CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 34

PRIEST ROSSI

FATHER ROSSI HAD BEEN ORDAINED twenty— seven years ago, when he was only twenty-two years old. He was the grandson of Italians who fled Italy during World War II. Born in Mexico but raised in the suburbs of New York.

Father Rossi was always an example of commitment to the work of God in front of his entire community — but he was always involved in all the fraud that politicians did — it was in this way — not honest — that his community had never been in the red during the his tenure, receiving hefty offers from Donald Dunhill and Halguraisco. His church was used for money laundering and illegal drug transport.

Gianfrancesco Rossi didn't know what they really did, but he didn't care that much either, he closed his eyes and said that everything he did was for the greater good...

Your own good...

Despite having fewer and fewer members in his church, the offerings were increasing, as his bishop was not such a perceptive man — administratively speaking — one pretended not to see, the other pretended not to see, and so they went through life quietly., with their deep pockets and increasingly profitable reports.

FATHER ROSSI WAS COMING BACK from a meeting with Halguraisco when some people inside a cafeteria died before his eyes, he looked at the suitcase that was in front of him and realized how wrong he had been all this time.

WHEN HE ARRIVED IN HIS COMMUNITY, he called his bishop, but no one answered.

The next day Father Rossi saw a headline saying that his bishop had committed suicide — because of the shame of everything he had done and so many scandals involving his administration.

Father Rossi thought several times about killing himself too, but he realized that he didn't have the courage to do so, after all, he was a full-fledged coward, he always was.

IN HIS TEENAGE DAY, Rossi was engaged to a beautiful girl named Susan. She was raped in front of you. As the boys performed the act with her, Susan realized that any man in his place would have had a different reaction, but he didn't, not being his on the straight, all was well.

Susan dumped him a week later and ended up becoming a prostitute out of disgust at her life so unlucky and miserable. She died of an overdose ten years later on the doorstep of the community where Gianfrancesco had been placed as a priest.

That scene of seeing Susan dead outside his church terrified Rossi terribly every night.

SHE WOULD GET UP ALL smeared with blood, her eyes showing only the whites of her eyes, she would always say:

— You killed me, Gian... Why did you let them do that to me... Why?

— Susan... I... I...

He had no answer, he had always been a coward, a damn coward.

As a child, the school bully threatened him and he got all pissed off, he couldn't help but dub him a diaper — in Susan's dreams, he was always dressed like a baby, with a huge diaper, all his friends laughing and Susan in front of him crying and screaming at him...

— Because why?

THE POPE HAD A MEETING with all the bishops and priests saying that it had not been such a catastrophic event that it would change the history of the church, on the contrary, it would all favor the church as a new power among the nations, just as it had happened after the fall of Rome, where many persecuted the church, but for 1,300 years she dominated the earth, that was the ideal moment for the resurgence of the great power they once were.

Many believed without imagining the hell they would go through.

GIANFRANCESCO FOR A MOMENT even deluded himself with that bullshit about his great example of life, but deep down he knew, after all, his priesthood was pure facade, he had entered the seminary to escape from a girl who had become pregnant with him.

Another big mess he'd gotten himself into...

Her parents took care of the girl for a few years, but when they died, Father Rossi abandoned the girl in an orphanage and never saw her again. His remorse gnawed at him like a monster inside.

After what had happened to the world, Gianfrancesco Rossi realized that he had many sins.

It's a lot for one person... — he thought to himself.

He weighed himself on the spiritual scales and realized that he had no weight, he owed himself something priceless.

His community had been completely extinguished. Rebellions grew and not even his political power gave a way, after all, his protectors no longer needed his services, at that moment Father Rossi realized how unfair the world is — and how much he needed to have a God in his life.

Father Rossi managed to escape the crowd through a dark and dirty alley. He hid in a dumpster — he never imagined himself in a situation like that — but as he didn't want to die either, he decided to preserve life in the most undignified way anyone could, he was in the place that was exactly how he felt.