Pro-life director writes novel about
God’s saving grace
By Mary Ann Wyand
Saving souls.
That’s the primary work of the Catholic Church—preparing people to spend eternity with God.
That’s also the goal of Servants of the Gospel of Life Sister Diane Carollo in her ministries as director of the archdiocesan Office for Pro-Life Ministry and part-time director of religious education at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.
It’s also what she hopes to accomplish with her first novel, The Final Choice, about the life and death decisions that people make in contemporary society.
The right choices, of course, are based on Scripture and Church teachings, Sister Diane said, while the wrong choices lead people down sinful pathways of destructive behavior that result in pain, heartbreak and suffering caused by their estrangement from God.
Satan tempts people to commit mortal sins, she said, and they must make moral choices in their lives or face the very real possibility of banishment to hell.
In her fast-paced novel about faith and sin, Sister Diane combines Gospel messages about morality with compelling narratives of eight characters that embrace relativism and find themselves caught in downward spirals culminating in personal encounters with Satan.
“The Final Choice is a novel about life and death, and how faith impacts these two mysteries,” Sister Diane said during a recent interview about the suspense novel she wrote to bring alive the supernatural struggle between good and evil.
“The fictional characters in the book may resemble your family members, friends, neighbors or acquaintances,” she said, and that’s what makes the book so believable.
A press release issued by Tate Publishing, a Christian publisher based in Mustang, Okla., said “author D. L. Carollo transports us beyond today, cautions us about tomorrow and leads us to the brink of eternity, where faith leads to hope, hope to love and love to God.”
Sister Diane said her book is based on Church teachings, but she chose to publish it as “D. L. Carollo” in order to reach a wider audience beyond Catholic readers.
A variety of characters face life and death decisions about abortion, suicide, murder, and other mortal and venial sins, she said, just like real people do in everyday life.
Her narratives set in New York and Indianapolis detail how Satan convinces the characters to turn away from God until they are forced to make “the final choice.”
Friends who have read The Final Choice, which was released on Feb. 21, describe the book as a “page-turner” written in an easy-to-read and entertaining style similar to best-selling Catholic author Mary Higgins Clark’s mystery novels.
Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general and pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis, praised Sister Diane’s novel in a statement published on the back cover of the 243-page book.
“The author of The Final Choice has devoted her life to God and to the protection of human life,” Msgr. Schaedel wrote. “Through her experiences in the pro-life movement, she weaves fascinating stories together. She’s done it highlighting the sinister power that evil plays when persons are tempted to pride, selfishness and sin—even to the point of destroying God’s gift of human life. At the same time, God’s power to trump any cards [that] Satan plays provides hope.”
After reading Sister Diane’s book, the vicar general noted, “one cannot forget the horrible price [that] evil demands, then how evil abandons the sinners to wallow in destructive guilt.”
Father Frank Pavone, the founder and national director of Priests for Life based in Staten Island, N.Y., also praised Sister Diane’s book in a brief endorsement on the back cover.
“The Final Choice is a compelling story that brings alive the supernatural struggle between life and death, seen in the light of eternity,” Father Pavone wrote. “Sister Diane Carollo guides the reader through the deep decisions of those torn with the temptations of the culture of death, highlighting the necessity of faith, prayer and trust in God for every individual.”
Father Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International headquartered in Front Royal, Va., also reviewed Sister Diane’s book for the back cover.
“This very touching pro-life novel is beautifully written,” Father Euteneuer wrote. “I loved it and would recommend it as an insightful exposé, through the medium of effective storytelling, of the whole spectrum of our society’s involvement in the terrible business of abortion. Particularly trenchant were the chapters where Satan enters the scene and shows how perfectly demonic are abortion’s roots.”
However, Father Euteneuer said, “most compelling of all is the message of salvation that exudes from the pages of this novel. Make sure all teens read this one!”
Sister Diane said a 15-year-old boy who just finished reading her book told her, “This was a really good book. Will you sign it for me?”
The book is “fiction based on the truth of the Church’s teachings,” she said, and is intended to be read by junior high and high school students as well as adults.
Sister Diane said she entrusted the book to God, Mary and St. Joseph during the year that it took her to write it.
“I was considering ways to engage in a new evangelization and promote pro-life ideals,” she said. “I decided to write a religious novel. The novel speaks about some of the most important moral issues of our day. I embedded in the story the liberating truths of our Catholic faith. It is my hope and prayer that this work of fiction may turn hearts and minds to Christ and his Church.”
National statistics indicate that about 55 percent of people read popular fiction, Sister Diane said, but only 10 percent of people read religious non-fiction books.
“What I saw was a tremendous need to reach out to people,” she said. “Satan is so successful at seducing people into sin because of relativism, which teaches that you construct your own morality. But that’s a lie. You don’t determine what’s right and wrong. God does.”
Sister Diane said she “wanted to find a way to bring the liberating truths of the Gospel in an appealing yet creative and effective way” to people.
“I describe The Final Choice as ‘a written soap opera,’ ” she said. “The book is permeated with the truth that is going to set people free. It’s only those who live in truth that are going to find true happiness.”
(The Final Choice sells for $14.95 and is available online from Tate Publishing at www.tatepublishing.com and Barnes and Noble at www.barnesandnoble.com as well as Catholic and Christian bookstores by request.) †
