TomGrace.net - The Pub

The Secret Cardinal hits 100 weeks on best-seller list

Sunday, October 18, 2009

On October 9, 2009, Associated Press reported that the novel El Cardenal by Tom Grace was eighth on the list of top ten best selling novels in Venezuela. What went unmentioned was that this was the 100th week in which my fifth Nolan Kilkenny thriller appeared on AP's list for Venezuela.

El Cardenal debuted at No. 1 in Venezuela in May of 2007, a remained there for the next 17 months until ceding the top spot to the La Apelacion (The Appeal) by John Grisham in November of 2008. My novel earned a spot in Venezuela's top ten for 89 consecutive weeks, a run which lasted into February of 2009. During that time, it also spent four months on Uruguay's top ten list in mid-2008.

After a brief absence, my novel returned to Venezuela's top ten for a few weeks in late-March and Early-April. This coincided with a speech made by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in China in which he railed against his country's bishops for opposing his seizure of the nation's ports. The situation between the Chavez regime and the Church in Venezuela in many ways mirrors the Church-State conflict described in El Cardenal, which may in part explain of my novel's popularity there. A recent late-Summer/early-Fall resurgence on the Venezuela list brought the tally to 100 weeks.

What remains unexplained is how a novel with such a strong following could generate no royalties for its author. Inquiries are being made into this apparent discrepancy, but given the tacit support of the Chavez regime for the rampant theft of intellectual property, there is a strong possibility that my novel has been pirated.

Concurrent with El Cardenal's return to Venezuela's top ten, Chavez created a minor incident by giving a copy of Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America to US President Barack Obama during the opening session of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Given the popularity of my novel among the people of Venezuela and the magnitude of US losses in that nation due to intellectual property piracy, I can think of my more appropriate gift for President Obama to respond with than a copy of The Secret Cardinal.

On a related note, both The Secret Cardinal and Spyder Web are now available as Avon paperbacks in the UK. Both books have appeared on Nielson BookScan Heatseeker's Chart. The rest of my novels will be available in the UK from Avon in 2010.

Hong Kong Cardinal calls for release of bishops

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the retired bishop of Hong Kong, called on the Chinese government to release imprisoned Roman Catholic bishops as the People's Republic of China celebrates its 60th anniversary. The gesture would show that China has both the courage to correct its past wrongdoings and a willingness to recognize that faith and patriotism are not mutually exclusive.

As yet, none of the imprisoned or detained bishops have been released. Just six days after the start of China's anniversary celebrations, Bishop James Lin Xili of Wenzhou (91) died after an almost 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease. Bishop Lin died while under house arrest and had previously served 16 years in prison for counter-revolutionary crimes.

Labels: china catholic bishop

China jails bishop in response to Vatican meeting

Thursday, April 23, 2009

In late March, Pope Benedict XIV convened a meeting of the Commission on the Church in China. Invitations were once again extended to mainland Chinese bishops, both registered and unregistered with China's government controlled Patriotic Church. While bishops from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan did participate, none from mainland China were permitted to attend.

Beijing's response to what it views as foreign interference in its internal affairs was to take an elderly Roman Catholic bishop residing under permanent house arrest out of his home and place him into prison. Bishop Jia of Zhengding has served over twenty years in prison and has endured numerous arrests, incarcerations and periods of intense re-education in the years since his release. During the Olympic Summer Games last August, he was arrested and imprisoned just hours before the closing ceremonies because the government learned that a foreign reporter was attempting to meet him. Rather than risk an interview, the government hid Jia in its prison system until after all the press were gone. The meeting in Rome lasted just a few days, but Bishop Jia has yet to resurface. Bishop Jia is the ongoing reality behind the fictional title character of The Secret Cardinal.

Labels: China bishop

Vatican Office in Venezuela Attacked

Thursday, January 22, 2009

On Jan. 21, attackers hurled tear gas canisters at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Caracas. It was on of several attacks made against critics of the Venezuelan government and President Hugo Chavez. The Catholic Church in Venezuela opposes changes to the constitution that would eliminate term limits, allowing Chavez to run for a third six-year term of office in 2012. A similar proposal was defeated in 2007, but Chavez called for another referendum last November.

On a related note, El Cardenal, the Spanish version of The Secret Cardinal, is well into its 17th month atop the best seller list in Venezuela, according to the Associated Press. The novel's premise of a church-state conflict mirrors in many ways the situation in Venezuela, which may explain its appeal to readers in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Labels: Chavez, Vatican, Venezuela

Zen Asks Mainland Bishops for Courage and Loyalty

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Drawing inspiration from the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Hong Kong's Cardinal Joseph Zen called on mainland bishops in China's patriotic church to show courage in refusing to compromise with the Communist Regime. Zen's remarks, made in a Jan. 4th article in Kung Kao Po, build on statements made in both Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Open letter to the Church in China and a 2008 letter from Cardinal Bertone to all mainland bishops that the time for a public show of unity with Rome has come. Most of the bishops in China's state-run church have privately sought and received Rome's blessing, but only one is known to have publicly expressed his loyalty to Rome. China's few remaining Roman Catholic bishops are either in prison, under house arrest or in hiding.

The timing of Zen's remarks coincides with the quinquinnial National Congress of Catholic Representatives, which will be called sometime in 2009. Bishops attending the congress elect chairpersons to run the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). Rome does not recognize either organization and views both as detrimental to the Church in China. Zen has specifically called for the mainland bishops to boycott the congress, demonstrating the irrelevance of the CCPA and BCCCC.

Should the state-run apparatus running the Catholic Church in China fail, then the patriotic organizations controlling the other four legal religions might also falter and Beijing would lose control of the practice of religious faith in China. 2009 could be a very interesting year for religion in China.

Labels: China, religion, Zen

China's Shields Up, Bishops Mail Slow

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Clear of the thousands of foreign press encamped in Beijing earlier this year, China's netminders have raised the nation's Great Firewall back to full strength. Subversive websites detailing human rights abuses by the Chinese government or those promoting democracy or even Tibetan autonomy are once again fully blocked, and blogs with questionable content disappear along with their authors.

At the same time, many Catholic bishops of both the patriotic and underground variety are just now receiving copies of a letter sent by the Vatican last April. The letter, penned by Cardinal Bertone, elaborates on Pope Benedict XVI's letter of 2007 to the Church in China, clarifying how bishops can act upon the papal directives toward resolving the conflict between the open and underground Church communities and fostering a respectful and direct dialogue with civil authorities.

Bertone's letter was sent to 90 Vatican approved bishops in China. Since April, four bishops have died and no new bishops have been ordained. Of the 86 remaining bishops, approximately 26 have never registered with the Patriotic Church. These loyal bishops are all either in hiding, in prison, or under house arrest. Some have disappeared into state custody and it is not known if they are alive or dead.

At the 50th anniversary of the selection and consecration of the first bishops of the Chinese Catholic Church, Central Committee spokesman Du Qinglin reiterated that relations betwen China and the Vatican will improve only after the Holy See severs diplomatic ties with Taiwan and renounces any interference in the internal affairs of China, even under the guise of religion. Bertone's letter calling China's bishops to action would certainly qualify as the kind of interference Beijing finds so objectionable.

Labels: China Church bishop firewall

The Secret Cardinal a #1 International Best-Seller

Thursday, October 30, 2008

As foreign editions of The Secret Cardinal continue to reach book shelves around the world, a new milestone was reached this month. According to an Associated Press list of books sold in several American countries, El Cardenal (the Spanish translation) hit the top ten list in two of the listed countries, and has held the No. 1 spot in Venezuela for well over a year. All I can say is Ole!

Labels: Best seller, Venezuela