The whole congregation and everyone in town was shocked when the famous Pastor Nolan was arrested by the police. No one believed that a religious leader could have been guilty of this crime, and yet the cops revealed a dark secret he’d been hiding for a long time. Although men of the cloth were supposed to be humble and unassuming, no one could deny that Pastor Nolan was something of a superstar preacher.
Whenever he preached the evening service, the ushers had to carry extra chairs because the church was already packed. Some people drove from other neighborhoods or even other cities to experience his unique style of preaching. One could almost say that he had the common touch, but that was not the only touch he had, because there was something else about him that drew people to his services.
Pastor Nolan had a reputation for being a healer, and that struck a nerve with many people. It wasn’t a dramatic stuff like quadriplegics jumping out of their wheelchairs and dancing in the aisles—no, not that. But, and this was something that mainly passed through the congregation by word of mouth, he had this way of singling out a person, praying over them, and getting results. It was as if he had a direct line to God to help those people who faced difficult health challenges.
He seemed to know ahead of time what their problem was, even before they spoke to him. Sometimes there would be more than one session, but to date, each and every person Pastor Nolan had knelt over had afterwards experienced some near miraculous recovery. There were even a few stories in the newspapers about his gift of healing, first just a few paragraphs in a local paper, then larger reports in larger outlets. Then, finally, after much persuasion, he agreed to take part in a talk show, but only on condition that his fee be donated to the church.
With such a sterling reputation, everyone in the country was shocked when one morning the police showed up to arrest the famous Pastor Nolan. Some people were outraged, and many shook their heads in disbelief. Surely, this had to be a terrible misunderstanding. The unlikely scene drew many interested spectators. Some people actually winced as police officers clapped the handcuffs around his wrists and nudged him firmly towards the police car. Others were merely interested in seeing how this little bit of local scandal would unfold. Some of the bystanders even began to speculate amongst each other about the possible nature of Pastor Nolan’s crime, while others fiercely defended his honor.
One very persistent parishioner tried to engage the police officer who seemed to be in charge of the arrest, but with utterly immovable professionalism, the detective refused to comment. In the police vehicle, Pastor Nolan kept his head down and avoided the eyes of his faithful flock. Then, the police contingent drove off, leaving everyone with more questions than answers. What had Pastor Nolan done that could have justified such harsh treatment?
The priest’s arrest made a huge impression on one young church worker named Michael. He found it almost impossible to believe that the pastor was guilty of something so serious that the police had to get involved. There had to be some explanation for this extremely unlikely chain of events. Michael’s curiosity led him to ask questions around the church community. He spoke to volunteers, church workers, anyone who’d been involved in the church. He even spoke to one of the ladies who had been healed by Pastor Nolan.
At first, he heard only positive stories. Pastor Nolan was a man of God, and his healing ministry had touched many lives. He was about to think that he must have been crazy to even consider those suspicions about such a good and holy man. A woman named Lena told Michael with tears in her eyes of the day Pastor Nolan had prayed for her healing. After his prayers, she recovered quickly. It was hardly surprising, then, that she believed with all her heart in Pastor Nolan’s healing powers.
Michael remembered her case and firmly believed that Pastor Nolan had spoken to God himself on behalf of that poor woman. However, someone didn’t agree. Lena’s physician, Dr. Mills, had a completely different opinion on the matter. He acknowledged that Lena had recovered all of a sudden, but told Michael that her disease had gone into remission before she had even gone to Pastor Nolan for prayer. Her most recent tests had confirmed this. She had already been on the road to recovery before Pastor Nolan had supposedly healed her.
As they conversed, Dr. Mills offered an alternative theory about Pastor Nolan’s so-called success in healing. He suspected that the pastor was cheating in some way and even mentioned that he had seen Pastor Nolan chatting to one of the senior nurses a few times, but he had not been close enough to overhear any of their conversations. The doctor believed that Pastor Nolan had some kind of hold over the nurse.
These conflicting statements gave Michael much food for thought. Who should he believe? Lena sounded absolutely sincere in her conviction of the healing, but the doctor had medical science on his side. And what about the nurse he had mentioned? Who was she, and what role did she play in this?
As Michael kept searching for answers, one of the volunteers he spoke to gave him something tangible: a tiny clue. This was a woman named Elaine, who did the flowers every Thursday and sometimes tidied up. She mentioned something that intrigued Michael, but when he prompted her to say more, she looked around, shrugged, and hurried off. Michael was puzzled by her behavior. He really wished that she had been more specific. Her words were so vague.
But he did learn one thing: he simply had to look into Pastor Nolan’s room at the back of the church that no one was allowed to enter. The existence of a secret office that only Pastor Nolan was allowed to enter intrigued Michael. If it was off-limits to everyone else, it would be the perfect place to hide anything that could shed some light on this mysterious arrest.
Michael considered finding some way of picking the lock to this private office of Pastor Nolan, or even getting a locksmith to open it. But then he remembered that there was one person who did have the keys to every forgotten space within the church and its outbuildings. And it was to this man that Michael took his dilemma.
Father Daniel had served the community for more than 20 years, first under Pastor Nolan’s predecessor, Pastor James, and then for the past 12 years under Pastor Nolan himself. Over the years, he had seen how Pastor Nolan’s popularity made the church numbers grow, and this also led to more money being available for necessary upgrades, restoration work, and improvements.
When Michael explained his concerns and suspicions, Father Daniel was at first skeptical. Pastor Nolan was a man of God who did much good in the community and so had to be above reproach. But Michael used logic and patience to persuade him. He reminded Father Daniel that Pastor Nolan was currently in jail, and whether he was guilty or innocent, they could probably find answers to the puzzle within the four walls of that room. Who knows? They might even find evidence to clear Pastor Nolan of all wrongdoing.
So, Father Daniel turned the key to give him access to Pastor Nolan’s secrets. As Michael stepped inside the priest’s sanctuary, he was, at first glance, a little disappointed. What had he expected? Walls lined with scantily clad pinup models? A portable meth lab? A hidden collection of stolen art? There was nothing of the sort here. Instead, the room seemed insignificant and underwhelming. There was a cheap pinewood
desk stacked with piles and piles of printouts. Michael’s heart sank at the thought of wading through all of that paperwork. He had no idea where to begin.
He picked up a little notebook that had caught his attention, mainly because of its bright orange cover. He flipped through the pages, but its contents made no sense to him. There were rows of numbers, some of them matched with abbreviations that seemed to be pure gibberish. Here and there, he made out plus or minus signs, but if these were calculations, he could not figure out what they were about.
Behind him, he heard Father Daniel say, “Will you look at that? Six million. What is this all about?” Michael spun around to see what had attracted Father Daniel’s attention. The seon held a financial statement of some kind. Michael peered over his shoulder and saw that it was a bank statement. The current balance given on the statement was $6,212,755—a fortune. Then he saw the name of the account holder: Pastor Nolan. Not the church account, but the pastor’s personal account. How on earth could he have accumulated such a fortune?
“Well, that’s odd,” Michael said.
“I’ll say,” Father Daniel agreed. “I’ve been saving my salary for 22 years, and I don’t have even a fraction of that. Michael, I think you’re onto something, and I’m as curious about this as you.”
Michael remembered the little notebook in his hand and showed it to Father Daniel. The seon frowned as he scanned through the cryptic writings. He turned a page over, then another, until he came to the end of the little book. He squinted at the bank statement and then back at the little book.
“I’m no expert,” Daniel began, “but these look like stock investments. Massive stock investments. See those signs? That’s where he made a currency transaction. We need to find statements and certificates, perhaps on his computer,” Michael suggested.
“If this is real, then our Pastor Nolan had a fortune squirreled away. Maybe there were some irregularities,” Michael was thinking out loud. “Insider trading? He could have heard some stock secrets in confession. Or maybe he’s laundering this money.”
“We need more evidence,” Father Daniel said. “You start this side; I’ll work from the other side. Anything that looks funny, you show me.”
Michael’s mind was still reeling at the thought of Pastor Nolan having accumulated so much money. But they had only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. What he found next had disturbing implications.
Going through the papers, Michael came upon a box file, and here he found a printout that he just knew Pastor Nolan was not meant to have. It contained the medical readouts of 12 patients, each complete with details of their medical history, confidential test results, and usually with a scrawled note that said things like, ‘Her antibody count is low; she is practically negative,’ and ‘The tumor is shrinking.’
He showed the contents to Father Daniel, who recognized all 12 names as devoted parishioners.
“Is that all?” the priest wanted to know.
“There are two more box files like that,” Michael said.
A troubling picture was emerging. In the end, Michael and Father Daniel had the medical details of over 53 patients, and they had several things in common. For one, they were all members of Pastor Nolan’s congregation. All of them had been plagued by serious illnesses, but according to the medical records, they were all starting to recover through successful drug treatment.
“I know most of these names,” Michael said.
“I know all of them,” Father Daniel replied. “Wait, I want to check something.”
He returned to the bank statement. After a moment, he showed Michael.
“Look, there’s the deposit, and that one matches this patient.”
Michael was beginning to figure it out. He must have been charging them for each healing. The thought of Pastor Nolan operating a kind of miracle-for-hire service within the church was horrifying.
But when Michael logged into his email account, the full shocking details came to light. There were numerous emails from an account called Clinic Info, and once he began to read those emails, he discovered exactly how Pastor Nolan’s insidious scam had worked.
The priest was no healer at all but instead used the confidential information from an insider in the medical profession to find those parishioners whose health challenges were already showing signs of improvement. From another correspondence, it was crystal clear that he preyed on people’s fears and insecurities about their illnesses. For some people, a religious counselor seemed that much more approachable than a doctor or a nurse.
Michael showed the correspondence to Father Daniel, who also expressed his disgust at Pastor Nolan’s deceit. He had obviously misused his position for his own gain, extorting money in exchange for what those poor people perceived as salvation. They were essentially paying him to pray for them and put in a good word with the Lord, which was simply outrageous.
One of his victims must have reported his scam to the police, and that’s how he had gotten himself arrested.
Although this was really terrible news, Michael felt relieved that the truth had been uncovered because that would begin the process of recovery for the church and its congregation. He and Father Daniel agreed to work with the police to prosecute Pastor Nolan for having exploited the most vulnerable members of the congregation.
Thanks to the detective work of Michael and Father Daniel, much of Pastor Nolan’s ill-gotten gains could be recovered and returned to the persons it was stolen from.
