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Features Editor
When John Thavis retired, the former Vatican bureau chief for Catholic News Service took us behind the scenes at the Holy See in his first book, “The Vatican Diaries.” (See our post.)
In his second book, “The Vatican Prophecies,” he’s taking us behind the scenes of “Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions and Miracles in the Modern Age.”
And Thavis’ second book is also the second selection for The Observer Book Club’s One Diocese, One Book program.
Scheduled for release Sept. 15, “The Vatican Prophecies” talks about relics, such as cloth used by Padre Pio, Therese of Liseux and others, and how people view them.
It also discusses apparations, including the differences in Church attitudes toward the widely acclaimed visits of Mary to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the less well known, but officiallly recognized, visits of Mary to Adele Brise near Campion, Wisconsin.
But, as with his first book, Thavis doesn’t just tell the surface story. He looks at the controversies and debates about these phenomena within the Church.
For example, Thavis tells us about Pope Benedict XVI’s concerns about how modern technology can spread word of potential apparitions or miracles before the Church can deal with them properly.
Thavis goes on to discuss a Vatican document outlining procedures for local bishops to examine such claims.
“The document advised that,” Thavis writes, “given the speed of modern communication and the ease of international travel, church authorities might need to act more quickly and decisively when faced with an alleged apparition or similar supernatural occurrence. ... The document spelled out when responsibility for discernment should pass from a local bishop to regional or national conferences of bishops and, in rare cases, to the Vatican itself.”
Thavis, a Minnesota native, spent 30 years in Italy with his wife, Lauren, and their three children who were all born and raised in Rome.
In addition to working for the Catholic News Service, he also reported for the Associated Press, ABC News and Wine Spectator, according to his website (www.johnthavis.com).
His travels with Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI took him to more than 60 countries.
Thavis has reported on religion stories from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
He served three years as president of the Association of International Journalists Accredited to the Vatican, the only American elected to the position.
He has won numerous journalistic awards, including the Clarion Award from the Catholic Academy of Communications Professionals, and the St. Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Press Association.
He has lectured on Vatican affairs in the United States and Europe.
When Pope Benedict XVI announced his plans to retire, Thavis had recently done the same. But he was pressed into service as a commentator for ABC television during the conclave that elected Pope Francis.
Watch
for more information about this year’s One Diocese, One Book program
and a reader’s guide for “The Vatican Prophecies” at The Observer Book
Club website, http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/book-club-blog.
