Cardinal Galsworthy: A Novel

Edward R. F. Sheehan's vast novel opens on the eve of the Third Millennium. The charismatic "Slav Pope" has just died. The Conclave of Cardinals struggles to elect his successor. A foremost candidate is the imperious and elegant Augustine Cardinal Galsworthy, whose sixty-nine years have encompassed all of the epic changes in the Church during the last half of the twentieth century. How did Cardinal Galsworthy attain this moment of lustrous eminence? Should he or should he not be Pope? Through the Cardinals eyes and voice, Edward Sheehan immerses us in Galsworthy's life - from a lonely and awkward childhood of the English minor nobility to his astonishing rise as a celebrated ecclesiastic and intimate of the vividly portrayed pontiffs who reigned during a convulsive epoch of the Church. Erudite, sensual, and enigmatic, Cardinal Galsworthy seems worldly and spiritual both at once. A reluctant priest, he progresses through his remarkable life as though on a pilgrimage from tormenting doubt toward deep faith. His wish for glory is surpassed only by his gallant labors among the destitute of the Congo, Central America, and Somalia.