There’s Jack Higgins spy thriller called Confessional, set in the 1980s while the Soviet Union was still intact. The plot involves a Soviet spy named Mikhail Kelly. He’s been planted in Northern Ireland, where for 20 years, he’s used the identity Father Harry Cussane, a Catholic priest. In that role, he performs the tasks of ministry, says the Mass, and so forth. But in his real identity, acting on Moscow’s orders, he assassinates both Catholic and Protestant leaders to derail any peace initiatives. In time, however, Kelly becomes an inconvenient loose end, and Moscow plans to eliminate him. Kelly discovers this, and decides as a last act to assassinate the pope, who is visiting England.

            In the final scene of the book, Kelly manages to get into a chapel where the pope is alone, praying. When Kelly, gun in hand, approaches His Holiness, the pope says to him, quite calmly, “You are Father Harry Cussane.”

            “You are mistaken,” the killer replies. “I am Mikhail Kelly. Strolling player of sorts.”

            “You are Father Harry Cussane,” the pope says relentlessly. “Priest then, priest now, priest eternally. God will not let you go.”

        &n

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