Man of the Cloth
by
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And what if something like that were possible, cardinal? Can you imagine it? A beloved figure tragically dies, such as your pope, for example, and the next day he is alive again, ready to resume his function as leader. What might something like that be worth, father? The trouble with the scenario, however, lies in finding a solution for the problem that you might be able to duplicate the person, but not his thoughts. Memories are chemically encoded in the human brain and thus would not genetically transfer to the proposed clone. Said copy would be a blank slate and would have to be painstakingly taught everything about the original donor, a process which, theoretically at best, might be somewhat accelerated by various teaching techniques."
"Is it possible, Dr. Jung?" Calabrese whispered, barely able to contain himself. "Can you return a deceased person to life, as you did with those extinct animals, at exactly the stage at which he departed life?"
"My dear cardinal, surely you must know that in the fearful, hysterical atmosphere following the creation of the first human clones, international laws were passed prohibiting the replication of deceased persons without their prior legal consent."
"The law aside, doctor, is it possible?"
"Anything is possible, Cardinal Calabrese, when Man puts his mind to it. As for the legality of it all, well ... there are always ways around laws, now aren’t there?"
"And what are your feelings about the moral implications of such a project, doctor?"
"As a scientist, my task is to invent, to create. It falls to men like you, father, the clergy, the historians, to ultimately judge the value of the results of my work. That is a very profound lesson I was taught by my father a long, long time ago.
"If I may speak candidly, sir, I do not understand the Vatican opposition to the process of
cloning. Do you realize that cloning is natural, that it exists in Nature?"
"It does?" came Calabrese’s surprised response. "How do you figure?"
"Take the starfish, for example," Jung explained. "If you sever its five arms by cutting, each one will grow back into a complete starfish. You have created five clones. Or how about bacterium, or viruses, or any number of animals which reproduce themselves asexually? Is this not similar to Jesus’ conception? God’s DNA supernaturally implanted in Mary’s womb? This is the essence of cloning. Twins, triplets, quadruplets, typically they all come from a single fertilized egg. The zygote splits, and voila! Clones!"
"You’re kidding, right?" Calabrese couldn't believe his ears. This was wonderful news.
"Your Church and Science have been at loggerheads since the dawn of time, cardinal, and it need not be so. I am reminded of the famous case of the astronomer Galileo who, under house arrest and threat of ex-communication by the Church, was forced to recant his findings that the Earth revolves around the sun because such a notion conflicted with Vatican sensibilities of an Earth-centered universe."
"I know the story well, good doctor, and I’m sure you’ll recall that following his forced recantation, Galileo was heard to mutter under his breath, ‘but it still rotates!’ I make this point to underscore that not all of us in the Holy See are as brutish as some of our less enlightened predecessors."
"I am delighted to hear it, Father Calabrese. For just as you chose me for my accomplishments, I have likewise chosen you for the scope of the challenge you have presented to me. I have of late spent a considerable amount of time pondering how I was going to top my Nobel prize for chemistry. Surely this opportunity will grant me my greatest glory."
"Glory for Jesus, Dr. Jung. Glory for our Lord."
"Very well, cardinal, let’s do it! Grant me access to the blood samples on the Shroud of Turin, and I will give you Jesus Christ!"
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About the Book
When a catastrophic plane crash wipes out the Pope and the upper hierarchy of the Catholic Church, plunging the Holy See into turmoil, a desperate Vatican cardinal named Attanasio Calabrese teams with the unscrupulous geneticist Dr. Wilmut Gunther Jung to conspire to create a clone of the messiah Jesus Christ from the divine blood on the holy relic the Shroud of Turin.
As word of their creation becomes public knowledge, the entire world is bitterly divided over the question of whether this second Jesus is the true Lord resurrected, or the quintessential blasphemy against GOD. While chaos engulfs the planet, it is the unshakably pious Monsignor Sean Patrick Mourning and a cynical Washington Times reporter Jasmine Bassett who alone set out to prove or disprove the divinity of the clone once and for all.
Man of the Cloth is the story that dares to propose the ultimate definition of faith: What do you believe and why do you believe it?
About the Author
Brent Dorian Carpenter was born 19 April 1964 in Detroit, Michigan, the third of three sons, to Spencer and Carmen Carpenter. Influenced by his parents, both educators, the young Brent took a very early interest in subjects varying from astronomy, history, geography and paleontology. His early artistic endeavors involved scripting and drawing comic books. Brent founded Foundation Studios and fostered an environment for artistic creativity. His comic book publishing efforts garnered the attention of CNN, which resulted in an interview that was broadcast internationally. Deciding that his true talent and love was for writing, he began to concentrate his efforts along those lines.
MAN OF THE CLOTH came to him during an epiphany in the spring of 1998, and quickly became an obsession. In the two years-plus he toiled on the four drafts of this work he endured the death of a beloved pet, the breakup of a seven year long relationship, a bipolar euphoria which led to a nervous breakdown, an eviction, a bankruptcy, the theft of the master copy of the manuscript, a forced relocation from Atlanta back to Detroit, five hospitalizations and an eighteen month long writer’s block.
Brent Carpenter has twice come to the brink of death, experiences that deepened his commitment to life and God. Restored to health, he is already working on his next two book projects: a biography of film score composer John Williams, and a fiction about air crash investigators.