Priest Steps Into Fire With Novel `White Smoke' -- The Rev. Andrew Greeley Attacks The Pope, Church And Conservatives In His New Book

Pope John Paul II has died. From all corners of the world, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have journeyed to Rome to elect a new pope. After days of wrangling, intrigue and backroom politicking, the new pope emerges. He is Cardinal Luis Emilio Menendez y Garcia, archbishop of Valencia, Spain, a liberal prelate who proposes to decentralize the church's power, who warns the church must be open to change and not afraid of the "demands of women . . . as fully equal human beings" - and who himself, before he became a priest, was married and had a child.

The Rev. Andrew Greeley, Chicago priest, sociologist and best-selling author, strides across the lobby of the Alexis Hotel in Seattle, a copy of his new novel, "White Smoke," in hand.

He has a twinkle in his eye as he settles into a chair, ready to answer questions about his fictionalized account of the next papal election, a view that is sure to send some readers into apoplexy.

No, in no way is he wishing to hasten the death of the current pope, he says.

Yes, he believes, as he says in "White Smoke," that John Paul II's pontificate is "a tragic failure."

No, he has not heard from members of Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic group he jabs at in his novel, but "I don't think they'll like it."

And yes, he thinks there are many Catholics who are yearning for a pope just like his fictionalized hero, Cardinal Menendez, or Don Luis to his friends.

To prove it, Greeley recently commissioned a poll of U.S. Catholics by the Gallup Organization. Greeley and Michael Hout, director of the Survey Center at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed the data from the representative sampling of 770 Catholics and determined that 78 percent of the respondents wanted a pope who would allow lay people to serve as his advisers; 58 percent wanted the next pope to give more decision-making power to U.S. bishops; 69 percent wanted a pope who would allow married priests; and 65 percent wanted a pope who would allow women to be ordained as priests.

In Spain, a traditionally Catholic country in which the poll was duplicated, respondents were even more "radical" in wanting liberal reforms, Greeley said. The survey will also be done in Italy and several other European countries, as well as one non-European country, as yet unidentified, he said.

Greeley said Cardinal Menendez was modeled on no living figure, though he is drawn in sharp contrast to the current pope. The cardinal's wife and daughter perished in an airplane crash before he entered the priesthood.

Greeley explained his reasons for calling John Paul's pontificate a failure: "He's one of the most gifted men that's ever been pope. A man of enormous talents, but like all of us, a prisoner of his background. His background is that of a church (in Poland) under siege, first by the Nazis and then the Communists. He feels the church is a garrison under attack. And I don't think that's the accurate perception of the way it is in most other countries in the world. . . . He has tried to reimpose order, but the lay people certainly haven't listened."

By contrast, Greeley's Cardinal Menendez calls for pluralism in the church, where local bishops govern together with the pope, where the pontiff "must listen to his brother bishops, the bishops . . . to their brother priests, and the priests . . . to their people. Only when we are ready to admit the possibility that the Spirit speaks wherever she wishes to speak . . . will we be able to discern the work of the Spirit in the world."

"White Smoke" ($24.95; Forge), whose title is taken from the tradition of white smoke rising from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel to announce a new pope, has been out for only a few days, and Greeley said the reaction he has received by e-mail so far has been positive.

But the reaction undoubtedly will range from hurrahs to outrage.

"Andrew Greeley is a tragic failure," declared William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, when asked about Greeley's depiction of the current pope.

"This pope without a doubt is the world's greatest moral resource, and is recognized as such by millions and millions of non-Catholics as well as Catholics," Donohue said. "What we have here is classic Andrew Greeley sour grapes. He is not taken seriously in Rome, and that is the root cause of his problem."

Donohue, who like Greeley has a doctorate in sociology, said his 250,000-member Catholic League commissioned its own poll last year and found some of the same results as Greeley: That large segments of Catholics would like to see changes such as lifting the ban on non-celibate priests, allowing women to be ordained, or easing the church's teachings on contraception.

But Donohue said Greeley's survey fails to distinguish between people's preferences and their demands. When the Catholic League asked its respondents about their allegiance to the church if it did not make the changes they preferred, 83 percent said their allegiance would be as strong, if not stronger, said the New York-based Donohue.

"There is a difference between that and those on the radical fringe whom Greeley is talking to who demand priests be allowed to marry. He is interpreting all preferences as if they were demands, and he is wrong."

In addition to criticizing the current pontificate, Vatican secrecy and right-wing Catholic politics, Greeley peppers his novel with steamy sex scenes between a New York Times reporter and his estranged wife, a correspondent for CNN, both of whom are in Rome to cover the papal funeral and subsequent election.

Asked if readers would be scandalized by the passages, Greeley responded: "Only those who want to be scandalized. I mean, they're very mild scenes. They're no more erotic than the pages of the Song of Songs in the Bible."

Told that Seattle Archbishop Thomas Murphy recently said he found it extremely difficult to imagine a future pope allowing the ordination of women priests, given John Paul's declaration that the ban was irrevocable and the debate closed, Greeley, who counts Murphy as a friend and fellow Westside Chicago Irishman, said: "I'm not an archbishop, so I don't have to be careful about what I say. But I think it will happen."

In an afterword to his new novel and in an interview in Seattle this week, Greeley, 68, said some people have asked him why he has't gotten out of the Catholic Church if he dislikes it so much.

While he thinks the church can be "a better witness to God's love" - Cardinal Menendez calls for a church less preoccupied by rules and more a reflection of "radiant love" - Greeley said he has no intention of leaving.

"I like being a Catholic. I like being a priest. . . . I won't stop being a priest ever. Even if they try to throw me out, I won't go," Greeley said, adding no one has tried to oust him.

Similarly, other Catholics who disagree with aspects of the church are staying, he said. "They know it's their church as much as it is anybody else's, and they're not going to give it up."