Bless Me, Father — John Lee

Never before has the Roman Catholic Church been so violently rocked as it has in the past two decades, with accounts of sexual abuse by priests flooding the media. Bless Me, Father, follows one young woman's journey from a childlike faith to suicidal depression while her life is derailed by a once-revered man of the cloth.Father Jordaine had prepared himself to be Christ's mouthpiece on the most important Sunday of the church year. He would have asked the worshippers to close their eyes and to imagine that the risen Savior was speaking through him. A bit flamboyant, perhaps. But, my God, it would have been outstanding!The twenty-eight year-old priest knew that his star was rising in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Probably because Father Richard Jordaine understood better than most young priests that the mission of the church is to preach the gospel; the business of the church is to make money; and the machinery that runs everything is politics. Bishop? Archbishop? Whatever. It didn't really matter. There were no limits if he could successfully fight the demons that inhabited his wretched soul.