The Mirror Apocalypse
by
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Jennifer's thoughts were inundated with Barbara's words of admonition. She was not to grieve too much to the extent of distressing the child in her womb. She understood her perfectly well, both of them being of the same nursing profession and knowing full well the implications of fetal distress and possible miscarriage.
"That's him living inside you," Barbara kept reminding her in the days leading up to the funeral. "That child is the only handle you've got on him. Lose that, and you lose everything of the person you loved so dearly." Jennifer thought that was the most profound way to perpetuate the memory of Father Cletus McCarthy. And it was a very real one. She was carrying his child and, symbolically speaking, she was carrying Cletus McCarthy. The first Cletus McCarthy came from the test tube, produced not begotten, according to Catholic doctrine. The second Cletus McCarthy will come from her womb, begotten not produced, according to Catholic doctrine. He will be the new beginning for the McCarthy family; he will start the lineage of the begotten, not the produced or adopted. She will name him Cletus McCarthy.
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About the Book
The Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church condemns in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a morally unacceptable method of human reproduction. But when Father Cletus Nicholas McCarthy is outed in court as the first IVF-conceived Catholic priest, Pope Benedict XVI must make a difficult choice—annul McCarthy’s ordination without any relevant canon to back his action and risk a backlash from the people, the press, and the general public, or allow McCarthy to continue to exercise his priesthood, thereby indirectly endorsing IVF as morally acceptable.
The Mirror Apocalypse follows the pope’s and McCarthy’s stories as it speaks to the numerous ethical issues that arise every day in the world of medical science, religion, and health care. While most of the new technologies invented in the medical field are meant to solve life’s problems, often their use can go against the religious dictates of a people and what they hold dear in their faith. The Mirror Apocalypse is a tale of just the kind of moral impasse that can affect such people—for better or for worse.
Will Father McCarthy’s situation help lead the church forward, or will the pope have to make a no-win decision about the future? Or will the throes and turmoil of it all, coupled with the demands of all the other problems facing the church, force this aging pope to resign his papacy? Join Father McCarthy and Pope Benedict XVI as they stand at the intersection of science, morality, and faith.
About the Author
John Ayang hails from Ukana Iba, in the southeastern part of Nigeria, and he studied philosophy and theology at Bigard Memorial Seminary in Eastern Nigeria. After moving to the United States and being ordained as a Catholic priest for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (1998), he studied theology and Christian ministry at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and bioethics and health policy at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University, Chicago.