Father Tyrrell returned to the carriage.
The wheels slowly started moving. The Chief Aide, who had been waiting in the carriage, eagerly opened his memorandum, ready to continue asking how to handle the relevant matters—there was still a pile of things that needed the decision of the soon-to-be-officially-appointed Bishop-elect.
Father Tyrrell's expression wasn't very good at this moment, and he wasn't as joyful as he had initially imagined.
Last night, Bazzini and a group of old friends only agreed to the invitation after receiving his repeated assurances of safety. Now, they were labeled as 'rebels' of a secret society in the newspapers. The people behind them had probably completely lost trust in him.
For now, he could only try to appease them and stabilize them. If that didn't work... it would take time to slowly sort things out.
Corleone's intention in 'propping him up' was quite obvious. Since there were no people from their side among the candidates for this term, he simply created such a mess, causing those with Southern backgrounds to attack and guard against each other. 'Their people' would, in turn, become objects he needed to win over. He even had to continue to maintain his dignity and glory as the former Bishop.
This move wasn't particularly clever, but it was indeed effective. At least in the short term, he truly had no choice but to act according to Corleone's planned pace.
However, Corleone might have overestimated those Northern priests. The positions of parish priests were often not decided by themselves.
When facing small farmers and yeomen in the mountain regions, they could, of course, be dissatisfied with many real-world situations. But once transferred to a plain parish, they often had to learn how to coexist peacefully with large landowners and slave owners—those who controlled land and slaves not only possessed money and power, but they could also indirectly influence the will of the faithful.
Among the 'own people' of the Southern priests, not all actually came from Southern backgrounds. Facts proved that some Northern priests eventually became even more radical than true Southerners.
Some people just hadn't had the opportunity to manage wealthy parishes and hadn't 'changed' yet. This actually had nothing to do with 'where they came from.'
Time and environment can sometimes truly change everything.
Corleone had maintained this balance for so many years, yet even now, he hadn't been able to completely suppress it? He had overtly and covertly supported so many people, one after another, only for them to either be relegated to the periphery or encounter problems themselves, never getting a chance to rise again.
Such was the general trend; Virginia could not be completely changed by a few 'strongmen.'
And I am different from Bazzini. At least I am willing to give those marginalized priests the chance to 'approach' and 'change.'
Noticing that Father Tyrrell's expression softened slightly, the Chief Aide across the carriage seat tentatively began to inquire about the current matters.
He was preparing to make language-modified memorandum notes according to the Bishop's specifications. "Your Grace, how should this detective be handled subsequently?"
"Before the official ordination, still call me 'Father.' As for Wayne... we can cooperate on official matters, but we don't need to concern ourselves with other aspects. Walter and Bazzini were too close in the past; we need to weaken their hidden power. There are some things that are inconvenient for us to handle personally right now, as it could cause them to overreact. We can let the people Corleone left behind handle it.
"Those in the personal guard who were originally under Peter Clemenza are still missing. This Wayne might be privy to information. I just had someone leave him some lists and incriminating evidence. Given the size of his Detective Agency, he probably can't handle it right now. Let's see if Corleone's old associates will watch him go to his death, or if they'll be unable to resist stepping in.
"Since he chose to be a neutral 'vigilante' and is unwilling to align, then we don't need to invest resources in him. Just wait for the results."
The Chief Aide timely reminded him, "Our people inspected a scene this morning. The incident was likely carried out by those Red Hands under Clemenza. They didn't even try to disturb the scene or destroy evidence. The target was one of Mr. Walter's hidden command posts. From the intelligence originally collected from that post, this detective seems to be a target secretly monitored by the Fisk Family's patriarch. Their note for him on the attack list was 'requires consultation.'"
Father Tyrrell nodded slightly: "I know about this. Wayne has a personal relationship with Samuel Fisk's two children. This might even be at Samuel Fisk's personal instruction. This is also one of the reasons I currently agree to him continuing as a private 'vigilante'—some people might not allow him to deviate from his path, or to lean too heavily towards our side. But I'm not sure if this is a command secretly left by Corleone, or if there are others involved.
"The Fisk Family also has a history of bad records in this regard. The public will probably never imagine that the 'Underground Railroad' was initially created because they wanted to use a segment of public sentiment to actually strike at and destroy the industries of some small slave owners, and then seize the opportunity to acquire their land. As a result, the 'Underground Railroad' has now developed to a degree almost completely out of control, becoming unorganized wandering wolf packs scattered across various places."
This was the first time the Chief Aide had heard of this secret, and he couldn't help but make a mental note—this was also the biggest reason he was willing to become Father Tyrrell's private aide, as he could learn about all sorts of behind-the-scenes dealings.
While making memorandum notes about the proposed handling of the Detective Agency, he began to ask about more important official matters, "There were many incidents last night. Just the crime scenes involving the local church's mid-to-high-level personnel and related industries already number 12. Do we still need to arrange for people to formally investigate these cases?"
Father Tyrrell understood what his aide wanted to say and waved his hand, "For anything related to Corleone, publicly state that it was an arrest of rebellious criminals. The political and military spheres haven't made any major moves yet; some things should have been discussed and agreed upon in advance. As his recommended successor, there's no need for me to proactively leave these blemishes."
"But the situation at some of the scenes is quite special. Saying it was 'arresting criminals' might not be appropriate..."
The Chief Aide had only spoken half a sentence when he noticed the change in Father Tyrrell's expression and quickly offered a new reason, "Why not say that those rebels instigated it, intending to silence witnesses and destroy evidence? We'll have someone internally go through the motions, and then seal the archives. If no one brings it up afterward, we can arrange another archive loss in a few years."
"Alright, let's do that. For the newspaper, be careful with the guidance; don't let the public focus their attention on this."
"Yes! And then there's our preliminary list of interim priests. For some positions, I'm afraid you'll need to decide personally..."
