Adam Blake - 159. Chapter 159

That night, Dad visited and told me the questions to ask the priest. He made comments about Franz and told me his mother would be joining him in two days. I was to adopt the boy.

One of these days, I’m going to ask him why he comes at night.

We had our early run, and now it was getting to be fun. We had three to attend the summer Olympics and were looking for more. That was Hans’s job.

I dressed that morning in my formal clothes, I think Gerry called them robes, but he does that to be funny. It’s a suit that has all of my honors and titles pinned to it. I also wore my circle of gold. I was no longer the teacher, and now I was the ruler and judge.

I had my sitting room set up similar to a judge’s courtroom in the States.

At 9 o’clock, the accused was brought from his cell and placed in a chair. The Minister sat at a table, and several women were sitting on chairs in the back of the room.

“You are accused of stealing money from women who have lost their husbands. How do you plea?”

“I’m innocent, my Prince.”

“Ladies, you have heard the accused denied the charge. If any of you wish to comment, please stand.” About six women stood. I called the first in a row to come and state what she knew.

“When my husband died, this man came and offered to help me. He said he’d do my shopping. All I had to do was give him a list of things I needed. For the first month, it worked very well. Then he started telling me that the store didn’t have this or that, but he didn’t return the money. Soon, he brought me old food that the market was ready to throw away. I never saw any money after that.”

I looked at the man. He still denied it. One by one, the women came forward, and as the other women saw what was happening, they became bolder and joined in.

“Do you still say that these women are not telling the truth?”

“Yes, they are saying this because they don’t like that I have a nice house.”

“Hans, what did you find?”

“I found a ledger that contained the amount of money he took from each woman. The Minister has the ledger.”

“Where did you find the ledger?”

“It was hidden in a pocket behind a heavy cabinet. There was a sliding wall in the cabinet that allowed one to reach the book.”

“Minister, you have looked at the ledger. What are your conclusions.”

“The amount of money in the books agrees with the amount of pension deposited in the bank.”

I looked at the man, “If you confess, I will spare your life. What do you say?”

He looked around, and he remembers I had no problem hanging someone, “I confess, what they say is true.”

“ Your house and all of your furnishings will be sold and combined with your bank account, will be disperse among the woman listed in your ledger. You are sentenced to 30 years of hard labor. Hans, move him to the cells until he’s placed.”

I dismissed everyone. I had the secretary write everything up for the records and the newspaper.

Now I had dinner and to get ready for my next meeting. The Archbishop arrived, I invited him to have dinner with us.

“My Prince, I have received notice from Father Schafer that you believed he has taken money from the parish and committed a cardinal sin. He assured me that isn’t true.”

“I hope you’re right.”

At one, we walked into the meeting room, again the set was the same except there were two chairs at the front, one for the Archbishop and one for me.

“Father, have you taken Parish money for your personal use?”

“No, my Prince, I used the money for repairs.”

Then the parade, my minister called one of the companies listed as being paid for repairs to a bathroom.

“Would you please state your business?” He did, his name and his business’s name.

“On February 20th, did you repair a water closet in the church?”

“No, my Prince, on December 21st, I replaced a washer in the kitchen sink.”

“Minister, did you find a notation to that in the ledger?”

“Yes, my Prince, the bill for that was 4.50 Euros.”

“Did you find other entries?”

“Ye. my Prince, we found a total of five entries this year for a total of 55 Euros.”

“Father, is this correct?”

“I must have entered those repairs in the wrong column.”

I nodded to my Minister. He reads off another repair bill paid by the church. “I called the company to verify the charge. Again they did one job several years ago and have not been back since that time.”

I looked at the priest. He said nothing. He knew I would go through every one of those questionable entries.

“Father, have you broken any of your vows as a priest?”

He looked at the audience, and he knew that if he denied it, there were people who would stand and tell the truth.

“Yes, but only the Archbishop can punish me.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes, it is true, the Church is a separate estate headed by the Holy Father.”

I picked up my phone, “Get the Holy Father on the phone for me.”

The priest was just a second short of panic, and the Archbishop was turning white. “You can’t just call the Holy Father like that. He is too busy to be bothered with this.”

“Do I have the right to punish this man?”

“No”

“Hello, Jerome.”

“Hi Doc, it has been some time. How may we help you?”

“Jerome, I have a priest before me that has cheated the church and broke his vows. According to the Archbishop, I can’t sentence him. Can you get the Holy Father to give me permission? Yes, I’ll hold on.”

I looked at the Archbishop, “Jerome is secretary to the Pope. He was a student of mine.”

“Yes, I’m still here. Archbishop, the Holy Father for you.”

I watched his face as he spoke to the Pope. He handed me back the phone. I said hello, it was Jerome. I thanked him and promised to see him when I was in Italy.

“Archbishop, what did the Holy Father say?”

“You may go ahead and pronounce judgment.”

“Thank you. As of today and this moment, you are no longer a priest. You have been stripped of all of your privileges as a priest and a member of the clergy. You will get a job and pay back the Church for all of the money you stole. In addition, you will go to the hospital and be castrated so your desires of the flesh will no longer exist.”

“My Prince, that is inhuman.”

“Ask the women who he forced to have sex with him. You can always call the Pope. Do you want me to place another call to the Holy Father?”

“No”

“I suggest as penance for you since you didn’t do your job in overseeing the priest, you will be the parish priest in that Community until an acceptable replacement can be found. Again if you want to disagree, I’ll let you talk to the Holy Father.”

“No”

Hans took the defrocked priest to the hospital. I gave him a mandate by the Prince to perform the operation. It was in the newspaper. Hans told me three priests had taken retirement.