"I have not sought or desired this new ministry," Pope John XXIII once wrote. For Matthew Mahan, the knowledge that he could say the same made his selection by John's successor as one of five new American Cardinals the ultimate triumph in a life dedicated to the Church. But that triumph soon becomes painfully hollow in this moving novel.A born politician, Mahan rose in the Church with unquestioning belief in its doctrines. But the Vatican Council made him begin to doubt his faith. These doubts torment him as he tries to deal with priests and laymen who demand change in the Church's teaching on birth control, divorce, and clerical celibacy, while conservative churchmen urge blind support of Rome's uncompromising stand on these issues.As it examines and exposes the inner workings of the Catholic Church, The Good Shepherd, by New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, is an extraordinary story of a decent man driven to the breaking point by his decision to live as a man of God in a world of men.