I was a guest on the GEMS Podcast with host, Genesis Amaris Kemp. She inquired specifically, “why I picked the particular title and cover for my book? Was I perhaps drawn to something or did you work with book illustrator?”

Nearing the completion of writing this book, “Scandal in the Shadows: The Original Priest – Mother Mary,” the book cover I felt, had to contrast two completely different points of view on the subject matter of Women Priests in the Catholic Church. I knew I wanted the Vatican Dome in the background and the Mosaic of Mary Priest, being situated front and center on this book cover. My book illustrator went way beyond my notion of the Vatican Dome in the background only. She incorporated the front part of this building as well onto the book cover. Seeing the image of the Vatican Dome brings to mind the Hierarchy’s view of their never having been Women Priest in this Church’s history. Then seeing this image of “Mary Priest,” Mary Mother of God, from an eleventh-century Mosaic, in a sense is like her coming forward from the centuries-old shadows,

to be recognized once again as the Woman Priest she was until 1927 when the hierarchy forbade devotion to Mary Priest.

Genesis, mentioned… ”you personally found it fascinating to find previous hidden Skeletons within the Church’s history. Is that why you allude to naming your book, Scandal in the Shadows?” Yes, Scandal is certainly amiss with many Skeletons found within the Catholic Church’s closets. The term Scandal can mean omission in terms of my book cover, where the Church Hierarchy continues to have a very selective memory regarding Mary Priest’s name and title. What about the Scandal of the present Priest Shortage issue, where the Church won’t follow the Pope’s own Commission’s findings saying, “there is no Biblical reason to prohibit Women’s Ordination.” Having Women Priests would be a beginning to fill this ever-present Priest Shortage Gap.

Yes the cover of my book, too many will indeed be different, to say the least. Sometimes, a picture grabs a person’s attention like words simply can not. They perhaps see something in that particular picture that resonates on a level never before perceived by them. Seeing this beautiful Mosaic of Mary Priest, truly opens up the possibility, the real hope, for meaningful transformable change on the issue of Women Priests in the Catholic Church Today! 

To learn more about this topic, be sure to opt-in for a chapter of the book, Scandal in the Shadows. Click the image to the right.