WELCOME TO KILKENNY’S PUB. Actually, this is the official site for everything you might want to know about the Nolan Kilkenny novels and their author, but in my experience pubs are rather friendly environments and an official site sounds like a place where I’d have to wear a tie. I’ll do my best to keep you up to date on all the goings-on regarding Kilkenny and anything else I may have in the works. So take a look around, or drop me a line if you are so inclined. 

Site Note: The Recent News section below is typically used for information about my books or possibly me. While The Secret Cardinal is a thriller, its China-Vatican storyline is tied into a real and evolving international situation that generates stories that range from hopeful to surreal to horrific. That being the case, I may slip in some real world news from time to time as the stories warrant.

RECENT NEWS

  • 8/5/08 -- The Secret Cardinal goes on sale in paperback, just in time for the start of the Summer Olympic games in Beijing.
  • 7/21/08 -- China intensifies persecution of underground faithful as the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing approaches. The government has built new patriotic churches and temples, and provided funds to existing sanctioned churches to improve their facilities for the Games in an effort to illustrate the religious freedoms enjoyed by Chinese citizens. At the same time, unofficial churches have been shuttered and their leadership and congregants subject to harassment, arrests, or sent to re-education through labor camps. There is a concerted effort to clear Beijing and the surrounding area of any persons involved in unsanctioned worship who might talk to foreign visitors of the press.
  • 7/21/08 -- House church leader Zhang Mingxuan and his wife were again arrested after refusing to leave the Beijing area until after the conclusion of the Olympic Games. Zhang had been arrested in June after meeting with US Congressional Representatives Christopher Smith and Frank Wolf.
  • 7/16/08--Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics appears to have borne some fruit, with a few open Church dioceses openly working with underground clergy, and with the approval of the state-run Patriotic Church.
  • 7/13/08--The Cardinal Kung Foundation reported that all unregistered clergy in the Shanghai Diocese had been placed under house arrest during the month of May to prevent them from making a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Sheshan on May 24, the day Pope Benedict XVI designated as a universal day of prayer for the Church in China.
  • 7/11/08 -- Two underground Roman Catholic priests have disappeared while in police custody. The pair were arrested while attempting to make a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine at Sheshan. Access to the shine has been restricted by the PRC Government.
  • 7/11/08 -- The Chinese Government has disrupted five alleged Islamic terrorist plots to disrupt the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. 82 people have been arrested and 2 executed immediately following their trial.
  • 7/8/08 -- China refuted foreign reports that a mosque in western China had been demolished for refusing to promote the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. A government spokesman said the two religious buildings had been illegally built on agricultural land without government permission. After educating the farmers, the buildings were torn down. The structures were not affiliated with the Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association.
  • 6/27/08 -- Pope Benedict XVI met with Roman Catholic bishops from Hong Kong and Macao for their ad limina visit to Rome. The pope prayed that bishops from mainland China would soon visit Rome.
  • 6/26/08 -- Fr. Paul Meng Ningyou, a patriotic Catholic priest participates in the Olympic Torch relay in China. Chinese television refers to Meng as “religious personnel” and turns the cameras away from him through most of his run.
  • 6/10/08 -- Hong Kong Bishop John Tong Hon will represent the Vatican and the Olympic Games in Beijing. Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong was not invited to attend.
  • 5/24/08 -- Beijing restricts access to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan in the days surrounding the pope’s universal day of prayer for the Church in China. Only a handful of pilgrims are permitted to visit the shrine.
  • 5/6/08 -- The Beijing Philharmonic played a concert of religious music for the pope in the Vatican. Chinese officials hailed the cultural event as a sign of improving relations with hope for a major diplomatic announcement soon. Vatican officials were not so optimistic.
  • 4/9/08 -- Following the violent protests in Tibet, Beijing denies permission for Hong Kong’s cardinal Zen to lead 1000 pilgrims to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan—China’s holiest Catholic Shrine. Zen had planned the pilgrimage to coincide with the May 24, 2008 universal day of prayer for the Church in China called by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics.
  • 4/9/08 -- PHU Sonia Draga acquires the Polish language rights to The Secret Cardinal.
  • 3/5/08 -- DIOMA acquires the Indonesian language rights to The Secret Cardinal.