Books

The Modern Inquisition (2002)
(published in Australia as From Inquisition to Freedom, 2001)

Publishers: Simon and Schuster Australia and The Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY)
Pages: xiv and 256
Price: Various
ISBN: 0-7318-1043-0 (Inquisition to Freedom) and 1-58567-270-X (Modern Inquisition)
Copies available from .

This book describes the Kafkaesque nightmare experienced by six prominent Catholics (Hans Küng, Lavinia Byrne, Charles Curran, Jeannine Gramick, Tissa Balasuriya, and Robert Nugent with Paul Collins as editor and seventh person) in dealings with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). All had protracted negotiations with the CDF and Ratzinger. What was interesting was that not all were theologians; two were from the media (Lavinia Byrne and Collins) and two were involved in gay ministry (Jeannine Gramick and Bob Nugent). Collins wrote a general introduction outlining the history of the CDF and provided particular introductions to each piece. Collins found each of the interviewees “articulate, calm and intelligent and psychologically well adjusted.” They all had “a healthy sense of humour and [could] laugh at themselves, a key prerequisite in anyone called to a prophetic role.”