By Francine Paino, a.k.a. F. Della Notte

Monday, April 21, 2025. “Jorge Bergoglio,” the Camerlengo tapped Jorge’s forehead gently with a silver hammer and repeated his birth name three times. The Camerlengo received no response and declared Pope Francis, the 266th successor to Peter, dead.

Of course, in today’s world, medical devices inform the state of man’s being, but the Catholic Church retains many of its rituals, and this is one. After declaring Pope Francis deceased, his ring was taken and destroyed using a special hammer to ensure it could not be stolen and its seal reused—a practical as well as ceremonial action.

The world is aware that the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics is dead, and Peter’s seat is empty until a new Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. The world will observe the beloved rituals and ceremonies of the highest levels of clergy in the Catholic Church, and perhaps at this time, it is fitting to observe the lives of those of us who live the everyday, less exalted existences. Enter author Jon Hassler.

Catholicism, love it or hate it, is filled with traditions. Even today, after so many of the rules, ceremonies, and rites have been watered down, Hassler shows how Catholics are still impacted by their faith and how the changes have been received or rejected. He infuses his characters with insights and the deeper longings of our souls, to be respected, needed, loved, and part of a community. Being Catholic, Hassler writes with great authority about the perspectives and outlooks of this group of fictitious Catholics in the fictitious town of Staggerford, Minnesota. And, of course, non-Catholics will recognize and relate to these people. But why do we read fiction?

We read fiction to escape. Great adventures, mysteries, romance, and Sci-fi. But why read a book about a cast of characters whose lives are nothing special? Lives like our own, possibly? One can read these books and identify with different characters, their likes, dislikes, and situations. The progressive, touchy-feely nun, Sister Judy Juba, her obnoxious but elderly father. He wants a wife, but not for companionship as much as someone to care for him. Janet, Randy, and their young children. Father Finn and French, the Vietnam veteran with lingering PTSD, Who are these people? They are us!

Like sleepwalkers, we often move through the repetitive routines of life with our eyes half open or sometimes closed, as do the characters in Hassler’s books. In A Green Journey, we are introduced to his small town and its residents as they work their way through days of routine, nothing-special tasks. They’re not Hollywood stars, singers, or men and women of great wealth or political power. What this core group has in common is they are all influenced by the rules and requirements of being Catholic, and they are influenced by a steadfast, and still devout Catholic heroine, Agatha McGee.

Agatha is a crusty, disciplined disciplinarian and an ‘old maid’ who wants the best for everyone. She’d taught most of them over decades in St. Isadore’s elementary school. Agatha is also an old-fashioned Catholic who voluntarily observes rules that had been relaxed by the Second Vatican Council, like not eating meat on Friday.

While she does her best not to become despondent over the changes in the church, the end of her teaching career, and her aloneness without a husband or children, she involves herself in the lives of other residents of Staggerford, including her dearest friend, Lillian Kite, Lillian’s daughter Imogene, Father Finn, the pastor at St. Isadore, and a host of others. They all slog through life’s ups and downs with Agatha’s advice and assistance – or interference, depending on the point of view. While doing her best to help her neighbors, Agatha begins an innocent long-distance pen-pal relationship with James O’Hannon, a kindred spirit, in Ireland. She pours out her heart and the troubles and opinions of the community to him. After five years and a mutual growing affection, she can travel to Ireland to meet him. That trip holds great surprises for our heroine and James O’Hannon.

In the second book, Dear James, Agatha is back in Staggerford after her trip to Ireland and continues to respond to James’s letters but doesn’t mail them. Instead, she saves his in her desk drawer, unsure if she will ever fully reestablish their communications. After Thanksgiving, Father Finn invites her to join a pilgrimage to Rome with him and his brother, a college professor. There, she reconnects with James. As they work through what their relationship can and cannot be, at home, in Staggerford, Lillian’s spiteful daughter, Imogene, invites herself into Agatha’s house, searches it and finds James’s letters. Imogine reads them and is furious by what Agatha wrote. She takes an evil delight in spreading the news that Agatha has been sharing unflattering gossip about the townspeople. Upon her return from Rome, Agatha is greeted by a chill worthy of the deepest Minnesota freeze. How will they rise above their hostilities? Can they come together again?

Hassler was a gifted writer whose ability to infuse what we’d consider the mundane with deep insights into the greater, profound life that each of us contains is brilliant. As no two people on Earth have the same fingerprint, no two have identical soul prints. And therein, we find the truer meanings of the small, seemingly commonplace things in life.   

A New Woman is book three of the Staggerford Series. I look forward to reading about the later phases of Agatha’s 88-year life.

Until next time, Happy Reading.