International best-selling author Andrew M. Greeley is hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a fascinating novelist" with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view. In this baffling mystery, the unpopular and incompetent Bishop Gus Quill is assigned to the Archdiocese of Chicago despite loud protests. When he disappears while riding the L Train, it falls to Bishop Blackie Ryan to find him.
On a flight to Chicago, millionaire media mogul Raymond Neenan receives this bit of angelic advice and finds himself staring death, and the eternal hereafter, in the face. He soon finds that making amends in his personal and business life is no easy task. In his effort to get to the top, he's damaged a lot of lives, including his own. He's hated and feared by his parents, his ex-wife, his children, and practically everyone he's ever met. But with the Archangel Michael as his mentor, he just might be able to help some of the people he's ruined and discover that he actually enjoys it - and that maybe there's hope for that soul of his, after all.
For childhood friends Leo Kelly, Jane Devlin, and newly ordained "Packy" Keenan, the summers they spent at the lake together were times of pure magic. And no summer was more enchanting than the summer of 1948 - until a tragic car wreck killed two of their friends. The rich and prominent "Old House" families of Chicago banded together to protect their own - the driver, who was drunk, was the son of a local doctor. There was a cover-up and a vicious scandal. Leo left for the Korean War, and the three friends' summers at the lake were gone forever. . . Until thirty years later when Leo, still obsessed by the memory of Jane and the need to solve the mystery of what really happened that fateful summer, comes back to Chicago and back to the lake. Jane is more beautiful than ever, but her life has been an unhappy one, trapped in a loveless marriage and haunted by the memory of Leo. She has returned to the lake to try to piece her life back together. Disillusioned with the priesthood, Packy realizes he's in love with Jane, too. But as a best friend and confidant to Leo and Jane, he faces a difficult choice this summer: should he help his oldest friend win back the woman of his dreams or pursue what might be his own last chance for love?
It is the summer after the Big War and, while most veterans are racing back to setup housekeeping, Jerry Keenan finds himself unattached, unable to settle down, and suffering nightmares form his wartime experiences. Enter Andrea King, an eighteen-year-old war widow. Finding her irresistible, Keenan embarks on a love affair so passionate that it re-awakens him to life and to God. Then, just when life looks rosiest, Andrea disappears. In searching for her, he uncovers her miserable past (and her real name, Maggie Ward) as an abused child and an abused wife. When he finally locates her, his quest focuses on winning the beautiful Maggie as his wife.
Jesus of Galilee taught through stories, which even today contain the power to startle us out of our prejudices and preconceptions. Now Father Andrew M. Greeley, one of America's most beloved storytellers, examines the parables told by Jesus in search of a fuller understanding of the man and his message.
This engaging and informal collection of homilies reveals a Jesus whose simple parables carry profound lessons about the Kingdom of Heaven. Along the way, Father Greeley touches on such provocative topics as the significance of Jesus's Jewish roots, his deep and revolutionary relationship with women, The Da Vinci Code, and The Passion of the Christ. He also singles out the four greatest parables, which best illustrate the infinite love and mercy of the God whose kingdom began with Jesus and continues even today.
As a storyteller, Jesus often surprised his listeners with unexpected twists that challenged them to see the world in a whole new light. Father Greeley's insightful tour of the Gospels provides a fresh look at the parables that strips away centuries of false and mistaken interpretations to get at the essential truth of who Jesus really was and what he believed.
Not since his runaway bestseller, The Cardinal Sins, has Father Andrew Greeley written such a searing and topical novel about the state of the Catholic Church
The Priestly Sins tells the story of Father Herman Hoffman, a gifted and innocent young man, who becomes swept up in “the Crisis” after witnessing child abuse in his first parish appointment. Soon, he is vilified for denouncing a priest who has been “cleared.” He suffers the harsh fate of a whistle-blower when his Archdiocese has him committed to a mental health center. After his release, Father Hoffman is exiled by the Church to Chicago were he begins his graduate studies in immigrant history. There he encounters the legendary Monsignor Blackie Ryan, who helps him regain his confidence and demand a parish of his own. Reluctantly, the Church hierarchy assigns him to a dying parish. With zeal and charm,
he revives the local church. His brief idyll is shattered by a subpoena to testify in a court hearing. If he speaks he will have to once again take on the establishment that is determined to destroy him. He faces exile not only from his parish but from the priesthood itself.
With over 15 million copies of his books in print, Father Andrew M. Greeley has an unmatched flair for writing entertaining fiction that offers wry observations about religious and secular life. His popular novels featuring Bishop Blackie Ryan offer delightful locked-room mysteries set against the intricate politics of the Catholic church. Bishop Blackie has no desire to leave the friendly confines of his Chicago neighborhood to traipse around Paris searching for Fr're Jean-Claude, a popular priest who has inexplicably vanished while filming a television show. But when his Archbishop boss says, "See to it," Blackie can hardly refuse. As he sifts through a pile of suspects that includes everyone from church leaders to television executives, Blackie begins to wonder whether the reason no one can find Jean-Claude is because Jean-Claude doesn't want to be found. George Guidall's entertaining narration perfectly captures the sharp wit and worldly wisdom of Bishop Blackie as he puzzles his way through this beguiling mystery.
