Chapter 16
The monastery library was a bit too small for the group but it afforded more privacy than the police administration building. "All right, people," Detective Gold barked, "the only reason my boss has allowed this gathering is because of your training and ethical backgrounds, so you are required to keep this material confidential and consider yourself consultants to the police department. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
The department thanks you for your time and wants your input on the type of killer we are looking for, if indeed there is any killer to be found.
"You're using the singular," Chantal noted in her forensic psychologist voice. "Do you think it's the same person in both murders or is it still possible one was a copycat killing?"
"Here comes some of the confidential stuff," Gold responded, "and this is known only by the pathologists, myself, and the computer person who entered the data into our system. The exact same type of rope and same type of knots in the rope were found in both cases. So it was the same person who did the job in both cases as far as I can see."
Father Andrew offered his insight by saying that one person could have murdered them both or one person could have murdered one of them and then killed him--." The cleric broke off the statement mid-stream when he realized what he was saying.
"That's right, Father. Father Theophane could have murdered Dr. Beth Johnson-Angelo and then killed himself in the same way to make some type of statement which presently eludes me." Father Andrew stated quite categorically that this was out of the question.
"You're rather quiet Abbot Francis," Chantal observed. "Is everything okay?”
"Oh yes, I'm fine, it's just that it doesn't add up. Why would both types of people be killed if we go on the hypothesis that it was one murderer? He or she would probably have some type of hurt or anger toward the liberal end of the religious spectrum or toward the conservative end of the religious spectrum, but I don't think it would be toward both ends."
"If this person did have some feelings about religion from either angle," Gold asked, "what type of person ought we to be looking for, I mean, can you give us some sense of what the person would be like?"
"Yes, Detective, this person would probably have a great inner chasm between the religious world and the world in which he or she functions. In other words, well, it's perhaps like organized crime. The women were always to be in the church praying or taking care of the family and working hard, and the men were out 'doing business.' The men needed all of that in their lives but the religious was never really integrated, never really something which influenced their behavior--that was for the women. They had to exist side by side. For this person to have strong feelings about religion and yet break one of religion's most ancient tenants--thou shalt not kill--he or she has to have a big split within."
"Francis," Chantal asked, "wasn't your doctoral dissertation in that area?"
"Yes, yes it was, a part of it had to do with the nature of prejudice in relationship to religious values. What researchers long before me found was that there exists a good bit of prejudice throughout the religious denominations in general and it tends to be at the extreme end of the letter of the law group, called extrinsic religious orientation, and as you move over along a continuum to the spirit of the law, known as intrinsic religious orientation, you find that group to be very free of prejudice. Most of us land somewhere along this continuum but closer to the center. The prejudice appears to exist not only toward other races but toward other religions, other mind sets, other values."
"And one fascinating bit of empirical data emerged--the most highly prejudiced group of people were those who are called the indiscriminately pro-religious. That is, anything that has to do with religion of any sort, they're all for it. They don't think it through at all. They just go blindly into, yes, that's what I want. My research looked at how religious orientation affects the psychotherapeutic relationship, but I won't bore you with that. I can't resist saying this much; religious values can have a positive or negative effect upon the process and outcome of psychotherapy depending on which end of the continuum both the patient and the doctor fall."
Chantal was fascinated. "Something like the need to balance and integrate the yin and yang, female and male, light and dark within us?"
Before Francis could respond, Father Andrew, who didn't seem too happy with Abbot Francis' scholarly sharing said: "In other words, Abbot Francis, my kind of person is more
prejudiced than your kind of person."
"Not necessarily, Father Andrew. It depends how far to the left or right of middle we fall. If you think of the two extremes as the ends of a straight line and then curve the line to form a circle, you notice that the two extremes meet and, I believe, share some qualities." Andrew didn't seem too comforted with the response but seemed to be pondering the metaphor in order to decide if he was insulted or not, and quieted down for the moment.
Chantal, once again the peacemaker and synthesizer, stated: "So we are probably looking for a person who is one hundred percent behind religion of any sort but sees his or her own race, religion, customs, lifestyle, etc., as the 'right' one."
"So far, so good, Chantal," Francis stated, "although we are blending two distinct research finds into one person, yet that is the nature of both applied psychology, both clinical and forensic."
"And we're looking for a person who, when around churchy sorts of things, will get right into it but when he or she sheds that role, will do whatever it takes to get by or have fun or exist in the 'secular' world. Sell raffle tickets, go to a novena or a prayer meeting, but cheat or lie without much pause because it's a 'real world' out there."
"Right again, Chantal, Francis said. It makes me cringe to hear you talk about a dichotomy between secular and sacred, Church and the real world, but that is how this sort of person would think. The indiscriminately pro-religious person wouldn't care whether Beth or Father Theophane were liberal or conservative. The extremely letter of the law or extrinsically oriented person would have more difficulty with the extremely spirit of the law or intrinsically oriented person than the other way around, in my clinical and pastoral experience.
Father Andrew asked the detective if there was any more information to which the group could be privy. Gold stated that a similar biblical quote was found on the computer at the Center for Traditional Catholicism as was found on Professor Johnson-Angelo's computer.
"Similar but not exactly the same?" asked Chantal.
"That's right, Doctor. You're sharp. Here's a copy of each. I don't know if the slight differences mean anything or not. I kind of doubt it.@
Francis thought out loud and said: "If that quote were so important to the killer, he or she would have it emblazoned in the mind and be able to put it on both computers with the exact same wording and with ease. Something's funny here." As soon as the Abbot's eye hit the papers he saw something that the detective and his psychological colleague did not see. It was all over his face.
He called Father Andrew over to take a look and it was obvious that the traditional cleric saw something as well, and his face registered negativity.
"What are you two guys reacting to?" Gold said with a bit of impatience.
"The quote found on Beth's computer is the traditional wording from the Bible. It uses the pronoun 'he.'"
"Yes," joined in Father Andrew, "and the quote found on our computer is written in that repulsive inclusive language. There is no mention of he or she in the quote from our center. They use a pronoun such as 'one,' or sometimes will say he/she, but here we have 'one.'"
"So?" Gold said, his impatience mounting.
"It looks to me," offered Francis, "as if a traditional person killed Beth and a liberal person killed Theophane, yet that contradicts the fact that the same type of rope and same knots were found at both scenes.
"Could the murderer have changed his or her, I'm trying to understand this by practicing some inclusive language here, religious orientation, I think that's what you call it, between murders?"
Chantal submitted that this was very unlikely given how deeply ingrained such an orientation is and how one evolves out of a more extrinsic, structured and rigid experience of religion which is needed as a child, to a more internalized and freer experience later on. She didn't win any points with Andrew on stating that.
Francis, ever the astute clinician, summed up the discussion on the psychology of religion by noting that the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, typically referred to as the DSM IV at long last now includes a diagnosis for people dealing with psychological issues related to religion. He read from the DSM IV:
Diagnostic code V62.89 Religious or Spiritual Problem.
This category can be used when the focus of clinical attention is a religious or spiritual problem. Examples include distressing experiences that involve loss or questioning of faith, problems associated with conversion to a new faith, or questioning of spiritual values that may not necessarily be related to an organized church or religious institution.
Gold seemed to need time to ponder all of this and digest it a little more slowly. "The information is helpful, my esteemed colleagues, but I can't see a person's religious orientation. I can only see things like murder weapons and weight and height, you know, normal human measurable stuff. Let's call it a day, folks."
"You sound like a behavioral psychologist, Dave. Moreover, you sound like many health insurance carriers, and, if you'll pardon the phrase, Chantal, you sound like the managed care companies who bury us in paperwork. Even though the Religious or Spiritual Problem diagnosis is now in the DSM IV, they still won't pay for treatment because it is in a part of the book labeled "Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention." They don't see the diagnosis as a psychological illness.
Dave and Chantal dropped Father Andrew off at the Center and continued on to an East Indian restaurant. "You know, Chantal, I've been picking up some intuitive diagnostic information myself these days. Isn't that what the Abbot calls it?"
"Yes, I think it is. You sound a little sarcastic."
"Sorry, I don't mean to be, but maybe I'm a little jealous."
"Jealous, Dave, what in the world would you be jealous of?"
"When you two are around each other, there's a chemistry there. It's the only way I can put it. There's something between the two of you and I wish it were between us."
"I'm flattered, Dave, and I genuinely like you, and maybe when all this intrigue is over, there might be something more than genuine like there, but Francis and I have our acts together. As you know, we went to graduate school together and interned together, and it was during those years that he began to find himself. He realized that in his original monastery, which was large and had a lot of what they used to call daughter houses, I think they call them dependent priories now, he lived with many other monks, most of whom were priests. He always felt called to what he considered the purest form of monastic life--that is to be totally a monk and not a priest and he really saw a lot of them as clerics busy running schools, and parishes, and doing very fine work, even going off to the missions, but that a number of them were essentially diocesan priests wearing religious habits, and he felt drawn to something else."
"We put in late hours and long hours in those days, especially during internship. We worked with every sort of problem imaginable--life, death, sex, disease--these were everyday issues for us. We bonded. Francis was committed to God and monastic life. That was clear to him and to me. I loved him and he loved me and we still do love each other but he could never have a wife. He's too deceptively simple, simply complicated; I don't know what the right words are. I know that and I feel the same in my own way; most of the time it's fine."
"I am a career woman. I am very focused on my practice and I am just beginning to have a little bit of emotional and clock time available for me even to think about another serious relationship. I had a few in college that weren't all that great."
"Come on, Chantal, the vibes I feel are pretty strong between you two."
"That's true, Dave, they are, but I think that's because both of us have had a good dose of therapy in our training and we're comfortable with our bodies, with our emotions, and we know where we stand with each other. It works for us, Dave. We don't see each other for months on end and yet somehow we're soulmates."
"Weren't some of the saints like that?" Dave said, looking kind of mystified.
"Actually they were, Dave. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal loved each other profoundly but they also loved God passionately and it somehow created a powerful energy that spawned an entire spiritual family and here Francis is founding yet another little piece of the family in the monastery he started in 1987."
Gold scratched his head. "Seems to me you'd sort of explode with all that energy going around in you and no place for it to go."
"I think you do, Dave, but the explosion is positive. It brings more light than heat and that's the kind of light that Francis experiences sometimes with his patients."
"Oh yeah," Dave said, "like that diagnostic stuff he was talking about."
"Right, like that, Dave."
"So you two don't have anything going, right?"
"Well, Dave, we do, but it's not the kind of >thing= that would make the news or People Magazine. It's something spiritual, and yes, certainly has emotional and sensual overtones, but we manage very well. Thank you very much."
"Well, if his energy goes into his prayer and ministry, where does yours go?"
"It has been going into my practice and it's just starting to seep into relationships, and I'll make myself a little vulnerable by admitting, like this one."
"Wow, you mean you're beginning to feel something for me?"
"Sure, I told you that, Dave. I just need to get all these murders out of my life, and thought that maybe you needed to get your ex-wife out of yours."
"Guilty as charged. When we first met I just had the old wounds ripped open again. She applied for a Church annulment and I got a certified letter to that effect the day Beth died."
"I'm sorry, Dave, but I know from professional experience that sometimes the annulment process can be healing; it can help a person process the failed marriage and kind of tie up some spiritual and emotional loose ends."
"Well to my mind the divorce put it behind us, but my ex has extremely strong feelings about religion and I guess wanted to go by the book on this one."
Dave's eyes widened like two pieces of root beer candy in a snowstorm as he realized what he was saying. "Don't even think it, Chantal. She would never do what you're suspecting. She couldn't."
"Why not, Dave?"
"She's severely ill and in a nursing home. That's why she divorced me--for my own good is how she put it."
"I'm so sorry, Dave, I truly am."
"Yeah, me too. Well, let's get back to those good vibes we were talking about and all that psychic and sexual energy before our food gets cold."
"I have a feeling that our vibes will keep it plenty hot, Dave!"