The Cosmic Ray Heresy — Frank Smith

Frank Donnelly is a physics professor at a Philadelphia university and a Catholic priest; a rare combination. What may be more unusual is that Frank is also married, one of less than a hundred such priests in the United States. When his wife is killed in a tragic accident Frank is left to raise his young daughter alone. Three years later he falls in love with Vicki Meyers, a teacher in the parish school at St. Elizabeth's where he ministers on weekends, herself a widow with a young son.The Vatican is not amused by Frank's petition to remarry and that is not his only problem. He has been receiving threatening emails suggesting that he is not a true priest and he teams up with a woman detective investigating the possible murder of a priest who had received similar emails.Frank and Vicki's love grows as they take their children to birthday parties, the zoo, playgrounds, and soccer matches even as their hope fades for a positive response to Frank's petition. Meanwhile, in his physics lab the sudden and very strange behavior of some cosmic rays can't be explained scientifically. As a scientist he is reluctant to consider a supernatural explanation, but the Vatican is not and worried enough for Frank to apply a little ecclesiastical blackmail in support of his petition.