“The Chaplain,” by Peter Mars; Commonwealth Publishing

Priest confesses as he seeks forgiveness
“The Chaplain,” by Peter Mars; Commonwealth Publishing

This is Father Michael Hennessey’s confession. After 20 years of serving a Massachusetts parish and serving as a Boston Police chaplain and seeing so much pain, the pain of one woman touched his heart. Maine writer Peter Mars took Father Hennessey’s confession.

With the publication of “The Chaplain,” both Father Hennessey and his friend Peter Mars are asking the reader to grant absolution.

The first time Father Hennessey noticed Theresa Primavera in his congregation, she was crying. With a kerchief pulled around her face, her cheek discolored by a bruise, Theresa was weeping silently as Father Hennessey spoke about the bond of love in marriage.

Always confident in the pulpit, Father Hennessey was dumbstruck by her tears and stumbled through the last part of his sermon.

Father Hennessey didn’t have a sheltered life. As a chaplain to the Boston Police Department, he was one of the first on the scene at murders, kidnappings, police shootings and other incidents throughout the 1980s. Seeing so many victims of crime, Father Hennessey was quick to recognize Theresa as a victim of domestic violence.

A fall from grace

After a particularly violent beating by her husband, Father Hennessey is able to use his influence in the church community and in law enforcement to finally separate Theresa from her husband.

From the opening pages of this true story, the reader suspects that Father Hennessey’s fall from grace will be an affair with this woman.

What surprises the reader is the quiet friendship that develops between the priest and his parishioner. Theresa, away from the controlling hand of her husband, flowers as an individual.

Where she’d been dutiful and self-effacing, Theresa becomes childlike and playful in her friendship with the priest. Father Hennessey is also childlike in his need for her friendship and his naiveté about the path of the relationship.

An early winter drive to Kennebunkport pushes the relationship from slightly inappropriate to sinful in the eyes of the church. If the book were fiction, the reader would have a hard time believing that a freak snowstorm stranded Father Hennessey and Theresa in the last hotel room in the small town. Father Hennessey describes his mortification, anger and severe regret for allowing the event to take place. Yet the incident also makes him realize that he is deeply in love with Theresa.

A difficult choice

Despite what the reader feels about the priest’s transgressions, one has to believe that as a man of God he was able to positively affect many lives. The book is at its best when Mars, a former Boston Police officer and police chaplain himself, recounts Father Hennessey’s chaplain work.

Hennessey’s ability to bravely walk onto a crime scene and take charge of the living and bless the dying is inspiring. The book is less strong when it recounts the emotions surrounding Hennessey’s struggles and temptations. It is hard to determine whether that weakness comes the book’s writing style or from Hennessey’s lack of emotional experience.

In the end, Father Hennessey must make a choice between the tangible and intense love for Theresa and his devotion to the Catholic Church. Will he remain a priest or will he find another way to express his love for God and the church? The reading of this religious trial will bring up questions about the celibacy vows taken by Catholic priests. Whether or not one believes celibacy to be essential to the faith, the reader will watch Father Hennessey suffer deeply for his decision. Mars’ affection for the priest is clear and as the book closes, the reader may also share that affection and offer the forgiveness Hennessey so desires.

Kirsten Cappy is a bookseller in Portland.