The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood by Andrew M. Greeley

First published: New York: Forge, 2005

Genre(s): Novel

Subgenre(s): Catholic fiction; mystery and detective fiction

Core issue(s): African Americans; Catholics and Catholicism; church; confession; forgiveness; justice; marriage

Principal characters

• Bishop John “Blackie” Ryan, the protagonist
• Declan O’Donnell, an Irish police sergeant
• Camilla Datillo, a state’s attorney and beach-volleyball champion
• Mikal Wolodyjowski, a charismatic monsignor
• Pablo, leader of the West Lords gang
• David Crawford, an alderman
• Tim O’Boyle, an architect
• Marshal O’Boyle, O’Boyle’s adopted son

Overview

The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood is one of Andrew Greeley’s Christian mysteries in the Bishop Blackie Ryan series. The Old Neighborhood of the title, St. Lucy’s parish, has always been at the center of Chicago’s Austin district. Over the years, the neighborhood and its church have been crumbling under the influence of narcotics and resultant high crime, but now a movement toward gentrification is promising to restore the parish’s former stature. With the charismatic Polish monsignor Mikal Wolodyjowski as its leader, St. Lucy’s has attempted over the years to care for its diminishing Catholic parishioners, and now Wolodyjowski looks forward to revamping the neighborhood, providing his parish with a long overdue facelift. To this end, he retains the architects Tim O’Boyle and his adopted son Marshal.

However, three mutilated bodies have been discovered in the sanctuary of St. Lucy’s church after an attempt to blow up the church. Declan O’Donnell, an idealistic young Irish police officer, and the voluptuous Sicilian state’s attorney Camilla Datillo arrive on the scene to investigate. A romantic subplot emerges as they discover that they knew each other in grade school. They soon find themselves remembering old times—and planning new times. They wonder whether the killings are a warning to the monsignor to leave well enough alone and not proceed with his plans to refurbish the neighborhood.

Central to the action is longtime Chicago resident Bishop John Blackwood “Blackie” Ryan, an Irishman who has been ordered by Archbishop Sean Cronin, on his way to the Vatican, to investigate the murders. Bishop Blackie has known the aristocratic Father Wolodyjowski for years and feels the Polish man should have been promoted in his place. Soon, Blackie finds himself traveling by train all over Chicago. He visits the O’Boyles’ office and learns that they have been receiving threats designed to force them to stop rebuilding in the neighborhood. Blackie’s visit to the home of Pablo, the young leader of the West Lords gang, ends in the young man’s promise to find out who is responsible for desecrating the Church, where he attends Mass and where his children attend school. Alderman David Crawford is next on Blackie’s list. He believes the gentrification of St. Lucy’s will result in the flight of his African American constituents. The more people Blackie interviews, the more puzzled he becomes about the identity of whoever killed the three victims—who appear to be undocumented Mexicans. Especially important is how the killers entered the church: without tripping its state-of-the-art burglar-alarm system.

With the help of former superintendent of police Mike O’Casey and Blackie’s brother Packy, Blackie learns about a letter—written more than sixty years ago, near the end of World War II, by his long-dead attorney father—regarding a horrific accident involving six young parishioners and Monsignor Wolodyjowski, who was a seminarian at the time. Father Wolodyjowski had spent the day with the teenagers touring the countryside; they had happened upon a Wisconsin farm that was experimenting with lethal gas. Later that day, the teens were hit by a truck containing flammable material and were incinerated, dying on the spot. Particularly devastating was the death of the beautiful young Annie Scanlon, who was beloved by all, including Wolodyjowski. However, the investigative letter written by Blackie’s “Old Fella” (as he called his father) reveals that the deaths were no accident: Someone in the U.S. Navy had ordered the murders of the young people, whose discovery of the gas facility threatened to endanger national security.

As Blackie continues to search for the identity of whoever ordered the killings so long ago, O’Donnell, a computer expert, and Datillo, a beach-volleyball champion, continue their search for the present-day killers. As they work together, the couple cannot deny that they are in love, despite their fear of marriage and prospective in-laws. After Blackie gives him a name to investigate, O’Donnell discovers that a band of mercenaries—former Green Berets and agents of the Central Intelligence Agency—were responsible for the church killings and that the church burglar-alarm system was hacked into by someone who turns out to have a Web site with a URL in Poland.

Another attempt to blow up St. Lucy’s is foiled when it becomes clear that Tim O’Boyle was behind the old killings: He was a naval lieutenant at the time and ordered the deaths of the Old Neighborhood teens. He had been rebuffed by the beautiful Annie Scanlon (whose ghost has recently been spending time at Blackie’s rectory). The elder O’Boyle breaks down and confesses, deeply relieved to shed his sixty-year-old burden of guilt. He dies soon after, having received the Sacraments, and enters heaven with Annie Scanlon as a guide. His adopted son, Marshal, is simultaneously arrested for the more recent murders at St. Lucy’s. The malicious man had been intent on taking over his father’s office, but when he found out how much money he stood to lose on rebuilding St. Lucy’s, he went to great lengths to put an end to the project, even allowing the deaths of three innocents.

The novel ends with the engagement of O’Donnell and Datillo and the promotion of Blackie to auxiliary archbishop upon Archbishop Cronin’s return from Rome.

Christian Themes

The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood—the fifth Bishop Blackie Ryan book by prizewinning priest, sociologist, and author Andrew Greeley—is rich in Christian themes: primarily the healing power of confession and forgiveness and the sacred power of love. Early in the novel, O’Donnell goes to a retreat where he comes to terms with the fact that he bullied a young Sicilian girl when he was in grade school. He finds her, confesses, apologizes, and asks forgiveness. Because she recognizes his sincerity, she forgives him and in the process feels the first flushes of love. By asking forgiveness, O’Donnell opens himself up to true love that is spiritual in nature.

The themes of confession and forgiveness continue throughout as the elderly Tim O’Boyle confesses to arranging the deaths of the Chicago teenagers during the summer of 1944. Rebuffed by the beautiful Annie Scanlon, the young naval lieutenant O’Boyle arranged for her and her friends’ deaths under the pretext of safeguarding national security when the youngsters stumbled across the secret military installation. He has lived a life of horrific guilt that led to his adopting Marshal, the younger brother of one of his victims, as his son. Tim O’Boyle—in the end relieved to be found out—abjectly confesses his sin and finds forgiveness and redemption.

Greeley, a professor of social sciences at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, interweaves these spiritual themes of forgiveness and redemption into highly readable, entertaining fiction. Side plots—such as that of the love affair between O’Donnell and Datillo—advertise the importance of other Christian themes, here the need to gain perspective on physical and spiritual love: Blackie acts as O’Donnell and Datillo’s spiritual adviser when they call on him for help navigating their physical and spiritual longings. Both fear making a commitment to marriage (having seen their friends suffer severe consequences), but Blackie asks the right questions and provides them with the confidence that what they feel is real love that will grow and mature into a truly intimate, lifelong bond.

Sources for Further Study

Greeley, Andrew. Priests: A Calling in Crisis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Examines the sexual abuse crisis of the clergy from a sociological point of view and forecasts the scandal’s impact on the future of the Catholic Church.

Greeley, Andrew. White Smoke: A Novel About the Next Papal Conclave. New York: Forge Books, 1996. Father “Blackie” Ryan leaves Chicago for Rome with Cardinal Cronin, where he addresses the vicious politics behind the selection of a new pope.

Shafer, Ingrid, ed. Andrew Greeley’s World: A Collection of Critical Essays, 1986-1988. New York: Warner Books, 1989. A wide variety of essays, positive and negative, that provide insights into Greeley as a priest, sociologist, and novelist. Highlights Greeley’s propensity to write about renewal.