The Bishop's Man
Encyclopedia
The Bishop's Man is a novel by Canadian
writer Linden MacIntyre
, published in August 2009. The story follows a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill who became so successful at resolving potential church scandals quickly and quietly that he had to accept a position at remote parish on Cape Breton Island
, Nova Scotia
to give himself a low profile. MacIntyre, a native of Cape Breton, released the novel amidst the on-going sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese
in Nova Scotia. The book was awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize
and the Canadian Booksellers Association's Fiction Book of the Year. Critics gave positive reviews, especially noting MacIntyre's successful development of characters.
was 66 years old and living in Toronto with his wife Carol Off
. MacIntyre was working at CBC Television
where he had been the co-host of the fifth estate
since 1990. He had written one previous novel, The Long Stretch, which was published in 1999. Both The Long Stretch and The Bishop's Man were set on Cape Breton Island
in Nova Scotia
where MacIntyre was raised. As a child, MacIntyre was raised by an Irish-Catholic mother and attended church regularly where the local priest inspired him to consider becoming a priest.
The book was published at the same time as a $15 million settlement was reached in the sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese
in Nova Scotia
. Evidence emerged that the principal offender, Bishop Raymond Lahey
may have assumed the role of the bishop's man in sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese
in Newfoundland
in 1989 when he served under then-archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney
. In an ecclesiastical context, the term bishop's man generally refers to the title of vicar general
, who serves as the diocesan bishop's principal deputy for the exercise of administrative authority or refers to the title of auxiliary bishop
, a priest who is consecrated as an episcopal assistant to the local ordinary
. The Bishop's Man is noted as one of the first cultural depictions of the Catholic sexual abuse scandals. In translating real-life situations to fiction MacIntyre stated, "I do believe that the very best of fiction is based on fact...and an awful lot of the factual situations I've been involved with just scream out for creative elaboration."
parish were he would have a low profile, deal with a new impending public controversy, and come to terms with the consequences of his past cover-ups.
bestsellers list in the August 28 issue at #8. In early-October The Bishop's Man was included on the shortlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
and it reached #5 on the bestseller list on October 15. While it fell back to the #9 spot on November 5, it remained at #1 for several months after being awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize. At its Libris Awards, the Canadian Booksellers Association awarded The Bishop's Man its Fiction Book of the Year and Linden MacIntyre its Author of the Year award. The book was also awarded the Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award and the Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction) by the Atlantic Book Awards Society.
In the Quill & Quire
Quebec writer Paul Gessell said that he found the characters to be "very credible" and "complex" but concluded that "at times, the plot is convoluted and the back-and-forth chronology gets rather tiresome. Generally, however, it is a well-crafted, brave, and painful examination of one of the most monstrous issues of our time." The review in Publishers Weekly
found the book to be an "engrossing, lyrical page-turner".
Author Nicholas Pashley reviewed the book for the National Post
, writing that "Some readers might find MacIntyre's frequent timeshifting a distraction, but by and large the author handles the various decades of his tale deftly. And as a native Cape Bretoner himself, he brings the region and its residents vividly to life." In the Telegraph-Journal
, Sylvie Fitzgerald writes that regarding the characterization "MacIntyre succeeds in demystifying the man beneath the medieval vestments, reminding us that a priest is a man first" and that "MacIntyre's work is resuscitated with colourful local colloquialism".
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
writer Linden MacIntyre
Linden MacIntyre
Linden MacIntyre is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence.-Life and career:...
, published in August 2009. The story follows a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill who became so successful at resolving potential church scandals quickly and quietly that he had to accept a position at remote parish on Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
to give himself a low profile. MacIntyre, a native of Cape Breton, released the novel amidst the on-going sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese
Sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese
The sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese relates to allegations of sexual abuse connected to the Roman Catholic clergy that occurred in the Canadian diocese of Antigonish.-Reaching settlements for old 1950s cases:...
in Nova Scotia. The book was awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...
and the Canadian Booksellers Association's Fiction Book of the Year. Critics gave positive reviews, especially noting MacIntyre's successful development of characters.
Background
At the time of the book's publication, author Linden MacIntyreLinden MacIntyre
Linden MacIntyre is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence.-Life and career:...
was 66 years old and living in Toronto with his wife Carol Off
Carol Off
Carol Off is a Canadian television and radio journalist, associated with CBC Television and CBC Radio. She has been a host of CBC Radio's As It Happens since 2006. Previously a documentary reporter for The National, Off also hosted the political debate series counterSpin on CBC Newsworld.She is the...
. MacIntyre was working at CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
where he had been the co-host of the fifth estate
The fifth estate
the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into...
since 1990. He had written one previous novel, The Long Stretch, which was published in 1999. Both The Long Stretch and The Bishop's Man were set on Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
where MacIntyre was raised. As a child, MacIntyre was raised by an Irish-Catholic mother and attended church regularly where the local priest inspired him to consider becoming a priest.
Sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese
The sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese relates to allegations of sexual abuse connected to the Roman Catholic clergy that occurred in the Canadian diocese of Antigonish.-Reaching settlements for old 1950s cases:...
in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. Evidence emerged that the principal offender, Bishop Raymond Lahey
Raymond Lahey
Raymond John Lahey B.Th. L.Th. Ph.D. D.D. is Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia. Lahey resigned from his position at the Catholic Church after being charged with possession of child pornography when members of the Canada Border Services Agency discovered...
may have assumed the role of the bishop's man in sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese
Sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese
The sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese is an important chapter in the series of clerical abuse affairs that occurred in the dioceses of Canada.-James Hickey affair:...
in Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
in 1989 when he served under then-archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney
Alphonsus Liguori Penney
Archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney is a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who was Archbishop of St.John's from 1979-1991.-Sexual abuse scandal:...
. In an ecclesiastical context, the term bishop's man generally refers to the title of vicar general
Vicar general
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...
, who serves as the diocesan bishop's principal deputy for the exercise of administrative authority or refers to the title of auxiliary bishop
Auxiliary bishop
An auxiliary bishop, in the Roman Catholic Church, is an additional bishop assigned to a diocese because the diocesan bishop is unable to perform his functions, the diocese is so extensive that it requires more than one bishop to administer, or the diocese is attached to a royal or imperial office...
, a priest who is consecrated as an episcopal assistant to the local ordinary
Ordinary
In those hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ecclesiastical law system, an ordinary is an officer of the church who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute the church's laws...
. The Bishop's Man is noted as one of the first cultural depictions of the Catholic sexual abuse scandals. In translating real-life situations to fiction MacIntyre stated, "I do believe that the very best of fiction is based on fact...and an awful lot of the factual situations I've been involved with just scream out for creative elaboration."
Synopsis
The story follows the life of a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill. In the 1970s MacAskill convinced a rural Nova Scotia priest who impregnated his own housekeeper to quickly move to Toronto and avoided what could have been a significant local controversy. MacAskill was subsequently called upon numerous times by the Catholic Church to quietly resolve numerous potential controversies. By the 1990s, MacAskill was the dean of a Nova Scotia Catholic university. He is soon sent to oversee a remote Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
parish were he would have a low profile, deal with a new impending public controversy, and come to terms with the consequences of his past cover-ups.
Publication and reception
The Bishop's Man was published by Random House Canada and released in August 2009. It debuted on Maclean'sMaclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
bestsellers list in the August 28 issue at #8. In early-October The Bishop's Man was included on the shortlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...
and it reached #5 on the bestseller list on October 15. While it fell back to the #9 spot on November 5, it remained at #1 for several months after being awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize. At its Libris Awards, the Canadian Booksellers Association awarded The Bishop's Man its Fiction Book of the Year and Linden MacIntyre its Author of the Year award. The book was also awarded the Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award and the Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction) by the Atlantic Book Awards Society.
In the Quill & Quire
Quill & Quire
Quill & Quire, a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry, was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, but its publisher claims a readership of 25,000...
Quebec writer Paul Gessell said that he found the characters to be "very credible" and "complex" but concluded that "at times, the plot is convoluted and the back-and-forth chronology gets rather tiresome. Generally, however, it is a well-crafted, brave, and painful examination of one of the most monstrous issues of our time." The review in Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
found the book to be an "engrossing, lyrical page-turner".
Author Nicholas Pashley reviewed the book for the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, writing that "Some readers might find MacIntyre's frequent timeshifting a distraction, but by and large the author handles the various decades of his tale deftly. And as a native Cape Bretoner himself, he brings the region and its residents vividly to life." In the Telegraph-Journal
Telegraph-Journal
The Telegraph-Journal is a daily newspaper published in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It publishes a hybrid newspaper, serving as a provincial daily while catering to the Saint John audience in its City and Sports sections. The newspaper is published by Brunswick News, owned by J. K. Irving...
, Sylvie Fitzgerald writes that regarding the characterization "MacIntyre succeeds in demystifying the man beneath the medieval vestments, reminding us that a priest is a man first" and that "MacIntyre's work is resuscitated with colourful local colloquialism".