Section Thirty-One

The Comerlegno gathered his thoughts before he entered the chapel for the opening prayers of Conclave. He flashed back to when he was a child, he could remember clearly the walls of the church crumbling around him. He would always ask his mother where his father was, knowing full well that he had died before he was born. His mother would always tell him that his father is God now, that he is a son of the church. Carlo; the Comerlegno, had been the sole survivor of a terrorist bombing of the chapel which him and his mother had attended while on a vacation. Carlo's mother lost her life that day, along with 37 others. When Carlo had recovered from this devastating incident, the bishop of the church arranged for him to live in a small monastery attached to the church which he over saw. Carlo became an altar boy for the bishop, who was his new protector. At sixteen, Carlo was obligated to serve in the military by Italian law, unless he entered seminary, then he would be exempt from serving. He explained that he did want to, and would enter seminary, but first he had to understand evil, and therefore decided to serve his two years in the military. Carlo said that if he was going to spend his life fighting evil with the church, that first he must understand it.

At his time in the military, Carlo refused to fire a gun, in turn, they taught him how to fly an emergency helicopter. He had to learn how to parachute in case of an emergency which terrified him, but he knew that God was with him, and he did it anyways. He hated his experience in the military, but he was determined to understand evil, and stick it out.

After bouncing back from his flash back, he was now at the doors of the Sistine Chapel, about to enter to give the opening prayer.