Dark Manna

Father Gerry Gowan is wrongly accused of embezzling church funds. In disgrace, he is sent to St. Martin’s, a rundown parish in a violent, crime ridden barrio the local police refer to as The Swamp. He’s bitter about this assignment, till he learns that St. Martin’s is an outpost of desperately needed social services in an area whose toxic racial mixture is primed to explode.
Nothing in his background has prepared him for the urban bloodbath of The Swamp, where the crime rate is the third highest in the nation and less than half the population speaks English. Aside from that, St. Martin’s century-old buildings are crumbling, its roofs leak, its furnaces are kaput and winter looms, and the parish is mired in penury. Father Gerry tries every legitimate way he can think of to raise money, but when these measures, fail he resorts to criminal means.
As he struggles to save his parish, he contends with his bishop, who would like to see him defrocked and St. Martin’s property sold off. He dodges a local crime boss who wants him dead. He tries to avoid the obvious intentions of Rosa Dominguez, a sultry widow who reveals her sinful thoughts to him in confession, then invites him to dinner. But none of these problems plague him as much as the gnawing realization that crime suits him better than the priesthood.