The Call of Destiny: Light and Sound Series, #1

By John J Pietrangelo

     

       The Roman Curia, made up of the most powerful Cardinals in the Vatican, show their displeasure with the young pope whom they, themselves, have unwittingly placed on the Throne of Saint Peter. A few had done this as a ruse to consolidate their ever-growing power over the worldwide congregation of the faithful, never imagining that this politically naive and inexperienced priest would take the bull by the horns, overturning the whole apple cart! But that, it seems, is exactly what is happening!

      From an implausible prophecy unfolding to perfection, a relatively unknown parish priest has miraculously ascended the heights to become Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Unexpectedly thrown into the middle of corruption among members within the highest echelon of the Vatican hierarchy, the new pope is overwhelmed by his unsought position of authority but is emboldened by the unfailing support of his brother, Paul.

      The call of destiny beckons the twin brothers into the fray, as they accept as their own the challenge given long ago to Saint Francis of Assisi to Repair My Church... which is falling into ruin.

      Intertwined throughout both Book One and Book Two of this Light and Sound Series finds the D'Alessio family wending its way through life's inevitable obstacles, the grandparents and mother of the boys imparting the wisdom of the ages to them along the way.

      Pope Peter ll and his identical twin, Paul, venture unawares into a turbulent drama within the hierarchical structure of the Church. Having successfully negotiated a life-threatening experience at the hands of Islamic extremists, Pope Peter now feels his life may be threatened from within the power structure of the Church as well. Paul continues to provide invaluable support to his brother, uncovering further historical evidence of past deceit and corruption within the Church, while translating newly discovered ancient scrolls hidden within the depths of the Vatican Library.

     Constantly looking back to his youthful exchanges with who he deems to have been his guardian angels, the new pope struggles with his own mortality, his spiritual priorities, and his responsibility to execute his duties honestly and faithfully. Simultaneously, he wrestles with reconciling his training as a priest with the findings within the scrolls and revelations regarding Church history recently brought to light by Paul.

     Is transformation in the offing? Will those who have been given the Keys to the Kingdom continue doing business as usual? Or when all is said and done will the priest and the archaeologist triumph in the face of enormous odds? Can there be an epiphany wrought in the minds and hearts of the Church's faithful leading to a spiritual renewal? Only time will tell the tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John J Pietrangelo
• Release date: Oct 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215341841

John J Pietrangelo

       John J. Pietrangelo is a college graduate with a master’s degree in Educational Psychology. He has devoted more than sixty years of his life researching the multifarious religions from across the globe. Through his studies, he has gained in-depth knowledge of psychology, philosophy, religion, history, music, and a broad spectrum of metaphysical and spiritual teachings. He is now retired and resides in Arizona.        The Call of Destiny (Book One) marks the author’s first attempt at writing in the Fictional Novel genre, wherein he has placed the distillation of countless hours of study and contemplation

Book preview

PROLOGUE

There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is LOVE.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Monastery in France

Upon arriving at the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux, France in 1148 CE, on his way to Rome, Saint Malachy fell deathly ill. Sensing his end was near, he asked if he could have time alone with Saint Bernard.

He spoke privately with his good friend and confidante in Saint Bernard’s native language, French. My dearest Bernard. I am fast approaching the time of my release from this life. Before I go, good friend, I want to speak to you about my prophecies concerning the line of popes that will lead, in the end, to the dissolution of the Church. 

Brother Malachy, it is surely evident that the last days of the Church press heavily upon us. How long can the burden of corruption weigh upon the Church before she gives in and crumbles? But who is to know how long the wait? What is it that you would have me know?

"There will be those who will interpret my last entries as troublesome, containing a dire message...leading the Children to fear that the end of the world is come upon them. But, as in life, all endings are new beginnings. So, it will be with my prophecy. In contrast to this impending doom, the last in line will repair the Church, resurrecting our Lord’s secret teachings that his disciples called The Way. The apocalypse, which the naysayers will have everyone believing is imminent will, rather, open a new era of enlightenment come upon the world. All Glory to God."

Malachy was beginning to tire but remained determined to share with his friend everything he could concerning his prophecy. He drew as deep a breath as his failing lungs would allow. With a very weakened, shaky voice, he continued: Before the end, trickery will abide, for the two shall serve as one in preparation of the final judgment: the one, named in honor of the olive branch; and the second, extender of the olive branch in feigned capitulation unto the wide world. Thus, the two will count as one in the succession of popes. Following these two, the last in line, Petrus Romanus, shall, indeed, be the savior of Holy Mother Church.

Be that as it may, what is it you would have me do, my beloved Malachy? 

Malachy went on with his last request, directed toward the only human being he trusted with this most precious knowledge he held in his heart of hearts.

I implore you to secure my list, dearest Bernard, and bring it to the Holy Father for safe keeping...only tell him of the intrigue of the two who should be seen as being one papal reign. Tell His Holiness of this glorious mission to repair the Church, giving Her new life, a life worthy of acclamation. Can you promise to do this for me?

But, of course, Malachy, it will be my great joy to do as you ask. I give you my solemn promise. Eliminate all thoughts of concern from your mind and be at peace, for I will see that your request is fully executed. 

Je vous remercie, cher ami. Je vous serai toujours reconnaissant. (Thank you [for this gift], my friend. I will be ever grateful.)

Je vous en prie. Reposez-vous maintenant, et je vous ferai apporter un peu de bouillon lorsque vous vous réveillerez. (You are most welcome. Rest now, and I will have some broth brought for you when you awake.)

Within the hour, with many of the brothers of the monastery surrounding him, Saint Malachy awoke from his slumber. Saint Bernard gently placed his arm behind Malachy’s shoulders, lifting him up so he could take a sip of broth. Looking upon the sad faces of his fellow devotees of the Lord, Malachy spoke in a faltering but determined voice: My brothers. Do not fret, for I go to a better place...and I will prepare for our reunion at the proper time. We will share in the feast of our Lord...and have our fill to overflowing of His bounty. Glory be to God.

Saint Malachy then smiled his last smile, closed his eyes, and breathed no more. He died peacefully in the arms of his beloved friend, Saint Bernard, escaping unto the glory of Heaven.

Saint Bernard was true to his word. He delivered Saint Malachy’s vision of the line of popes-to-come to his former disciple, the newly crowned Holy Father, Pope Eugenius III. Included was the clarification against any misinterpretation of his prediction; that the last pope would signal a new era of enlightenment and the salvation of the Church, rather than the start of the Apocalypse.

The Prophecy of the Popes was finally released and published in 1595 CE, sans the clarification of the cryptic phrases concerning the last of the line of popes given by Saint Malachy to Saint Bernard over four hundred years earlier. The stage was now set for one of the most improbable outcomes in Church history. As the old proverb so elegantly states:  The mills of the gods grind slowly, but surely and exceedingly fine. And being that the path to hell is paved with good intentions, as Saint Bernard so succinctly stated many, many years ago, the passage of time is strewn with unintended consequences. All the good intentions stemming from the decisions made by the Church’s hierarchy over the centuries, though lauded by themselves as noble and just have, in far too many cases, resulted in a tumultuous era of heartache and confusion for the faithful masses. And as we all must, the Church would be compelled to pass through the fiery gates of hell to get to heaven.

CHAPTER ONE

The Shot Heard Around the World

Milan, Italy

Hanno ammazzato il Papa!

HANNO AMMAZZATO IL PAPA!!

A chorus of screams rang out from the crowd like the last desperate chords of the verismo opera, Cavalleria Rusticana.

They’ve killed the Pope! THEY’VE KILLED THE POPE!!

The unimaginable had happened! A single gunman, a Middle Eastern terrorist by the name of Abdu-l-Sayf Haider, yelling out the oft-shouted refrain, Allahu Akbar (Allah is Great), had just fired the round that pierced the heart of the whole of Christendom. The protective shield surrounding the pope in the guise of the Swiss Guard had let their attention lapse, for only a fleeting second. One moment the Pope was smiling and blessing the crowd. The next moment produced a high-pitched firecracker sound, the projectile that issued forth ripping a hole in his chest.

Haider was an Islamic extremist who could not let stand even the least criticism of the most revered Prophet of Islam, whether the slight was real or imagined. The reigning Pope paid the ultimate price for something a previous pope had said in a public address in which he had denounced all religious violence. That Pope was aware of the Catholic Church’s sordid history of violently eliminating heretics during the early years of the formation of the Church, through the two hundred years of the Crusades, as well as during the Church-sponsored Inquisitions from the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries.

He sought to correct these wrongs by bringing all Faiths together with peaceful relations in this enlightened age. He was widely known for his negotiations with Islamic leaders, working with them to achieve peaceful co-existence between their followers. Innocently enough, he had mentioned the Prophet Mohammed when quoting a fourteenth-century dialogue of Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, one of the last Christian rulers before the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottoman Empire. It concerned such issues as forced conversion, holy war, and the relationship between faith and reason, the subject of his address.

The emperor had stated, Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached...God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s Nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats...to convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death... 

As the translation of the pope’s lecture disseminated across the world, numerous Islamic religious leaders protested irately against what they determined to be an insulting mischaracterization of Islam. At that time mass street protests were mounted in many Islamic countries. Muslims had been offended by what was perceived as a denigration of Muhammad, and many reacted violently. In Haider’s mind, the pope had agreed with what the emperor stated. Namely, that the Prophet Muhammad attempted to spread his message by violence and inhumanity, and that Allah, and by inference Muslims themselves, are irrational and, therefore, ungodly.

Haider fumed, Irrational? Such an insult! Blasphemy! The imposition on Muhammad’s sacred standing by way of this controversial statement became the fuel that ignited the fires of revenge within his mind. It had been some years since the address had been given, but Haider’s internal volcano of rage had finally reached the critical point and surfaced. He used that momentum of rage to propel him to act, not against the now retired pope who had quoted the emperor but, rather, against the present pope, in a way that is inconceivable to most people, especially those in the West.

Allah will have His revenge! I will see to it! Haider ranted to members of the terrorist cell to which he belonged. Haider had been advised, repeatedly, to bide his time, that victory over the enemies of Islam would surely come. Nothing the others could say pacified his feelings. His was the obsession of unbridled, righteous indignation. It overtook what was left of a long-standing battle for sanity, as it related to his protective instincts regarding his religion.

From his study of the Qur’an, he obsessed over the passage, Know they not that God doth know their secret (thoughts) and their secret counsels, and that God knoweth well all things unseen? Those who slander such of the believers...and throw ridicule on them, God will throw back their ridicule on them: and they shall have a grievous penalty. Whether thou ask for their forgiveness or not, (their sin is unforgivable): if thou ask seventy times for their forgiveness, God will not forgive them: because they have rejected God and His apostle.

Haider would act! He would not allow himself to be complacent! No! Not he! He believed in what the Qur’an taught him: Let not the unbelievers think that they can get the better (of the godly): they will never frustrate (them). Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of God, and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom God doth know.

In that moment of the manifestation of Haider’s unrelenting anger, he was seen by the world as a representative of the religion of Islam. Taking to the extreme what he perceived as a slap in the face of his Prophet, he had lashed out with vengeance. Despite all the ongoing diplomacy between East and West, Haider, nonetheless, brought to the surface an underlying animus between two of the world’s great religions. Islam, the religion of peace, once again, could not hide behind its apparently misleading moniker.

The world could no longer justify its unreasoned resolve to turn the other cheek in the face of the radical faction of Islam’s many insults to the theme of peaceful co-existence. The ruse was fully uncovered with this ultimate act of terror. Even the forever sympathetic minds of progressive, liberal-minded individuals, sympathetic to the extreme, were shattered by the cruel and meaningless slaughter of one who had ceaselessly attempted to uphold the ideal of the Faith of the Western World, even in the face of continued threats on his life.

One threat too many produced the result of now having a pope lying on the blood-stained, red-clay brick steps of the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio: lifeless. The Pope who, like his predecessor before him, had tried to galvanize the leaders of the world with reason and hope, lie mortally wounded. The promise of his Pontificate, on the verge of blossoming to fruition, had been silenced with one mighty blow. He, along with his efforts to heal the wounds of the past, were no more. But like the seed fallen on the furrowed ground, his death would germinate until there arose, reaching to the Sun, a new life for Catholics the world over. A new beginning filled with the promise of a more enlightened future.

Politicians of the world promising Hope and Change would soon be compelled to act, conforming more closely to their bumper-sticker platitudes. Hope was needed for the renewal of liberty and freedom. Change was needed more than ever before to unite, rather than divide the peoples of the earth.

The scene at the Basilica became chaotic. The perpetrator was tackled and subdued immediately. Many fell to their knees and wept, praying, not only for the fallen pope, but for the future of the world, as well. The news of the assassination spread throughout media outlets worldwide:

The Pope has been assassinated! A gunman, thought to be of Middle Eastern descent, allegedly aimed a small caliber handgun and fired it at the Pope while he was giving a benediction to a crowd of well-wishers at the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, Italy. The Pontiff, it seems, has succumbed to his wounds!

A stunned populace waited anxiously while the talking heads flung insults, argued back and forth concerning the justification of such an act of terror, or the lack thereof, and bickered about every possible scenario surrounding the taking of the life of a pope, with all its staggering ramifications. Yet, most everyone agreed that a more singular heinous act had not been perpetrated on humanity in centuries.

On every broadcast of the news across the globe, voices rang out in abject bewilderment and repulsion at what they had just witnessed. The re-play of the assassination was shown repeatedly. The masses were enthralled yet reeled in disbelief. While many in the Middle East cheered and shouted praises to Allah, there were level-headed Muslims throughout the world who expressed their outrage that such an act as this could have happened. Many Muslims expressed their anguish over what they deemed would be a backlash against them. There was a strong and adverse reaction toward Muslims by many Americans, especially by Catholics. America’s tie to Catholicism reaches back to the country’s earliest beginnings, and many Americans, regardless of their religious leanings, took a patriotic affront to the slaughtering of the pope.

What was to be done now? This burning question was on the lips of everyone, everywhere. Not a corner of the globe escaped the ongoing debate. Where does one begin to understand the ramifications of such an act? How does one punish the guilty? Was this another case of a lone gunman? Or was there a conspiracy to kill the pope brewing for years? Who, in their right mind, would want the leader of a religious organization with over a billion adherents assassinated?

So many questions asked, so few answers forthcoming. Within days, the result of extensive polling data was being proffered to the public. Overwhelmingly, people believed that a cover-up had already commenced, that disinformation had reared its ugly head and the truth was being shadowed by innuendo and rumor. So much so, that the possibility of revealing what really happened, the whys and wherefores, were lost to the rank odor of backroom deal making, but, even more pointedly, into the smokescreen of political correctness.

The pope was dead. Representatives of the Catholic Church were shaken to the core and overcome with grief. Nevertheless, they were determined to forge on regardless of what the world might think. It was their solemn duty, their obligation to the faithful, to call all Cardinal-Priests from every corner of the earth to come home to Rome where all roads lead to the Vatican, and specifically to the Sistine Chapel, for the making of a new pope.

A Conclave of Cardinals gathering at the Vatican was first on the agenda of the Princes of the Church. The wounds of the terrible event that had befallen their leader had to be addressed with haste and temerity. Then, a new pope would be elected from among them, a new Servant of Servants who would take up the mantle of Peter the Apostle. One who would step into the Shoes of the Fisherman and shepherd the flock of the Church of Jesus Christ, the most Holy Roman Catholic Church.

While for centuries only cardinals have been elected pope, in theory any adult male Roman Catholic is papabile, a potential candidate for the Papacy. The candidacy, much less the election, of anyone save an esteemed cardinal is held by almost all onlookers as a complete impossibility. The last non-cardinal Pontiff was Pope Urban VI, Archbishop of Bari, Italy in 1378.

For this Conclave, under the fog of deep sadness, the new pope was anybody’s guess. Observers and odds makers in the know are wont to predict the outcome of Papal elections, but because the favorites are a matter of conjecture, the election of a non-favorite was common. It was said that at this Conclave there could be as many as three serious contenders, possibly even as many as a half dozen cardinals with a chance to be named Pontifex Maximus (Supreme Pontiff). Only time would tell the story of the new pope’s election.

CHAPTER TWO

The First Steps

Cerignola, Italy

Filomena Nunzia D’Alessio trudged along the cobblestone road on a seven hour walk to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, a small agricultural community located in the Gargano Mountains of Southern Italy. An audience with Padre Pio, famous for his intercessions to God, had been arranged by the Bishop of Bari through his friendship with Filomena’s parish priest in her hometown of Cerignola, some thirty kilometers from the friary.

She wanted to do this one last thing before she left Italy for America, where her husband of nearly thirty years, Ambrogio, awaited her arrival. They had decided to immigrate to New York City to start a new life. Married under pressure from her family at age fourteen, Filomena’s hope to have a child remained unfulfilled. At fifteen, and again at seventeen, she experienced the anguish of having a miscarriage. After the second, doctors told her she would never conceive again. Hope had faded. Her one last effort to implore God for a miracle, she imagined, beckoned her from the Capuchin Friary in the person of Padre Pio. Filomena, now nearly forty-four years of age, believed whole-heartedly that Padre Pio could help. She was a devout Roman Catholic, attending Mass daily. She prayed the Rosary nearly every day on behalf of her family and the world at large.

Filomena was of small stature, only four foot eleven inches in height, with a medium build, and had long, wavy black hair and large brown eyes, with a lovely, serene countenance that bespoke humility and grace. Being relatively uneducated, having only what would be considered the equivalent of passing elementary school, Filomena, nevertheless, read voluminously. Studying the history of the Saints of the Church was her favorite pastime. Only when all the chores associated with cleaning, gardening, shopping, and cooking were completed did she allow herself the luxury of reading. The lives of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare were especially compelling to her because of the stories she heard from her husband’s grandmother and other members of his family. They were only rumors to be sure but, nonetheless, had been fascinating when she first heard them as a young, impressionable teenage girl yearning for adventure and romance. Filomena entered the chapel where she was to meet Padre Pio. She proceeded to the prayer candles situated to the left of the altar, then placed her donation in the receptacle and offered a prayer to Jesus and to Saint Mary, his mother. This done, she went to the altar railing where she knelt, beads in hand, to pray the Rosary. After some minutes, she looked up and observed Padre Pio walking out of the vestibule behind the altar. He made his way toward the unassuming, middle-aged peasant woman, waiting patiently for him while attending to her Rosary. He was getting older now, but his stride remained that of a man in his prime.

Padre Pio was born in Pietrelcina, a small country town located less than an hour east of Naples, Italy, in 1887. From his early childhood it was evident that he had a deep piety. When he was five years old, he solemnly consecrated himself to Jesus. Growing up he preferred to be by himself, where he could read and pray. At age seventeen, he traveled by oxcart to the seventeenth-century Friary of Saint Francis of Assisi and began six years of study for the priesthood. At the age of twenty-three he was ordained. Within a month of his ordination, as he knelt praying, Padre Pio experienced an apparition of Jesus. It was then that the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ, were first visited upon his body. He asked that Jesus take away this annoyance adding, I do want to suffer, even to die from suffering, but all in secret. The wounds went away and the supranatural life of Padre Pio remained hidden...for a while.

Soon thereafter one of Padre Pio’s colleagues came to visit him in his room, only to observe what he first assumed was a dying man. Padre Pio was lying very still on his bed, breathing quietly, but non-responsive to voice or touch. His eyes were unfocused, staring steadily toward the ceiling, yet his face seemed aglow with an otherworldly radiance. The colleague rushed to the chapel, only a few doors down the hall, to pray for his friend, accepting God’s will in this as in all matters. On his return, he was stunned to find Padre Pio alert and full of life. This was the beginning of Padre Pio’s documented string of ecstasies.

The visible wounds of the stigmata returned to him some years later and remained a constant for the last fifty years of his life. Word about the stigmata began to reach the outside world. Over the years, countless people, including physicians, examined Padre Pio’s wounds. He was not interested in the attempts by the world to explain his stigmata but accepted it as a gift from God. Without complaint, or even a request for abatement, Padre Pio suffered the wounds of Christ as atonement for his sins and the sins of those for whom he prayed.

Stories of miracles abound as they relate to Padre Pio’s public service to the faithful. He heard confessions for up to eighteen hours a day for weeks on end, never complaining about the humanity that pressed in on him, begging for absolution and healing. His stature as a man of God and miracle worker grew despite his protestations. For nearly sixty years he quietly served those that entreated him to intercede on their behalf. When his remarkable life came to an end, he was soon thereafter canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

As he approached Filomena, who was still kneeling at the altar, Padre Pio suddenly stopped and went into a spiritual ecstasy for which he was so famous. His eyes were closed, and his radiant face tilted toward the heavens. He stood transfixed like a statue. It was several minutes before he came out of it. Then he continued toward the bewildered woman. With a look of tenderness and supreme confidence he came up to Filomena and took her hand.

He said with a humble reverence, speaking in Italian, their native tongue: You are barren and wish for a child to comfort you in your old age. Yes?

Filomena was shocked, Father, how did you know?

"That is no matter, Madam. What is important is that you are truly blessed, for the Lord has looked