Before the investigation. Before the journalist. The night the Church decided Father Mateo Padilla was no longer theirs — and he discovered he agreed.

Set in Rome over three weeks in October, The Confession follows a young priest from the letter of summons to the night the collar comes off. Through the tribunal, the Borghese Gallery, a call home to San Antonio, and the specific weight of a man discovering that what he is losing is not what he thought he was protecting.

He walked in a priest. He walked out something the Church could not contain.

The Confession is the origin story of Mateo Padilla — investigative journalist, Vatican Press correspondent, and one of the three leads of the Between Heaven and Hell theological thriller series. It stands alone as a complete story. It also explains everything.

Free to members of the Lewis Publishing House ARC program.