Free The Templar's Secret (The Templar Series) by C.M. Palov

election was not a game of chance, of wagers being placed with a backroom bookie.
    ‘I am a man of God, Ms Marsden, not a betting man,’ the Cardinal Secretary answered smoothly, not the least bit ruffled by the rude query. ‘The election of the Vicar of Christ has always been conducted in secrecy and I think it best that we continue that solemn tradition. Besides, we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, would we?’ As he spoke, Cardinal Thomas Moran grasped his gold pectoral cross in his right hand. A particularly annoying affectation; as though he was channeling the crucified Christ. ‘This concludes our question and answer session. The Prefect and I look forward to seeing each and every one of you when the exhibition opens.’
    Rising to his feet, the Cardinal Secretary walked around the dais and strode towards the cordoned press area.
    Franco, utterly disgusted that he’d been hoodwinked into participating in Moran’s little publicity stunt, collected his press folder. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Cardinal Thomas Moran knew full well that his name was being bandied about as ‘the heir apparent’ to Peter’s throne. Franco, whose name was never mentioned, suspected that his own odds were somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty-to-one. A very dark horse, indeed.
    Getting up from the table, Franco glanced over to where the Cardinal Secretary was now holding court with the group of eager reporters. Attired in formal house dress – a black cassock piped in scarlet worn with a short pellegrina shoulder cape – the Chicago native cut a striking figure. For good reason, Thomas Moran was known as the ‘camera-ready Cardinal’, with Vatican observers, particularly those of the fairer sex, often remarking that he possessed movie-star looks. ‘Charisma’ and ‘charm’ were also inevitably used whenever Moran’s name came up in conversation.
    To the best of Franco’s knowledge, no one had ever used such flattering terms in regards to him . Because of the two years he’d spent as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Curia office responsible for maintaining Catholic dogmata , he was usually described in more pejorative terms. Cunning. Secretive. Ruthless. To name just a few. He took no offence, assuming the dark dye had to do with the fact that the CDF was more popularly referred to as the Office of the Inquisition.
    Despite the fact that Franco had made great strides in reorganizing the CDF, turning it into a ‘lean, mean fighting machine’, the late pontiff had summarily given him the boot. No sooner did Pius take the papal seat than he’d cleaned house, removing conservative cardinals from prestigious positions within the Curia and replacing them with his liberal-leaning allies. It was during the shake-up that Thomas Moran, one of the pontiff’s favorites, and an unapologetic liberal, was given his very high-profile position.
    And the Church has been floundering ever since.
    The Church’s Neo-Modernist wing, as the liberals were sometimes called, believed that dogma could evolve over time, shape-shifting and morphing with the tides of history. Even more outrageous than that, the liberals wanted to circumvent those Church teachings that they found burdensome and replace them with new strictures that were easier to bear. Weaklings! Their dangerous views had already undermined Church authority to such an extent that it was on the verge of becoming irrelevant.
    Franco was well aware that the Cardinal Secretary and his liberal cronies secretly referred to the conservative standard bearers within the Church as ‘Taliban Catholics’. A profoundly disgusting insult that denigrated those who maintained the supremacy of orthodoxy. In another day and age, one in which dogmata was strictly adhered to, Thomas Moran would have been condemned as a heretic, excommunicated and burned at the stake in front of St Peter’s. His blackened bones would have then served as a vivid aide