INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

      Daniel Gawthrop’s Victoria book launch for his 2013 publication of “The Trial Of Pope Benedict” (Arsenal Pulp Press $15.95) was held July 25 at the Victoria Public Library’s central location at 735 Broughton. An earlier launch was held in June in Vancouver where 75 people attended. Approximately 40 attended the Victoria event where more than twenty books were sold.
      Titled ‘A Tale of Two Popes’, Gawthrop delivered a forty minute comparison of Pope Benedict with his unexpected replacement Pope Francis. The first pope from the Americas, Francis compared favourably in the measured analysis of the author who while he was raised in a progressive Roman Catholic Vancouver Island family now calls himself a spiritual atheist and an openly gay man.
      Family members were in the eclectic audience and the book was dedicated to two Roman Catholic priests and a former nun. Gawthrop took questions for discussion from the audience for an hour, a group which included Quakers, Unitarians, United Church of Canada, Jewish and Muslim members as well as Christian Scientists and secularists and the usual sprinkling of progressive Catholics and spiritual progressives.
      Typical of its tone was Daniel Gawthrop’s description of  how when he came out as a gay man to Rev. Jack Sproule, “Father Jack immediately said congratulations, Dan, you are becoming more of who you really are.” Gawthrop said that if priests were like that the Catholic Church might not be in the crisis condition it is now with defections and being seen as irrelevant and reactionary to younger people.
      The discussion proved varied and lively and was animated by editor of Island Catholic News, Patrick Jamieson who co-hosted the event along with Victoria Publisher Ekstasis Editions and Arsenal Press of Vancouver. Richard Olafson of Ekstasis Editions announced that the event was the first of a fall series of Speakers to be held by Ekstasis.

Q: You’ve described The Trial of Pope Benedict as inspired by a retroactive letter of resignation from the Catholic church, and as a kind of conscientious objection. What do you mean by this?
A: The “letter” idea was inspired by a former colleague of mine, Alexandre Boulerice, now a member of the Canadian  parliament.  In 2010, Alex and I had met up and were talking about the latest clerical sex abuse scandals in Europe when the subject turned to our respective Catholic upbringings. Then Alex said something that really floored me: he had recently “resigned” as a Catholic by writing a letter to his bishop. His account of the “exit interview” his bishop invited him out to lunch, so that Alex could explain his decision was brilliant. He was resigning, he said, as an act of conscientious objection to all the evil the Church was perpetrating: the sex abuse, the treatment of women and gay people, the crushing of liberation theology – everything. When Alex told me this story, I wished I had written such a “resignation” letter myself 23 years earlier, when I walked away from the church. So I decided to do it, retroactively. But to whom would I send this letter? Then it hit me: Ratzinger, the man whose Inquisition had chased me away from the church. Of course, the book evolved from the narrative voice of a letter into the work of nonfiction published in Summer 2013.
Q: You write about Vatican II (the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65) as an historic opportunity for church relevance. What major events/church decisions forestalled Vatican II’s potential?
A: Change, if it happens at all in the church, doesn’t happen often – progress has always been a centuries-long kind of thing. But with Vatican II, you had a pope in John XXIII, and conciliar “Fathers” who were willing for the first time to review the church’s relationship to the modern world and make serious changes in a short time. Vatican II got rid of anti-Semitism and promoted interfaith dialogue and harmony, making the church an open tent. It revamped the liturgy to allow new forms of expression, making it easier for people to understand the gospels, and it gave lay people especially women a voice in their church. It also created a climate for dialogue about things like mandatory celibacy, which, if pursued, would have led to married priests and women as priests. And, for the first and only time, it looked at birth control as a valid option for Catholics of conscience.  
      The first major event to forestall Vatican II’s potential was Humanae Vitae, the encyclical by Pope Paul VI in 1968, which rejected the majority report of the papal commission and maintained the Church’s opposition to birth control. The next was the death in 1978 of Pope John Paul I, who by all appearances was prepared to overrule Humanae Vitae. The third, I would say, was Pope John Paul II’s appointment of Joseph Ratzinger, in 1981, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. From there, it was all downhill for Vatican II.
Q: You are the first openly gay man to write a book about the troubled papacy and Vatican. What’s more, you’re a self-identified lapsed Catholic. Since you began work on this book three years ago, have you experienced any resistance to your arguments because of your background? Do you foresee further objections once the book is published?
A: I am not the first openly gay man to critique the church. Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, who as a young man considered entering the priesthood, is one who has written extensively about scandal in the Vatican. But I’m probably the first to confront a pope so directly and challenge him, in effect, to justify his existence. To be honest, I haven’t had a lot of  resistance so far because most of the people I associate with don’t go to church any more, or never did. I do have one or two relatives or friends who are still devout and think I am attacking the church, but they have difficulty with the idea of criticizing the leadership. There will be some others, I am sure, who will be very angered by the fact that a lapsed  Catholic and a gay one at that has written such a book.
Q: Do you intend for this book to galvanize Catholic lay people to action?
A: What I would really like this book to do is force Catholics of all kinds to step back and think about their church and what has become of it since the 1980s.  There are those still inside the church who are struggling and either have difficulty articulating the pain they’re experiencing or lack the courage to speak out about it. I hope this book gives them that courage.
Q: What is your opinion of North American mainstream media’s coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy and papal legacy? Do you think it was too lenient?
A: Mainstream news outlets did a pretty good job during his pontificate of raising questions about his role in the cover-up of clerical sex abuse, his antagonism of other religions, and his out-of-touch views about sexuality. But I think the media’s biggest challenge has been the shock, as a result of the abuse scandals, of treating such a venerated figure as the pope like any other person who has been accused of a crime. By proving to be a terrible communicator, Benedict as pope lowered the dignity of his office. A lot of reporters must have found that very difficult to deal with. Then there’s the whole idea of Vatican statehood, the pope’s position as a head of state, and the diplomatic immunity that comes along with that. All of this can be very intimidating.
Q: Who, besides Joseph Ratzinger, must share the blame for the Church’s backwards slide towards a medieval theology, and for the continued sex and financial scandals?
A:  I really think that most Catholics who have remained in the church since 1981 didn’t have a clue and still don’t about the extent of Pope Benedict’s involvement in covering up sexual abuse. His office protects him, so I think he is that removed from the body of believers. But there are many, many other clerical figures in the Roman Curia and elsewhere who must share the blame with Ratzinger. Three of them are named in a complaint to the International Criminal Court: Camerlengo (and former Secretary of State) Tarcisio Bertone, Dean of the College of Cardinals Angelo Sodano, and Ratzinger's replacement as CDF prefect, William Levada.