When he was growing up, Joseph Girzone’s mother used to tell him, “ ‘Joseph, stop telling stories.’” At the age of 81, the retired priest and creator of the popular Joshua series of novels still hasn’t stopped. The Homeless Bishop (Orbis, Sept.; reviewed in this issue), his first novel since 2008’s Joshua’s Family, features Carlo Brunini, an Italian bishop who experiences a crisis of faith and decides to live as a homeless man, a decision that brings him to the United States. The bishop goes on to amazing adventures even after his homeless pilgrimage concludes.
Girzone wrote another book to draw attention to the situation of poor people. “I’ve been so concerned about the horrible attitude we have to the poor, and a lot of it is coming from Christians,” he tells RBL. “Politicians resent setting aside money for the poor.” Girzone readily ticks off the numbers that indicate the dimension of need. He decided that a nonfiction book about poverty wouldn’t work. “After reading a few pages, people would start scratching themselves,” he says with characteristic candor. The inspiration to write a novel with a bishop as the central character came to him in the middle of the night, and then he was off and running. Parts of the book are set in Rome and the Vatican; some in upstate New York, where Girzone lives; and some in Iran. “Everybody says this is going to be an unbelievable film,” Girzone jokes.
Beginning his formal religious life as a Carmelite monk, Girzone was ordained a priest in 1955. “Now, more than ever, I live like a monk,” he says of his life near Albany, N.Y. “I live with Jesus all day long; I can’t avoid it.” Jesus even gave him permission, he says with a chuckle, to fall asleep during prayer.
Girzone is grateful to his new publisher Orbis--the Joshua series with Random House sold more than 3 million copies--and editor Michael Leach for support and polish. His writing style is deliberately simple, he explains. “I wrote just to help people,” Girzone says, “and I wrote simply so little children and old people losing their powers could understand what I write.” Orbis plans a first printing of 10,000, national publicity and advertising, as well as Skype appearances by the author to book clubs.
