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From Publishers Weekly
A Black Mass in the Vatican in 1963 gets Malachi's first novel since Vatican (1985) off to a wicked start. A potentially gripping conflict between two American brothers?one a priest, one a lawyer, both heirs to a fortune and to the family manse of Windswept House?follows. But as Martin, a former Jesuit and veteran Church commentator, develops his complex plot, he begins to dwell to a fault upon the themes he's explored in numerous books, most recently The Keys of This Blood, 1991. Martin's concern is what he sees as the erosion of the Church's moral authority, both from within and without. Here, a Slavic pope who's obviously John Paul II is being maneuvered into approving the Resignation Protocol, which, if enacted, will force him to resign in the name of Church unity. Martin attributes this erosion to a global conspiracy among world powers both East and West, fueled by Satanic influence and by the failure of John XXIII to act upon the Third Prophecy of the Fatima Letter in 1960. The narrative is richly detailed with Church lore, but the sermonizing is incessant, with dialogue often sounding more like editorial commentary than speech. Many think of the current pope as theologically conservative, but Martin, through one of the brothers who have been caught up in the struggle, takes him roundly to task: "You have abandoned your seminarians to heretical teachers... your nuns to a destroying wave of secularizing feminists," and so on. What could have been a smart and shocking thriller winds up instead as an onslaught of ecclesiastical facts and religious opinions occasionally interrupted by plot. The wind that blows through this rambling shack of a novel is, ultimately, angry and hot. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
The author of Vatican (1986), among others, returns with a mammoth meditation on the troubled state of today's Catholic Church. So troubled, as one of the characters reports to the ``slavic Pope'' who is the central figure here, that ``it's going down.'' In his opening scenes, surprising for this measured writer, Martin portrays an animal sacrifice straight out of Stephen King, and Lucifer's plan is unveiled: to penetrate the Church hierarchy and eventually the Holy See itself with corrupt priests. They are bent on merging with economic and ethical universalists in the public arena, but their true agenda is the ascension of Satan and the annihilation of humankind. A young American priest, Christian Gladstone, from a place of peace called Windswept House, attempts to reverse these trends in his audiences with the slavic Pope; his twin brother, a lawyer, is embroiled in the impending new world order. They are light and dark, but, curiously, the slavic Pope is gray. He as much as anyone stood against Stalinist forces in Eastern Europe, but at a cost to the private message of faith and redemption the Church always has symbolized. But, while he himself has secularized the Church, his personal faith is deeply traditional. He seeks a revelation from an aged nun who participated in the Marian manifestation at Fatima. Can she tell this weary old man when Jesus will return? Does he have the strength for one last battle, as Lucifer stands poised to become Pope? Slowly, indeed, Martin's passions--and his agony over the dire straits of his faith--build into a deeply felt moral crisis. Martin is a close associate with Pope John XXIII, and his knowledge of Vatican politics is extraordinary. He pauses just short of the Apocalypse, but should find readers among Catholics and many evangelicals. Too slow-moving, and too specialized, for everyone else. (Author tour; radio satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
a dash of cold water,
By
This review is from: Windswept House (Paperback)
You may not like what you read here, but it explains much of the apparent incompetence and stupidity in the discipline of the present day Catholic Church. The ordinary reader will never know for sure if the enthronement of Lucifer really took place in 1963 in the Vatican. Fr. Martin, however, clearly believed that it did. (He was a committed supernaturalist and Christian, and his views were not at all out of place prior to Vatican II and the invasion of the Church by modernism.) As his operating hypothesis for the loss of supernatural grace in the modern church and world, it does hold water. But it will be rejected by materialists.My own experience with the occult, prior to my conversion to Christianity, agrees with Fr. Martin's worldview and theology. His absolute devotion to Christ is radiantly apparent to me. But his uncompromising claims of Masonic and Luciferian infiltration into the Church are bound to infuriate those who are hoping to stick their heads in the sand and wait for the present turmoil to blow over. It won't.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Satanic Plot in the Vatican Against the Pope.,
By New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Windswept House (Paperback)
Traditionalist Roman Catholic Father Malachi Martin's novel _Windswept House_ takes a look into the strange world of Vatican politics and intrigue within the larger setting of the world at large. Father Malachi Martin, Roman Catholic priest, former Jesuit, exorcist, and an associate of Pope John XXIII and Cardinal Augustin Bea, presents the reader with a fictionalized account of a global conspiracy in league with Satanists and freemasonry to take control of the Roman Catholic church and to oust "the Slavic Pope" (Pope John Paul II). While this book is a work of fiction, Malachi Martin has stated that much of what is presented here is in fact based upon truth, including allegations of Satanic activity within the Vatican during the 1960s. The book consists of endless plots and counter-plots among Cardinals and prelates of the church in an effort to unseat the Slavic Pope and place a liberal, modernist pope upon the Throne of Peter in league with Satan's plan for the church. Only a small band of those who adhere to the traditional teachings of the church (with emphasis on the Tridentine mass), including two brothers from a wealthy Texas family (the Gladstone's), are able to offer resistance against the forces of evil within the church hierarchy. The book alleges conspiracy of the highest order, Satanic activity and possession within the Vatican and within the church hierarchy (especially in America), pedophilia and homosexual activity within the church and among its priests and bishops, as well as the prevelance of freemasons among the Catholic Cardinalate. While the book is written under the guise of fiction, one cannot help to see many of the current problems within the church in wide-angle focus after reading this book. Father Martin is not the first to point these problems out, and he belongs to a group of Traditionalist Catholics who look askance upon (some of) the documents of Vatican II, adhere to the Tridentine mass, and believe that current problems in the church could be resolved if the Pope were to take a stronger stance (and listen to the warnings of the Virgin Mother, especially as revealed at Fatima). The book ends with a cliffhanger and one is not sure what to make of it at the end, much as one is not sure what to make of modern day Roman Catholicism (especially in America) which has become infested with the heresy of modernism and liberalism. Much of the book consists of geopolitical intrigue (of the old-school variety), showing how a club of elite businessmen and politicians have turned towards Satan and his "humanistic" offerings in their efforts to create a New World Order. For these elite, the Roman Catholic Church represents an outmoded medieval residue; nevertheless, they believe the takeover of this institution is useful because it has so many members which can be unified. Indeed, the theme of unity plays an important part in this book, in which the chief conspirators (cardinals) call upon the ideal of "unity" to force the Slavic Pope's hand in a "Protocol of Resignation". Indeed it is these global unity schemes, which are of greatest danger to Christ and His Church today. For those individuals who feel disaffected by the modern post-Vatican II church, a book such as this may offer some guidance in trying to maintain the traditions of the church. For others who read this book, it will provide food for thought at the very least. While I believe it is wrong to leave the church (especially during a time of mass apostasy) as some in the more narrow reaches of "traditionalism" or the extremist position of "sedevacantism" have decided to do, we must be wary of those developments which have taken place within the church and among its hierarchy which are directly opposed to its traditional teaching. The book leaves one with a question, and the question is how is one to remain true to the teachings of the church within the modern world and given the influences of the modern world on the church itself. Of course, in the book, not even the pope is capable of making such a decision (at least not easily).Father Malachi Martin (who will be sorely missed among traditionalists) recently died as he was working on another book about the Vatican and the New World Order. While his books should be read with caution (and perhaps some skepticism), they offer the ready a unique look into the mind of a traditionalist Catholic living in the modern world.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If There Was Ever A Voice From Heaven,
By
This review is from: Windswept House (Paperback)
If there was ever a voice from Heaven, it comes to us from the Martyr and Saint, Malachi Martin. Indeed, the risks to his life he took in writing this literary masterpiece/epoch for our world distilled into the tour de force that is -- "Windswept House." Faction, fiction...is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that one man, with a powerful pen and voice sacrificed everything to help those willing to listen and face the God-awful truth: We have two choices: Lucifer or Jesus Christ, Our Lord. And whether Catholic or not, the Mercy of God is still alive for everyone in allowing us to share Fr. Martin's legacy that is truly a LIVING EPISTLE OF JESUS CHRIST on earth. Buy this book! There are phonies enough. But "Windswept House" is from God's lips to our ears, minds, hearts, and souls.
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