Ralph McInerny

Agreeing to speak with the only child of a hedonistic priest, who wants to become a nun despite her father's opinions of the church, Father Dowling is stunned when she is brutally murdered, and uncovers a killer with a calling of his own. Reprint.

Ralph McInerny is among the most noted Catholic philosophers and authors of our day. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1955, and has written a number of important works on St. Thomas Aquinas. He helped found Crisis magazine, a publication that addresses problems facing contemporary society from the standpoint of the Catholic tradition. Alongside his academic work, McInerny authored the best-selling Father Dowling mysteries, and was appointed to President Bush's Council for Arts and the Humanities.

The essays in Modernity and Religion comprise the reflections of eight seminal thinkers on various aspects of the problems of modern thought and its attitude toward religion. The effort to free intellectual pursuits from the influence of religion was a hallmark of the modern world. However, despite the many blessings and advances of the modern age - many of which were initially opposed by the Church - the assumption that humans can prosper when their relation to God has been broken has been disproved in a myriad of ways in recent decades. Thus, rethinking the roots of modernity has become imperative and reexamining the modern attitude toward religious belief provides the most radical critique. By concentrating on the supposed chasms between modern thought and the assumptions of Christianity the contributors do much more than show that modernity has failed by its own standards; they also demonstrate that there are truths about humans and their relations to others and to God that are necessary components of any epoch, past or present.

Desert Sinner is the fifteenth mystery to feature Roger Dowling, the shrewd and compassionate priest of Fox River, Illinois. Ralph McInerny's novels are known for their subtle humor, humanity, grasp of religious issues, and Dowling's instinctively accurate sleuthing. In Desert Sinner, a former Las Vegas showgirl named Stacey Wilson is jailed for the murder of her husband, Marvin, a rich playboy whose marriage to the showgirl was a local scandal. Stacey staunchly claims innocence; despite a life sentence, she refuses to disclose her whereabouts on the murder day. While the police see the case as closed, Father Dowling, uncomfortable with the verdict, privately seeks the truth. Sin, innocence, and their linked consequences are played out by a varied cast of characters, in an absorbing plot that Father Dowling's readers will enjoy.

"Retired CIA operative Vincent Traeger spent years working undercover in Rome. Now, he is going back to solve a mystery. The Vatican's secretary of state has been brutally murdered along with a prefect of the Vatican Library. Traeger suspects that a Cold War adversary may be involved. But there is more than deadly politics at work. The answers can only be found within the story of Our Lady of Fatima: the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary that appeared to three peasant children in 1917--and predicted a pope's assassination. Fighting an unseen enemy in a world of religious fervor and deception, and shadowed by a powerful billionaire whose devotion to God may mask the devil's work, Traeger must navigate a treacherous maze through history, faith, and his own past if he is to discover the astonishing truth ..."--Page 4 of cover.

"Five centuries ago, a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego was visited by the Virgin Mary. As a lasting sign of her presence, Diego's cloak was marked with the image of the Holy Mother surrounded by roses--and it remains one of the most revered and priceless relics in Mexican religious culture. But now the Virgin's Cloak has been stolen. Retired CIA operative Vincent Traeger has a history with the Vatican, and is asked to recover the cloak. From the border-hunting Minutemen to longtime foes of the Church, the suspects are as varied as the motives. But Traeger soon realizes that the truth is hidden within a conspiracy that could bring a country--and a faith--to its knees..."--p. of cover.

Collection of papers presented at the University of Notre Dame in September, 1966.