title: Priest: The Last Confession
author: Royal Phillips
description: As an international childbirth instructor and doula for over 35 years, Royal Phillips has taught and lectured in the United States, the Middle East, Central America, Europe, Indonesia and Australia. She has been the teacher of choice for many movie actors and professional athletes. As an advocate for children, Royal has also created and produced childbirth-specific books, audiotapes, and videos. Her documentary, Prince for a Day, chronicles Indonesian circumcision rituals on the youth of Sumbawa and was presented at the Anti-Genital Mutilation Symposium at University of Sydney, Australia. Royal has been a contributor to the Santa Barbara News Press and a columnist for The Montecito Journal. Her writing has received several awards, including her screenplay Incommunicado, based on her hostage experience in the 1994 Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico. Her recently published book, Ugly Duckling: A True Life Story of Beauty, Manipulation and Murder, is available on Amazon.com. Born on Valentines Day, 1940, in Chicago, Royal is an alumna of The University of New Mexico. She is a mother of three, grandmother of five, and a birth mother of one. She is a world traveler who has visited over 80 countries. Royal currently resides in the Smoky Mountains.
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  [Contents](0671578405_toc.htm)
  
  # CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  
  ### BENIGNITY OF THE COMPASSIONATE HAND
  
  ### NUOVO VENITZA, SANTA LUZIA
  
  
  
  Confession, for a member of the Order of Swords who had been on a mission,
  must always be to a priest of the Order. Even so, there were things no one
  confessed, not if he wanted to live; the priests had the rightecclesiastical
  and legalto mete out punishment, including death.
  
  Hostite Fieddi knelt in silence, awaiting the priest's arrival, and thought
  about what he had to confess, and what he had to conceal. As a young man, he
  had found distinguishing between debriefing and confession very difficult, but
  now it was second nature.
  
  The soft chime rang; Hostite began the old, familiar ritual, "Forgive me . .
  ." Even as his voice continued the opening phrases, his mind was dividing, as
  sheep from goats, the truths he must repent from the other truths of which he
  must not repent, as long as he was a Swordm