SACRILEGIOUS: Confessions of a Roman Catholic Seminarian

Chapter XII: God is Love = Deus Caritas Est

"Settle down everyone, thank you for coming on such short notice. For those of you still walking in please, find a sit. Jill is passing out this morning's agenda." Said Mike Maroney, a tall burly man in his late fifties, who worked as the Facilities Manager of St. Leo X. The office's conference room had originally been chosen for the meeting, however due to the turnout, the meeting had been moved to one of the religious education classrooms.

"We are only missing Monica." Said Sarah, the parish secretary to an already sweaty and concerned Mike Maroney.

"She won't be here." He snapped back drily.

Jake sat in a chair leaning against a wall in the front of the room, his eyes carried heavy sings of sleeplessness. The night Father Virgil died he wasn't able to sleep at all since he had been detained by the police and questioned about the events of that evening. At first he Jake had been marked as a suspect of his death. His mom ended up picking him the following morning from the Napa Police Department, after he had been released. When the cops arrived they found Father Virgil dead at the scene with a single shotgun wound to the head, slumped over a chair, his finger still at the trigger. The police also found a suicide note near his body, and paperwork for an attorney on his desk inside a bedroom. It took the Napa County Medical Examiner three days to rule that Father Virgil died from a single gunshot wound to the head, and that his death was a suicide. All charges were dropped from Jake, who for a few days was beings considered as a person of interest.

"Noel, will you make sure the front door are unlocked in case anyone decided to show up." Mike had been working at St. Leo's for over twenty years, no one knew how to run a parish better than him, yet he had always bent down to the will of the pastor: the boss.

"When will Father Daniels' be here?" Jan Littrell asked, a women in her mid-sixties who served as the volunteer director for the Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, the Legion of Mary, and the Altar Guild. Her voice annoyed Jake, she was the one super volunteer who was head of more committed that she could handle, yet who with the strength of God seemed to perform more fundraiser miracles than the Virgin Mary herself. No one in St. Leo's actually liked her, Jan Littrell, had studied at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, and everyone who met her had to endure her speech of her wonderful orthodox catholic education.

Jake had met many Jan Littrell's through the many years he had been a seminarian, and they all had in common the same holier than thou attitude, a habit for publicly displaying their perfect Catholic family on Sundays, and imposing their republican voting principals on the meager parishioner.

"I am afraid he will not be able to join us Mrs. Littrell." Answered Mike, who was finally taking his place in the front of the classroom, Jill Hickman and Sarah Olviedo sat on chairs next to Jake after distributing the agenda.

"Once again thank you all for attending this emergency meeting. Also thank you Jake for attending, we all know you been going through some difficult times, and we really appreciate you being with us here today." An awkward applause broke out led by Mrs. Littrell, her vailed bobbing on her hair as she enthusiastically clapped. Jill Hickman the Music Director who sat next to Jake tapped him in the knee with her hand petting him like a dog. Sarah Olviedo the secretary shyly looked towards him, her cheeks flushing when their eyes met, Jake knew she liked him, and had always kept away from her. Sarah was bombshell of a women, a Joanna Holloway from Madmen type, her curves were always accentuated by dresses that lingered on the border of modesty with cunning sensuality.

Jake only bowed his head in acknowledgment to Mike Maroney, he had not time to properly get ready for that morning, his hair was still nappy and his clerical shirt was wrinkled and unbuttoned, his white tab hung down from his collar.