New Gods of North America.

Chapter 455: Monks Are Not Immune to Secularity
Since the detective agency opened, it has participated in quite a few investigations.
However, when Wayne opened the file in the carriage, he found that this was probably the first time he had seen such a case.

Tom Hagen was attacked near the cathedral. The murderer happened to find him alone and shot him in the back with poisoned bullets.

But Tom Hagen didn't die even after this, because there was also the victim's own testimony in the file, and it said that the recording location was in the church hospital. Wayne felt that such detailed content should not be the result that could be obtained through "psychic communication".

Looking further down, the file also contained the interrogation record of the murderer. The reason for the murder was a personal grudge, which was related to a mission Tom Hagen had previously performed.
The murderer even described the preparation process for the crime, and attached a confession at the end.

There are witnesses and evidence, and the murderer has been caught. If it were in Black Rock Town, we could notify the townspeople to prepare to watch the hanging tomorrow.

What are you checking for?

Unfortunately, it seems that not only Bishop Corleone thinks there is a real murderer behind this, but even Reverend Tyrell thinks so.

Moreover, Reverend Tyrell had even thought of the real murderer in advance. "With a public execution like this, Barzini probably felt that he could not escape the blame this time, and was venting his dissatisfaction. However, such a case is not easy to investigate. We have to find a way to find evidence to catch him."

Wayne thought about it all the way, wondering if this was also what Bishop Corleone meant.

Back at the detective agency, I really didn't dare to send out agents in a hurry.
The partners studied it for a while. Lina felt that it was not strange that political struggles took place anywhere. On the contrary, Inissa thought about it for a long time but could not find any evidence pointing to Pastor Bazini. She wondered how Wayne and the others had identified the real murderer.

Some things cannot be figured out just by looking at the files. If you want to investigate, you have to go to Richmond.
Wayne then brought up the big-eyed octopus and planned to ask the "insiders" who have lived in the local area what they thought about the case.

After knocking on the fish tank several times and going to the kitchen to find some fresh meat to feed it, this guy gradually woke up from his "fresh seafood" state.

At present, the average time its "IQ is online" is no more than half an hour a day, which includes the time spent thinking and recalling. Wayne picked up the things that he was most concerned about and asked, curious about whether there had been any grudges between the local church leaders in the past.

The blood vessels and nerves connected to the big eyeballs have now been inserted into the fresh meat. The fresh meat, which had long been cold, began to wriggle and tremble again in the water, showing a vitality that made people feel uncomfortable.
The big-eyed octopus was "frozen" for several minutes before a hollow sound vibrated over:

"Some local pastors have a lot of complaints about the cathedral, but it seems that there has never been a direct conflict..."

This is not surprising. No respectable person would publicly throw a tantrum or pull someone's hair.

Maybe they will kill each other's entire family tomorrow, but today they can still smile at each other and drink together.

Wayne changed the question, "In Pastor Pycelle's opinion, what is the root cause of the conflict between those pastors and the cathedral?"

This time the big-eyed octopus reacted much faster:

"The parishes of the Holy Spirit Church are relatively independent of each other. The development of the church in the south is inseparable from the support of large and small plantation owners, while the development of the church in the north cannot deviate from the expectations of factory owners. When the differences among believers are reflected at the church level, the so-called "identity" problem will arise. Pastors have to cater to the mainstream views of the core believers of the parish and make different interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. "One of the more heatedly debated topics is, for example, 'Can slaves be considered healthy people?' The plantation owners must deprive the other party of some "rationality" in law and morality in order to make their own actions tenable.

"In this sense, many pastors in Virginia feel that some of the current bishop's ideas will reduce believers' sense of belonging and support for the local church. At least the next bishop must not be such a person."

Why are you monks arguing about this...

Master, your mind is still not calm enough.

Wayne felt as if he had gotten a preliminary answer. "So the person who has the biggest disagreement with the cathedral is Reverend Bazzini?"

The big-eyed octopus swayed a little on the piece of fresh meat, and it looked like it was shaking its head:
"Almost all the pastors in the South believe this. This is not something that can be reversed simply based on ideology. Pastor Tyrell and Pastor Bazzini are just the two with the highest prestige among them.

"If they lose the support of the plantation owners, many churches may even have difficulty maintaining their daily lives, or even find it difficult to continue. No matter how devout the slaves are, they can't actually contribute much.

"If there is any difference, Reverend Tyrell seems to hope to eventually become a member of the bishops' council, or even become the chief archbishop, while Reverend Bazzini is not interested in the bishops' council dominated by northern priests."

Having said that, Wayne really felt as if he had seen Bishop Corleone's perspective.
As a local bishop and a member of the Episcopal Conference of the Holy Spirit Church, the most important thing for Bishop Corleone at that level is perhaps to try his best to avoid the emergence of a "separatist" state in the diocese.

That's why Bishop Corleone blindly selected Reverend Tyrell before the truth was revealed.

As both are southern priests who stand on the side of the manor owners, since Reverend Tyrell hopes to enter the College of Bishops, he will at least nominally uphold the authority of the College of Bishops. In comparison, if Reverend Bazzini comes to power in the future, he may be more likely to "form his own faction."

Thinking about it this way, the position of the detective agency as a chess piece in Bishop Corleone's heart seems to be clear.
If the trend of "Southern pastors" forming a climate is inevitable, then we must support the forces of different factions to "neutralize" them.
That is why Bishop Corleone is concerned about the "harvest" of the detective agency. What he wants to avoid is the "tail that is too big to be removed" in the parish, or even the "self-reliance" after further expansion.

It is because America is a "bottom-up" bulk country that the Holy Spirit Church can propose various rules that believers should follow, but it cannot force believers to go to a certain church to make donations, which is why this kind of thing becomes a problem.
There probably wasn’t such a problem in the Old World and the Middle Ages. The knights would simply be sent to “deal with it,” and the losing party would know how to accept their fate.

Wayne felt that the detective agency now seemed a bit like the role of the "Knights".

But after thinking about the story of "Black Friday", I felt that this metaphor was not very auspicious.

But now that I have figured it out, let's check it out honestly.

Let’s see which lucky person will have his house searched by imperial order this time.

(End of this chapter)