By F. Martel, June 2019<\/p>\n
On : Syndicate<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The publication of\u00a0In the Closet of the Vatican<\/em>\u00a0was timely. This is confirmed by its considerable, unexpected, and unprecedented success in over fifty countries\u2014eight translations, with another ten in progress\u2014\u201cover 300,000 copies already sold\u201d (says the French weekly magazine L\u2019Obs<\/a>). Since its publication, I have given several hundreds of interviews and the book\u2014number one in sales in France<\/a>\u2014is or has been on the best-seller list in some twenty countries, including on the eminent\u00a0New York Times best-seller list,\u00a0<\/a><\/em>prompting one journalist to say that \u201cIn the Closet of the Vatican<\/em>\u00a0is probably the most talked about book on religion ever written by a Frenchman.\u201d In fact, I could never have dreamed that this book would be such a success or have so great an impact.<\/p>\n In the Closet of the Vatican<\/em>\u00a0has also been the\u00a0subject of debate and discussion<\/a>\u00a0around the globe since its publication in late February 2019. Hundreds of\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0have been published. In\u00a0Latin America<\/a>, the book is currently sparking debates in most major newspapers, especially in Chili, Colombia, and Mexico. In\u00a0Poland<\/a>,\u00a0Sodoma<\/em>\u00a0is at the top of the sales list and has likewise contributed to a very lively debate broached by\u00a0Gazeta Wyborcza<\/em>, which has devoted several long and positive articles to it. In Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the book has been discussed at length, almost always positively. And even in Italy, newspapers like\u00a0Il Fatto Quotidiano<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0MicroMega,\u00a0La<\/a><\/em>\u00a0Repubblica<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Manifesto, 24 hora,\u00a0Vanity Fair Italy<\/a><\/em>, and the site\u00a0Fan Page<\/a><\/em>\u00a0have contributed to the book\u2019s success despite organized censure by Vaticanists.<\/p>\n Some reviews have been excessively severe (in the far-right American press, for example) and others adulatory (Andrew Sullivan<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0New York Magazine<\/em>,\u00a0James Alison<\/a>\u00a0on ABC, and\u00a0Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The Times<\/em>, for example). The\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0by the former Master of the Order of Preachers, Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe\u2019s, \u201cThe Carnaval Is Over,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was measured and kindly, as were those by other Jesuits and Franciscan friars.<\/p>\n Dozens of readers also send me messages of support every day, often to tell me of their rough lives as gay priests or their existence as Catholics made to feel guilty by the Church. These often powerfully moving messages have touched me deeply. It is for all of those people that I am proud to have written\u00a0In the Closet of the Vatican<\/em>. I dedicate this article to them.<\/p>\n
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