief distinction was his devotion to his Labrador, Charley. Indeed, the cardinals charged with electing a successor to Pope John Paul II select Brian as the first Irish pope, ""Pope Pat,"" because he seems a solid, harmless choice. Recovering from his head injury, however, he starts issuing shockingly unexpected edicts. Some of de Rosa's humor is predictable, particularly the new pope's position on birth control and celibacy in the priesthood: ""From now on, priests will be allowed to marry if they so wish and remain in the ministry."" He does add several intriguing spins to Pope Patrick's tenets on sex and on the new balance of ecclesiastical power. The pace picks up when His Holiness issues equally uncompromising edicts on Vatican finances and nuclear proliferation, triggering a serious political crisis between the U.S. and a group of Islamic nations. Although the apocalyptic ending feels too abrupt and dark to jibe with the tolerant, tweaking tone of the rest of the story, this novel should find a ready readership among the decidedly iconoclastic congregation of American Catholics. (Mar.) FYI: Readers of de Rosa's novel Rebels may experience deja vu, since some material here has been taken verbatim from that book.