“Maybe so,” Jack said. He’d never admired Shawn’s behavior in regard to women, but he’d never commented on it. But it had always been a bone of contention between James and Shawn.

“How is your relationship with Shawn?” James asked.

Jack shrugged. “As I mentioned, I’ve seen him only twice since I moved here to New York City. He was nice enough to invite me to his home for dinner on those two occasions. I suppose I should have returned the gesture, but I’ve become a bit of a hermit these days.”

”You alluded to that on the phone,” James said. “Would you care to explain?”

“No. Maybe some other time,” Jack said, trying to avoid thinking about his first family or his second. “Why don’t you tell me how I can help you? I assume it involves the box downstairs.”

James took a deep breath to steel himself. “You are right, of course,” James began. “It does involve the box downstairs. What do you think would happen if a significant percentage of people came to believe, even briefly, that the ossuary downstairs actually contained the bones of Mary, the Mother of God?”

“I suppose it would disappoint a lot of people,” Jack said.

“That’s a lot more diplomatic than I would have expected.”

“And less sarcastic than I’ve been of late.”

“Does that have anything to do with me being a cardinal?”

“Obviously,” Jack said.

“I’m sorry you feel that way. Old friends should feel able to be themselves.”

“Maybe if such meetings became a habit. For now, why don’t you tell me what you think would happen?”

“It would be a disaster for the Church, at a time it can least afford it. We are still suffering from the damage caused by the priest molestation scandal. It has been a true tragedy for the people involved, and for the Church itself. So too would the belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary had not been assumed body and soul into heaven as promulgated ex cathedra by Pope Pius the Twelfth with his Munificentissimus Deus in 1950. This promulgation has been the only use of the solemn declaration of papal infallibility declared by Vatican One on July eighteenth, 1870. Shawn’s claim that he has found the bones of the Most Holy Mother of God would seriously threaten and undermine the authority of the Church. It would be a disaster bar none.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Jack said, watching James’s face turn increasingly red.

“I’m being very serious,” James declared, afraid Jack wasn’t really getting the message. “As a direct religious descendant from Saint Peter himself, when the pope speaks ex cathedra on faith or morals he is making divine revelation as the Holy Spirit works in the body of the Church as sensus fidelium.”