WASHINGTON (CNS) — “I’m no author,” averred retired Bishop Francis A. Quinn of Sacramento, Calif. Well, he is now.

Bishop Quinn, at age 93, has become a first-time author, telling his life story in what he termed a “fictional memoir,” chronicling the lives of three priests from their high school seminary days in “Behind Closed Doors: Conflicts in Today’s Church.” Anyone interested in buying it online shouldn’t look for “Bishop” in the author’s name. Instead, he used Francis Anthony Quinn.

In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from the assisted-living facility in Sacramento where he lives, Bishop Quinn said, laughing, “I figured it (‘bishop’) would draw some people but scare others off; they think it’s going to be a religious book. And it could scare off non-Catholics, people of other faiths, thinking this was just going to be a Catholic book.”

The three main characters are David Carmichael, who wants to be well-liked but is quiet, unsure of himself; Ladd Franklin, a restless, questioning sort who eschews parish ministry for Catholic Relief Services (CRS); and Tyler Stone, who is accused of sexual misconduct near the end of his priestly ministry.

Bishop Quinn said there’s “50 or 60 percent” of himself in the character of Carmichael – the only one who, like him, is ordained a bishop – about 50 percent in the Franklin character, as Bishop Quinn himself served many years overseas with CRS, but only about 10 percent in the character of Stone, putting Stone’s upbringing in Tucson, Arizona, on a parallel with his own. The bishop hastened to say he had never, unlike Stone’s character, been accused of any sexual misconduct during his priestly ministry.