The Bishop's Man

The Bishop's Man is a novel by Canadian writer Linden MacIntyre, published in August 2009. The story follows a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill who became so successful at resolving potential church scandals quickly and quietly that he had to accept a position at a remote parish on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to give himself a low profile. MacIntyre, a native of Cape Breton, released the novel amidst the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese in Nova Scotia. The book was awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Canadian Booksellers Association's Fiction Book of the Year. Critics gave positive reviews, especially noting MacIntyre's successful development of characters.

At the time of the book's publication, author Linden MacIntyre was 66 years old and living in Toronto with his wife Carol Off. MacIntyre was working at CBC Television where he had been the co-host of the fifth estate since 1990. He had written one previous novel, The Long Stretch, which was published in 1999. Both The Long Stretch and The Bishop's Man were set on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia where MacIntyre was raised. As a child, MacIntyre was raised by an Irish-Catholic mother and attended church regularly where the local priest inspired him to consider becoming a priest.

The book was published at the same time as a $15 million settlement was reached in the sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese in Nova Scotia. Evidence emerged that the principal offender, Bishop Raymond Lahey may have assumed the role of the bishop's man in sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese in Newfoundland in 1989 when he served under then-archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney. In an ecclesiastical context, the term bishop's man generally refers to the title of vicar general, who serves as the diocesan bishop's principal deputy for the exercise of administrative authority or refers to the title of auxiliary bishop, a priest who is consecrated as an episcopal assistant to the local ordinary. The Bishop's Man is noted as one of the first cultural depictions of the Catholic sexual abuse scandals. In translating real-life situations to fiction MacIntyre stated, "I do believe that the very best of fiction is based on fact...and an awful lot of the factual situations I've been involved with just scream out for creative elaboration."