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by Linden MacIntyre

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Also by Linden MacIntyre The Long Stretch Who Killed Ty Conn (with Theresa Burke) Causeway: A Passage from Innocence To Carol BOOK ONE † † † Oh ye sons of men, ho. The bishops man a novel, .

Also by Linden MacIntyre The Long Stretch Who Killed Ty Conn (with Theresa Burke) Causeway: A Passage from Innocence To Carol BOOK ONE † † † Oh ye sons of men, ho. The Bishop's Man: A Novel, . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34. Also by Linden MacIntyre. Who Killed Ty Conn (with Theresa Burke). Causeway: A Passage from Innocence.

The Bishop’s Man centres on a sensitive topic - the sexual abuses perpetrated by Catholic priests on the . Linden MacIntyre is one of Canada’s most distinguished broadcast journalists

The Bishop’s Man centres on a sensitive topic - the sexual abuses perpetrated by Catholic priests on the innocent children in their care. Father Duncan, the first person narrator, has been his bishop's dutiful enforcer, employed to check the excesses of priests and, crucially, to suppress the evidence. Linden MacIntyre is one of Canada’s most distinguished broadcast journalists. The winner of nine Gemini Awards, he is the co-host of CBC Television’s the fifth estate and has been involved in the production of documentaries and stories from all over the world. Born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, MacIntyre grew up in Port Hastings, Cape Breton.

The Bishop's Man is a novel by Canadian writer Linden MacIntyre, published in August 2009

The Bishop's Man is a novel by Canadian writer Linden MacIntyre, published in August 2009. The story follows a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill who became so successful at resolving potential church scandals quickly and quietly that he had to accept a position at a remote parish on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to give himself a low profile. MacIntyre, a native of Cape Breton, released the novel amidst the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese in Nova Scotia.

The book that emerged from a surprisingly strong shortlist was The Bishop's Man by investigative journalist Linden MacIntyre

The book that emerged from a surprisingly strong shortlist was The Bishop's Man by investigative journalist Linden MacIntyre. He is indeed younger than Munro (66 to her 78), but my guess is that even had she been on the shortlist, the prize would still have gone to him. For The Bishop's Man is an extraordinary novel, not least because it deals with rather hackneyed subjects (sex scandals involving the Catholic church, questions of faith and Glendinning's abhorred genealogies) without ever becoming a mere vehicle for the exploration of such issues.

Doomed boys and men: in retrospect they all have that stillness. fromThe Bishop’s Manby Linden MacIntyre The year is 1993 and Father Duncan MacAskill stands at a small Cape Breton fishing harbour a few miles from where he grew up. Enjoying the timeless sight of a father and son piloting a boat, Duncan takes a moment’s rest from his worries. It was so rare to see someone that age stationary, somber. I was more accustomed to a rowdy adolescent enthusiasm. This young man, I realized, was exceptional only because of time and place. Maybe any one of them in those circumstances would have been the same.

The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre (2009) Random House Canada (2009) 399 pp. And so this reader comes to the end . Though this book brings me back to Canada, the locale is no more familiar to me than, say, Egypt. And so this reader comes to the end of the Giller shortlist, a journey I much enjoyed, even if some of the stops were not as pleasing as others. After venturing to Egypt, Cambodia, and ancient Macedon for the previous three Giller shortlisted titles, The Bishop’s Man brings us back to Canada, which is a fitting way to end one of Canada’s great literary prizes. I hope I don’t muddle it up by my lack of familiarity).

The Bishop's Man book. See a Problem? We’d love your help. Details (if other): Cancel. Thanks for telling us about the problem. The Bishop's Man. (The Cape Breton Trilogy by. Linden MacIntyre.

I am the pastor of Stella Maris parish, Creignish, Nova Scotia. The thought was comforting. Something about the clarity and the objectivity. d for the small linen cloth we use to wipe the chalice before and after Communion. What wit came up with that one? So many of these priests are clever, funny men. The freaks are so rare. But they’re the only ones I really know.

The Bishop's Man: A Novel. Why Men Lie. From the bestselling author of The Bishop's Man, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, a brilliant, deeply wise and challenging new novel. Why do men lie? Effie MacAskill Gillis, a self-sufficient woman of her time, is confident she knows

Something about the boat, perhaps its name, and the posture of that boy caused me to defer my anxieties for the moment. It was so rare to see someone that age stationary, somber. I was more accustomed to a rowdy adolescent enthusiasm. This young man, I realized, was exceptional only because of time and place. Maybe any one of them in those circumstances would have been the same. Quiet. But he caught my attention nevertheless and linked the moment to tender places in the memory. Doomed boys and men: in retrospect they all have that stillness.--from The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre The year is 1993 and Father Duncan MacAskill stands at a small Cape Breton fishing harbour a few miles from where he grew up. Enjoying the timeless sight of a father and son piloting a boat, Duncan takes a moment’s rest from his worries. But he does not yet know that his already strained faith is about to be tested by his interactions with a troubled boy, 18-year-old Danny MacKay. Known to fellow priests as the “Exorcist” because of his special role as clean-up man for the Bishop of Antigonish, Duncan has a talent for coolly reassigning deviant priests while ensuring minimal fuss from victims and their families. It has been a lonely vocation, but Duncan is generally satisfied that his work is a necessary defense of the church. All this changes when lawyers and a policeman snoop too close for the bishop’s comfort. Duncan is assigned a parish in the remote Cape Breton community of Creignish and told to wait it out. This is not the first time Duncan has been sent away for knowing too much: decades ago, the displeased bishop sent a more idealistic Duncan to Honduras for voicing suspicions about a revered priest. It was there that Duncan first tasted forbidden love, with the beautiful Jacinta. It was also there that he met the courageous Father Alfonso, who taught him more about spiritual devotion than he had ever known back home. But when an act of violence in Honduras shook Duncan to his core, he returned home a changed man, willing to quietly execute the bishop’s commands. Now, decades later in Cape Breton, Duncan claims to his concerned sister Effie that isolation is his preference. But when several women seek to befriend him, along with some long-estranged friends, Duncan is alternately tempted and unnerved by their attentions. Drink becomes his only solace. Attempting to distract himself with parish work, Duncan takes an interest in troubled young Danny, whose good-hearted father sells Duncan a boat he names The Jacinta. To Duncan’s alarm, he discovers that the boy once spent time with an errant priest who had been dispatched by Duncan himself to Port Hood. Duncan begins to ask questions, dreading the answers. When tragedy strikes, he knows that he must act. But will his actions be those of a good priest, or an all too flawed man? Winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Linden MacIntyre’s searing The Bishop’s Man is an unforgettable and complex character study of a deeply conflicted man at the precipice of his life. Can we ever be certain of an individual’s guilt or innocence? Is violence ever justified? Can any act of contrition redeem our own complicity?

Comments: (7)

Samulkis

The Bishop's Man was a wrenching, moving, compelling book to read. A few years back, in one of my own memoirs (Pinhead), I commented that I thought the Catholic priesthood with its requirement of celibacy was probably one of the loneliest professions on earth. MacIntyre's beautifully written novel does little to dispel that notion. Narrator Father Duncan MacAskill is perhaps one of the most tortured voices in contemporary fiction as he weaves his tale of deceit and coverups in the Canadian Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals of the 80s and 90s and describes his own role as a bishop's hatchet man who attempts to control damage to the Church and its image by making the "bad priests" disappear. Another character, like Duncan a damaged soul and fellow priest, states best (toward the end of the story) what may be the main theme of the book -

"It's always a mistake to identify too closely with any institution. That might have been our downfall. Losing ourselves inside the vastness of the Holy Mother Church, forgetting who we are as people ... Institutions are amoral ... We should never lose touch with our individuality. Once you lose that, you lose touch with the basics. The right and the wrong of things. I have to think we're conditioned to the the right thing, as people. But not as institutions. There's no morality in an institution. It's just a thing."

Duncan's boss, "Bishop Alex" - a literary villain who will be remembered, I'm sure - has obviously lost sight of "the right and wrong." He is portrayed as the ultimate company man who will stoop as low as necessary to protect that amoral institution that he works for - the Church.

Much of the story in The Bishop's Man centers around the tragic suicide of a troubled young man in the remote Cape Breton parish where Duncan has been sent by the bishop to keep him out of the public eye during the sexual abuse investigations. The priest who delivers the homily at the funeral says this of the boy's short suicide note -

"I'm told he wrote 'There is no future.' Think of that ... Think of where we have arrived as a society when those who shape the circumstances of our lives and communities can leave our young, the very embodiment of our collective fate, in such a state. There is NO future?"

A bit of existential angst, you might think, but the fact is, the suicide has more to do with things like homophobia in a small town, as well as the ongoing Church sexual abuse stuff. There is also much to ponder here about the importance of father-son relationships, as in when Duncan comments on missed opportunities at better understanding his own war-damaged father, saying, "When you're young, you aren't usually interested." And the character he says this to, the suicide's father, replies: "Well, isn't that the way. The things I'd like to ask the old man now. When it's too late."

Much is made of the damage done by the insularity, isolation and loneliness imposed by vows of priestly celibacy, vows sometimes broken and then agonized over for years to come, as evidenced in Duncan's journal entries from his 70s soujourn in a Central American mission, where he'd been sent to cool his heels after making his own accusations of sexual abuse by a priest who happened to be a friend of the Bishop. These journals are interspersed throughout the narrative and elipitically tell a tale of a love affair, as well as a close friendship with another young charismatic priest he knew there.

There are scenes of incipient alcoholism, depression, crushing guilt and even suicidal impulses which increase to a point where the narrator is sent away to Braecrest, a Church "rehab center," to get dried out and counseled. If there is a guardian angel in the story, it is probably personified in Duncan's roommate there, a "good thief" priest named aptly - no, not Dismas, but Jude, who if I remember my saints correctly, was the patron of lost causes.

There is so much to think about in this book. I could go on, but I won't. This has been a good year for me, as far as discovering numerous books of high quality. But this book, The Bishop's Man, is one that will resonate with me for a long, long time. It was a number one bestseller in Canada last year. Here in the U.S. we rarely get bestsellers of this quality. Almost makes a booklover want to move to Canada. I do plan to read MacIntyre's other two books. Maybe that will have to do for now. - Tim Bazzett, author of BOOKLOVER

Cyregaehus

The story follows a priest through personal and career hurdles and responsibilities. His thoughts, reactions and rationale create flux; his superior, a bishop,propels the priest to rethink some long-held positions, theologically speaking.
In parts the story is intriguing, but in other parts, the story plods along.
Personally, I felt the rhetoric is belabored and redundant.

Usishele

This book was well deserving of the Giller Award. When I was reading the book I was enjoying it so much I never wanted it to end. I felt I had met these priests and knew these places. I don't know if someone who wasn't acquainted with the small town Catholic experience would like it as much as someone who was familiar with Canadian Catholic culture. I could almost smell the furniture polish in cleanliness & sterility of the rectory uncluttered with the chaos of everyday working class family life. The ordinariness of deeply tragic events is superbly written.

Mojar

This novel gets your attention from the beginning. It is well written and keeps one intrigued about the politics within the church throughout. Importantly, it reflects the conflicted soul of one priest who clearly knows right from wrong and the personal anguish he experiences as part of the great cover-up.

i enjoyed reading it and getting to know some of the Cape Breton and Nova Scotia characters portrayed so well.

Conjulhala

This is a very difficult story and it is told in sensitive but realistic terms. Linden MacIntyre's narrative moves slowly and allows time for readers to get to know the characters, all of whom have human failings. He takes no stand on the elephant standing in the room, but the fact that the Bishop's man quits the priesthood says it all. Four plus stars.

KiddenDan

Great book riveting couldn't put it down

Gigafish

This book is what I consider a heavy read because it presents characters and skips around not really telling what abuse occurred until it kind of tied together near the end.

Excellent story. I just wish I understood his style better. Linden MacIntyre is an excellent journalist. Extremely thorough in all his research.

Literature & Fiction

Author: Linden MacIntyre
ISBN: 0307357066
Category: Religion & Spirituality
Subcategory: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Publisher: Random House Canada; First Edition edition (July 28, 2009)
Pages: 416 pages

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