Michael Purcell

The Masquerade Michael Purcell

The Masquerade When Vincent Falcone leaves for his first assignment in Rome as a priest in training, two unexpected things happen to him. He meets Jack Weldon, also a new priest, from a well-connected Connecticut family who becomes Father Vincent's soul mate and co-conspirator. Vincent discovers a cryptic note that says simply Leopoldville 1931. Those words take him on an adventure to the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the unusual message. Along the way he meets Maria and Romero, travels home to comfort his dying mother, meets Obojo in DR Congo who was present in Leopoldville in 1931 and provides valuable information, gets kidnapped upon his return to Rome. He discovers the importance of Leopoldville 1931 from Cardinal Carradine, a frail man who was Vincent's parish priest and molested him when he was ten. Vincent and Jack discover several elderly priests who were in Leopoldville and are being systematically killed off. The rampage stops until the Mastermind returns to Rome, but his goal is to kill the remaining ten priests and make it look accidental to cover up any evidence of Monsignor Jack Dempsey, the first Catholic priest to die from AIDS.