Book review: ‘At the Crossroads’ by Frankie Schelly

 In my review of The Compassionate Rebel — Energized by Anger, Motivated by Love, I mentioned Vincent Rush, a Catholic priest who, in 1968, advocated to his parishioners the supremacy of conscience over Church prohibitions against the use of birth control.

The dichotomy between individual conscience and religious doctrine is at the crux of At the Crossroads (FireSign Exclusives, 2001), a novel by Frankie Schelly.

The novel concerns four nuns — Vivian Tiamet, Mary Ruth, Kimberly and Sister Dominic — who are members of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and operate a Catholic school and convent in Sleeder, Ill. All of them, during the course of the novel, face difficult choices between obedience and personal belief.

The book is positioned as a story of conflict between Church teachings and feminist values, but I think this is unnecessarily limiting. The issue of acting according to one’s free will transcends any one particular social movement or ideology. Likewise, Schelly’s book has much to offer to people outside of the target readership that is suggested by its promotional focus.

Schelly told me that her book has been made even more pertinent in view of the priestly power abuse scandal. Certainly, each day seems to bring new revelations of financial mismanagement or ongoing sexual transgressions by priests with the collusion of superiors through reassignment from parish to parish.

Fallout from these acts has had a ripple effect that transcended immediate victims to encompass entire communities — of Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

I never expected to see a former mentor of mine brought to trial and convicted for sexually molesting minors. I didn’t expect the number of professed victims that spoke up during the trial. I didn’t expect to hear Father Don Kimball say, on national television no less, that he hadn’t taken his oath of celibacy seriously. And I didn’t expect the doubts that would arise about Father Don’s past behavior to me, given what emerged during trial testimony about his ”grooming” of victims.

Repercussions in the Santa Rosa Diocese didn’t just affect me, however. In 1999, the diocese’ assorted financial troubles forced the closing of the Holy Family Catholic School in Lakeport. But I rather think that its loss was a “fortunate fall,” as Milton of “Paradise Lost” fame put it. As the “Good Shepherd Ecumenical Academy,” the school now has the resources and energies of several Christian denominations behind it.

Certainly, these experiences made it easy for me to relate to the drama presented in Schelly’s book.

If there is one flaw in this novel, it is that Schelly — who attended women’s Catholic high school and college — occasionally makes references to events and doctrines in the Catholic tradition that may not be readily understood by a larger readership.

For instance, “Vatican II” is the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which opened in 1962 under Pope John XXIII and was closed by Pope Paul VI in 1965. Its task was to determine ways in which the Church could present itself to modern-day society.

Likewise, when Kimberly tells her friend Brenda that the pope has a “loophole” through which he can reverse the Church’s ban on birth control, I could only guess, after researching the subject, that she was referring to the findings of the Birth Control Commission, which was established by Pope John XXIII and met from 1963 to 1966.

I realize that for Schelly to have provided a lengthy explanation for every reference to Catholic tradition would have weakened and burdened the narrative structure of her story. Still, unless I didn’t read the book carefully enough, I found my lack of familiarity with these events to interfere with my ability to fully comprehend Schelly’s references to them.

Altogether, At the Crossroads presents an intimate look at four women’s struggles to reconcile free will with Church teaching. Their individual journeys lead them in startling and unexpected directions that present for compelling and thought-provoking reading.

Published June 6, 2002 in the Lake County Record-Bee

‘The Archer King’ by Reyna Thera Lorele

Before Queen Amidala, Princess Leia or Xena, Warrior Princess, there was Maid Marion. And Maid Marion rocked.

The Robin Hood legend has appealed to me for a long time, and Marion is its chief attraction. What teen-age girl wouldn’t want to be Marion? Fleeing an arranged marriage to some loutish nobleman, she donned Lincoln green and took up the bow in Sherwood Forest. If Robin Hood was the Prince of Thieves, Marion was his Princess and his equal.

The Robin Hood legend seems to resonate with a lot of people, judging by the large body of novels and screenplays it has inspired. I never fail to marvel at the various interpretations that people come up with in retelling this time-honored legend.

A recent addition to the body of Robin Hood literature is Reyna Thera Lorele’s The Archer King: Robin of the Wood and the Maid Maerin (Blue Arrow Books, 2000).

Comparisons to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon seem inevitable when reading The Archer King. Like Bradley did with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Lorele has superimposed conflicts between Paganism and Christianity — the Old and New Religions — over the familiar trappings of the Robin Hood legend. The result is a fast-paced and entertaining novel that reads like a tale from an old broadside ballad.

In Lorele’s novel, the familiar figure of Robin Hood is a Druid, having been initiated into the Old Religion after returning, disillusioned, from the Crusades.

Mind you, this interpretation of Robin isn’t original to Lorele. A more apt comparison for her book might be with “Robin of Sherwood,” a TV show that aired in Britain from 1983 to 1985. In it, Robert of Loxley (Michael Praed in the first two seasons) and, later, Robert of Huntington (Jason Connery in the third and final season) was anointed as the God Herne’s chosen Son. The series developed a considerable cult following stateside, as well as on the Continent, judging by the number of Web sites called up by an Internet search.

As for Lorele’s story, it is set, traditionally enough, in England during the Crusades. All the characters you would expect to find are here — King Richard the Lion Heart, neglecting his country while he battles “infidels” in Jerusalem; the ineffectual Prince John, setting himself up to rule in his brother’s prolonged absence; and the ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham, subjugating the local peasants and attempting to seize a portion of his ward’s dowry by marrying her to the aforementioned loutish nobleman, Augustin de Coucy. Of course, any “nobility” Coucy possesses is entirely an accident of birth — the man has no redeeming moral fiber.

Maid Marion (Lorele spells it “Maerin”) has dedicated her life to serving what she believes to have been a manifestation of the Virgin Mary that appeared to her in her childhood. I had my suspicions early in the book, however, that this supernatural figure was really the Great Goddess of the Old Religion.

In presenting the conflicts between Christians and non-Christians, Lorele’s sympathies are a little obvious at times. Most of the Christian priests in this book are greedy, self-serving hypocrites who pervert their religion’s teachings to accumulate wealth (some of that wealth even finds its way into the coffers of the Church). The secular men of power who uphold the ChurchÕs doctrines are just as bad.

Taken as a whole, Lorele’s book poses interesting theories about the man or spirit that is known today as “Robin Hood.” Aficionados of the Robin Hood legend, especially fans of “Robin of Sherwood,” should find much that is entertaining, thought-provoking and, perhaps, even enlightening in The Archer King.

Published May 18, 2002 in the Lake County Record-Bee

Book reviews published in newspaper

Last night I searched the Internet for information about book reviewers’ associations. I’ve had two book reviews published in the Lake County Record-Bee, and am now working on a third.

Some people shouldn’t have dogs

With the sun rising earlier and setting later each day, my husband and I have more time to walk our dog, Frankie. We’ve noticed that in the four-and-a-half years that we’ve lived in Lake County, a lot more families with dogs have moved into our neighborhood.

Smooth going during week at Observer American

Things have been going smoothly during my week at the south Lake County office of the Clear Lake Observer American. I put out Wednesday’s paper with the help of staff writers Veronica Morgan and Denise Rockenstein and the composing department at the Lakeport newspaper plant.