I was looking around on Amazon.com and was shocked to see this listing. I had been told my book would be released in paperback either late this year or early next year, but had not heard a word from my publisher or my agent about it. Then I find out almost accidentally that it is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2008. I am glad to know it but I'm not happy with the way it was handled. The publishing industry is, generally speaking, as chaotic and author-unfriendly as the music business is to musicians, something I've personally seen over the years when I was covering music for The Blade. Unless you're a big name artist or have a publisher who really believes in your work and has the wherewithal to make things happen, you get treated like a number. I'm still grateful to Continuum for signing me but I am really hoping the company takes an interest in the paperback release of "Sin, Shame & Secrets" and makes it possible for the book to really succeed to its maximum potential.
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I've spent most of this week working on an article about the fallout from the document issued by the Vatican and approved by Pope Benedict XVI that says all other Christian denominations besides Roman Catholicism are either not true churches, or suffer from "defects" and "wounds."
It's a harsh statement and one that has led to varying interpretations by scholars. Is he trying to placate the conservative Catholics, especially those who follow the ex-communicated Bishop Lefebvre? That could be part of it, in light of his recent loosening of restrictions on the Latin/Tridentine Mass.
Or maybe he is trying to keep Catholics from veering away from the church by making it clear that all churches are not equal, as one scholar whom I interviewed thinks.
I'm not sure why he released the document now but it is true that there's nothing new, he is just clarifying Catholic doctrine. And while the statement says the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church, it does not deny that God is in other Christian traditions. And also, according to Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo, the document does not negate Vatican II's doctrine that even people of other faiths can receive salvation 'in ways known only to God.'
Toledo, Ohio, July 20, 2007