Il terzo segreto

More about the book

In the near future, Jakob Volkner, known as Pope Clement XV, is a German "caretaker pope" elected as John Paul II's successor at nearly 80. Three years into his papacy, Clement begins to express doubts about papal infallibility and the Church's dogma, making unusual requests of his secretary, Monsignor Colin Michener, an Irish-born priest grappling with his vows of celibacy. Clement frequently visits a restricted area of the Vatican archives and sends Michener to Romania to find an elderly cleric who translated three cryptic prophecies allegedly given by the Virgin Mary in 1917 to children in Fatima, Portugal. While these secrets are thought to be fully revealed, Michener questions their completeness after Clement's shocking suicide. He embarks on a perilous journey through Rome, Bosnia, and Germany, following a trail of clues and crimes, with his former lover, journalist Katerina Lew, by his side. However, revealing any additional secrets could lead to a clash with doctrinal conservatives, particularly Cardinal Alberto Valendrea, the Vatican's Italian secretary of state, who is intent on succeeding Clement as the Vicar of Christ, even if it means creating new sins and disregarding a 900-year-old prophecy of doom for the next pope.