When dashing Chicago prelate John Cardinal McGlynn is martyred in Nicaragua, he dies in the arms of Marbeth Quinlan, his beautiful female companion, murmuring "God, how I love you." Two years later after the apparently miraculous cure of Marbeth's grandson, "Jumping Johnny" McGlynn is being considered for cannonization. But there are troubling questions about the Cardinal's suitability for sainthood--chief among them, the ambiguous sexual nature of his lifelong relationship with Marbeth. Assigned the role of devil's advocate, Father Laurence McAuliffe, for years McGlynn's greatest critic, must penetrate the Cardinal's past for proof of sinfulness. But what he discovers is a complex chronicle of spiritual longing, sensual temptation--and the infinite mystery of faith.

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