The Order

The latest book I've checked out from the public library is The Order by Daniel Silva. Here's part of what they say about the book at Publishers Weekly ...

Bestseller Silva’s improbable 20th thriller featuring Gabriel Allon (after 2019’s The New Girl) opens with the unexpected death of Pope Paul VII, who succeeded John Paul II in the author’s alternative universe. Allon, the director-general of Israeli intelligence, who once saved the pontiff’s life, is on vacation in Venice when he gets a call from Archbishop Luigi Donati, Paul VII’s closest confidante. Donati doesn’t buy the Vatican’s story that a heart attack was the cause of death, fearing that those opposed to the pope’s liberal policies had him murdered ...

This is the 20th book in the series about Gabriel Allon, introduced as an Israeli operative who took part in Operation Wrath of God ...

a covert operation directed by Mossad to assassinate individuals involved in the 1972 Munich massacre in which 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed. The targets were members of the Palestinian armed militant group Black September and operatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Authorized by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the autumn of 1972, the operation is believed to have continued for over twenty years.

Over the years, Gabriel has moved up in his intelligence job and is currently the head of "The Office". In his spare time he restores old master paintings. At one point in the past, Gabriel became friends with the (imagined) Catholic pope while restoring some paintings at the Vatican museums. When the pope mysteriously dies in this novel, Gabriel is called upon by his friend, Archbishop Donati, to find out what really happened.

I'm not finished with the book yet, but it's pretty interesting. The plot has to do with a non-canonical gospel, supposedly written by Pontius Pilate, that has been hidden away by the church out of fear it would cause a scandal in the area of Catholic/Jewish relations.

This idea reminds me of the movie Stigmata, in which a secret gospel is kept hidden by the church in case its contents destroy the institution.

After having been a Catholic for a couple of decades, I've learned something that is a kind of depressing answer to books and movies like these .... the idea that the church would flip its wig over a scandalous revelation isn't realistic. Most chruch-going Catholics won't care and the church won't really suffer losses.

Think of just some of what has already been revealed: the rape of children by priests, the cover-up of that, the sexual activity of 50% of "celibate" priests, the cooperation of the church with Mussolini, the Catholic rat lines, the selling of Irish children, the murder at the Vatican bank, the hidden wealth of the "church of the poor", etc, etc, etc.

I doubt that any secret gospel, even if it said Jesus was only human, would deter most church-going Catholics from obtaining their wafer and chatting with their fellows on Sundays. Those other Catholics like me, the ones who don't attend anymore .... we've already given up on the corporate church.

Having said that, the book is still very entertaining and worth a read :)