“Shawn’s current wife is named Sana.”
“Oh, yes,” Jack said, remembering. “I have met her. She was very shy and retiring. All she did was cling to his arm and dreamily stare into his face. It was a little embarrassing.”
“She’s changed. She’s a molecular biologist who has gained a lot of notice in her field. She’s now a scientist at the medical school up at Columbia University. I think she’s really blossomed since they first met. I have a sense that the marriage won’t last too long, given Shawn’s preference for adoring, docile women. Socially, he’s never going to be content. I’m no expert, but I don’t think he’s capable of being faithful.”
“Maybe so,” Jack said. He’d never admired Shawn’s behavior in regard to women, but he’d never commented on it. But it had always been a bone of contention between James and Shawn.
“How is your relationship with Shawn?” James asked.
Jack shrugged. “As I mentioned, I’ve seen him only twice since I moved here to New York City. He was nice enough to invite me to his home for dinner on those two occasions. I suppose I should have returned the gesture, but I’ve become a bit of a hermit these days.”
”You alluded to that on the phone,” James said. “Would you care to explain?”
“No. Maybe some other time,” Jack said, trying to avoid thinking about his first family or his second. “Why don’t you tell me how I can help you? I assume it involves the box downstairs.”
James took a deep breath to steel himself. “You are right, of course,” James began. “It does involve the box downstairs. What do you think would happen if a significant percentage of people came to believe, even briefly, that the ossuary downstairs actually contained the bones of Mary, the Mother of God?”
“I suppose it would disappoint a lot of people,” Jack said.
“That’s a lot more diplomatic than I would have expected.”
“And less sarcastic than I’ve been of late.”
“Does that have anything to do with me being a cardinal?”
“Obviously,” Jack said.
“I’m sorry you feel that way. Old friends should feel able to be themselves.”
“Maybe if such meetings became a habit. For now, why don’t you tell me what you think would happen?”
“It would be a disaster for the Church, at a time it can least afford it. We are still suffering from the damage caused by the priest molestation scandal. It has been a true tragedy for the people involved, and for the Church itself. So too would the belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary had not been assumed body and soul into heaven as promulgated ex cathedra by Pope Pius the Twelfth with his Munificentissimus Deus in 1950. This promulgation has been the only use of the solemn declaration of papal infallibility declared by Vatican One on July eighteenth, 1870. Shawn’s claim that he has found the bones of the Most Holy Mother of God would seriously threaten and undermine the authority of the Church. It would be a disaster bar none.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Jack said, watching James’s face turn increasingly red.
“I’m being very serious,” James declared, afraid Jack wasn’t really getting the message. “As a direct religious descendant from Saint Peter himself, when the pope speaks ex cathedra on faith or morals he is making divine revelation as the Holy Spirit works in the body of the Church as sensus fidelium.”
“Okay, okay,” Jack conceded. “I understand how Shawn claiming Mary did not rise up to heaven when the Church has declared she had would be a serious blow to the Catholic faith.”
“It would be an equally disastrous blow to those who venerate Mary almost as they do Jesus Christ. You have no idea of her position among the Catholic faithful, who would be cast adrift if Shawn has his way.”
“I can see that, too,” Jack said, sensing that James was working himself into a minor frenzy.
“I can’t let that happen!” James snapped, slapping his palm on the table hard enough to cause the dishes to rattle. “I can’t let that happen, both for the Church’s sake and my own!”
Jack raised his eyebrows. Suddenly, he saw his friend as he was back in college, sensing James’s beneficence and concern about the bones in the basement was based on more than the Church’s well-being. James was also a skilled politician. Though Jack had doubted his chances, James ran for class president in college. Jack had underestimated James: With an innate sense of people’s inner needs, fears, and sensitivities, plus his ability to flatter, James was a natural. He was also driven, pragmatic, and shrewd. Everyone liked him, and to Jack and Shawn’s amazement, he won the election. Jack had every reason to believe it was these same qualities that helped James rise to the exalted level of cardinal.
“An added problem,” James continued, “is that that clever Shawn has me by the balls.”
Jack’s head snapped back as if he’d been slapped. Such language coming from a Roman Catholic cardinal was completely unexpected. Of course, he’d heard this all the time in their college days.
Catching Jack’s reaction, James guffawed. “Oh! Sorry!” he said. He then purposefully echoed Jack by following up with “Pardon my French.”
Jack laughed, realizing he had been guilty of stereotyping his old friend, who, despite outward appearances, was still the same person he’d been. “Touché,” he said, still smiling.
“Let me put it this way,” James continued. “By sending the ossuary from the Vatican to me with my name as the sender, he avoided customs and took advantage of my covetousness, since I was so quick to imagine it was a birthday present. By accepting the crate and signing for it, I have become, if you will, an accessory. I should have refused the carton so that it would have ended up back at the Vatican. As it is, whatever havoc it will evoke, I will be personally implicated, since it was my involvement that got him access to Peter’s tomb in the first place. I am in this hook, line, and sinker.”
“Why don’t you just call the media and confess right off the bat that you had no idea what you were signing for?”
“Because the damage is done. I am, as I said, an accessory. Besides, Shawn would go to the media himself and accuse me and the Church of trying to prevent the object from reaching the light of day, saying we’ve denied him the chance to examine the contents. That would sound like a conspiracy, which to many people would be akin to proving the object’s authenticity. No, I cannot do that! I have to let Shawn do whatever he is going to do, which he believes will take a month if there are no documents to deal with, or up to three months if there are documents in with the bones, if there are bones. I hope there aren’t. That would make everything easier.”
“Are there usually documents in ossuaries?” Jack asked. He found his interest in the contents growing.
“Usually not, but according to the letter from Saturninus to Basilides, this ossuary contains the only known copy of a Gospel of Simon Magus, along with the bones.”
“Now, that would be an interesting manuscript, from what you’ve mentioned of the guy,” Jack said. “Bad guys are always more interesting than the good guys.”
“I will have to contest that.”
“Okay, so, what are you going to do and what is my role?”
“Shawn and Sana want to keep the ossuary secret until they complete their work. And I forgot to mention this, but Sana intends to try to salvage some DNA.”
“I suppose that’s possible. Biologists were able to extract DNA from the much more ancient ice man found in the Alps in 1991. It’s been estimated that mummy was more than five thousand years old.”