THE SOCIAL EDGE INTERVIEW: AUTHOR DAVID GIBSON
by Gerry McCarthy
David Gibson is an award-winning journalist. He worked in Rome for Vatican Radio and travelled regularly with Pope John Paul II before returning to the United States, where he writes frequently for numerous publications. Some of those publications include: The New York Times, Boston Magazine, Fortune, and America.
A convert to Catholicism, Gibson is the author of The Coming Catholic Church. His new book The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World was just published by HarperSanFrancisco.
I reached Gibson in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Gerry McCarthy: In The Rule of Benedict you write that: "By repeatedly using Marxism as the easy foil for his conservative preferences, Benedict unfortunately implies that social justice efforts are automatically suspect, and can only lead to socialist utopianism that would subvert the Gospel. Moreover, by associating Catholic social activism with the specter of Communism, Benedict presumes the worst about the many devoted Catholics working so faithfully for social justice." It’s unfortunate that social justice Catholics are frequently viewed as one-dimensional isn’t it? Can you talk to me about this?
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