Mix together the Milites Christi, a reactionary new order within the Catholic Church; a secret "Holy Force" that stops at nothing to achieve its ends; a Catholic priest who is an ex-Green Beret and CIA hit man aching to atone for years of massacre and violence in Vietnam; the Trinity, a group of three priests, of radical thought and origin, who are linked by some unforgivable sin committed while at seminary; and several gorgeous women who could shake any man's commitment to celibacy, and you have the basic ingredients of John Cooney's Acts of Contrition, a marvelous way to spend a rainy afternoon, built around the political intrigues of the Vatican. The story revolves around the conflict between the conservative Church, firmly rooted in 2000 years of tradition and history, slowly moving toward change, but challenged by rich and powerful men who try to create a church within the Church to wrest control from the current hierarchy so they can return to a time when the Church ruled the world.Cooney is no stranger to those machinations. He is the author of American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman, which naturally I had to locate and read also.
