The Shroud Codex - Jerome R. Corsi [16]
“How so?”
“In the first weeks after Father Bartholomew was back at St. Joseph’s after the accident, we began getting reports from parishioners that he had begun telling some of those in the confessional that they had a particular illness that Father Bartholomew had no way of knowing they had. Then, Father Bartholomew went further. He began recommending to these people in the confessional what they should do to get healed. Others he told not to have an operation or to wait a few days before they did anything. Many of the people didn’t know they were sick.”
“Is Father Bartholomew medically trained?”
“Not that I know. In the past few weeks, the archdiocese began to get reports that Father Bartholomew was performing miracles. Parishioners who went to confession with Father Bartholomew began calling Archbishop Duncan’s office to tell him they could hear Bartholomew talking with Jesus in the confessional.”
“How did people know it was Jesus that Bartholomew was speaking to?”
“Truly, they didn’t. What people could hear was a second voice in the confessional and they knew the second voice was not Bartholomew’s. They began to assume Bartholomew was talking to Jesus, because when Bartholomew discussed their illnesses, he told them things about their lives that Bartholomew had no way of knowing. Then, when Bartholomew told them what to do about their illnesses, they were healed, if they followed his instructions. So the word spread that Father Bartholomew was consulting with Jesus in the confessional.”
“And what does Bartholomew say about all this? Does Bartholomew say Jesus is there with him in the confessional?”
“Yes. He says Jesus sits in the box next to him in the confessional, where the person who is waiting to go to confession next usually kneels and waits their turn. Bartholomew has begun locking off that side of the confessional, allowing people to enter the confessional only from one side. He says that once people say, ‘Bless me, Father; it has been three weeks, or whatever, since my last confession,’ Jesus begins talking to him about the person making the confession.”
Castle took notes. “And what does this Jesus say?”
“According to Father Bartholomew, Jesus tells him intimate secrets that no one else knows about the lives of the people who come to confess their sins. Father Bartholomew seems to know if the confessors have been faithful to their spouses, or if they have committed crimes or other offenses they have kept successfully hidden for years. Father Bartholomew then tells them that Jesus wants those Father Bartholomew has absolved of their sins in the confessional to know they are forgiven. People are impressed because the sins and trespasses that Father Bartholomew seems to know without being told often involve offenses those in the confessional may have kept hidden as secrets or lies, sometimes for as long as decades.”
Hearing this, Castle refined his diagnostic hypothesis to include the observation that Father Bartholomew’s neurosis evidently permitted him to manifest a second voice, as if he were communicating with another secret person sitting unseen in the confession box next to him. Castle made another marginal note: Does Father Bartholomew have multiple personality disorder?
“Sometimes Father Bartholomew gives very personal advice,” Morelli continued, “like telling a person they must stop an extramarital affair, or that they must admit to their spouses or children various lies or secrets they have held for years. The problem for the Vatican is that confession is not supposed to be about medical healing. Confession is about absolution of sins. The Vatican has a problem when one person going to confession with Father Bartholomew claims to be cured of cancer, and then another claims to be cured of heart disease. The word is spreading fast. Now Father Bartholomew has people lined up around the block to go to confession.”
“How about in the hospital? Is Bartholomew