The Paraclete

Several days after a world-renowned Catholic theologian meets a parish priest and 13-year-old altar boy at a church in San Diego, the young boy dresses in the vestments he wears while serving Mass and jumps to his death from the top of the Coronado Bridge. When the theologian learns about the suicide and discovers the boy killed himself to avoid any further sexual abuse by his parish priest, the theologian blames himself for not having recognized their pedophilic relationship. Distraught, the theologian seeks the advice of an expert on pedophilia, an elderly priest who has spent his entire life working as a paraclete, or advocate for impaired priests. Aided by a better of understanding of sexual predators in the priesthood and the accidental discovery of a naturally-occurring seed that contains a poison more lethal than ricin, the theologian returns to San Diego and visits the parish priest. His visit sets off a veritable epidemic of unexplained deaths among pedophilic priests in America. Discovering a pattern to the unexpected deaths and suspecting the theologian is a serial killer, a veteran FBI special agent, whose husband was sexually abused by a priest as a child, finds herself in the middle of a moral dilemma. Watching from the sideline is a beautiful nun who is having a love affair with the theologian.