William Baer

Advocatus Diaboli (The Catholic Themes-Book One) William Baer. 2023. Our narrator, Robert Rankin is a professor whose academic interest in the Council of Trent. He has been asked by his Archbishop to be the unofficial advocates diabolic, the devil’s advocate for the canonization cause of Adelaide Bruckner, an American nun. In other words he has to look at any supposed miracle she has performed and into her life in general to see if there is any scandal. He meets the mother of the “miracle” baby and the granddaughter of a powerful senator who committed suicide. Sister Adelaide, the miracle baby and the suicide eventually converge as the plot. Along the way Catholic beliefs, customs, history and present day practices are mentioned and explained to make this a “Catholic” book and that seems to be the purpose of the book. The plot is interesting and so are the characters but both the plot and the characters need to be more fully developed to make this a book the general reader and a lot of Catholics would enjoy. Will probably try the next in the series, and hope it is better. This is not a great Catholic novel!… (más)