3. Ask the author

[CBC]

Ask here any question you want to address the author of the book, that isn't covered by the other topics in this discussion.

[Manuel]

I have a few questions:

1. Why did you choose Carlo Acutis as your first Friend in High Places? I can see several possible reasons: a) Because his beatification was taking place while you were considering writing the book. b) Because, although Italian, he was born in the U.K. Any other reason?

2. Why did you choose St. Joseph as your second Friend in High Places?

3. Why did you choose St. Margaret of Castello as your third Friend in High Places? She is the second Italian friend in the series.

[Jill]

I'm not the author, but Carlo is a logical choice to kick off a series written for young readers who can easily identify with a recent teenage saint who loved pokemon and utilized his computer skills for the Lord.

[Corinna]

1. Why did you choose Carlo Acutis as your first Friend in High Places? I can see several possible reasons: a) Because his beatification was taking place while you were considering writing the book. b) Because, although Italian, he was born in the U.K. Any other reason?

It was indirectly because his beatification was coming up. My friend at a Catholic publishing house suggested I should write a book about him. My first response was haha, I haven’t got time but the Holy Spirit had other ideas so I ended up writing it! And now I have a whole new series.

2. Why did you choose St. Joseph as your second Friend in High Places?

It was the year of Saint Joseph so I wanted to do one about him. I wanted to do it in the same style/format as the first one but for a while I couldn’t come up with anything because I felt everyone was over familiar with the Saint Joseph story from all the nativity plays every Christmas. So eventually I gave in and wrote the spin-off novel Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep? which retells the nativity story in a Bladerunner-esque sci-fi world, within the dream of a sleeping teenage boy. Once I had that story written, I found I was finally able to come up with Old Men Don’t Walk to Egypt, a more standard entry in the series.

3. Why did you choose St. Margaret of Castello as your third Friend in High Places? She is the second Italian friend in the series.

I chose her because her canonisation was coming up and she’s a great pro-life saint and not as well known as she could be.

[Steven R.]

Corinna do you have more plans for works in this series? Do you have the next Friend in High Places Picked? Any chance of other SciFi stories like Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep?: St. Joseph's story as dreamt by a sleeping teenage boy I just read it again and even after 2 years it is such a powerful story.

[Corinna]

Steven R. wrote: "Corinna do you have more plans for works in this series? Do you have the next Friend in High Places Picked? Any chance of other SciFi stories like [book:Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep?: St. Jo..."

I've literally just completed research and am about to write no. 4, tentatively titled 'A Lion for a Tomb' about Razim and St Ignatius of Antioch.

I have toyed vaguely with the idea of doing the whole New Testament in the sci-fi world but I don't have any serious plans to sit and write that any time soon.

[Manuel]

Corinna wrote: "I have toyed vaguely with the idea of doing the whole New Testament in the sci-fi world but I don't have any serious plans to sit and write that any time soon."

Curious! I had the same idea. Only, in my case I did the whole Bible in the sci-fi world: The History of the Earth-9 Colony
The book was read here, in the club, last September: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Then Steven R. McEvoy suggested I should write a continuation, so I wrote a second book in the series covering the remainder of the world history :-) The Earth-9 Colony Revisited

[Corinna]

Manuel wrote: "Corinna wrote: "I have toyed vaguely with the idea of doing the whole New Testament in the sci-fi world but I don't have any serious plans to sit and write that any time soon."

Curious! I had the ..."

Looks interesting.

[Manuel]

A few days ago, the British Parliament passed a law forbidding people to pray in zones around abortion centers: https://www.lifenews.com/2023/03/07/b...

Freedom of speech was an essential human right in the West. Now, in many Western countries, it is in danger. Not just that, freedom of thought is also in danger. Even in the U.S.A., the FBI is targeting pro-life groups. Where is Democracy? We are ever getting nearer to the nazi and communist regimes.

My question to Corinna: Given the new situation in the U.K., would you change the ending of book#3 in this series (Child, unwanted), or would you have the two minors defy the new "law" by continue praying outside an abortion center?

[Corinna]

Manuel wrote: "A few days ago, the British Parliament passed a law forbidding people to pray in zones around abortion centers: https://www.lifenews.com/2023/03/07/b......"

I won't be changing the ending because at the date that ending takes place during the series, it's legal. Considering whether to break the law would be a very different decision for the characters to discern. There is a scene later in the series that I always intended to take place inside one of the so-called 'buffer zones' so that will be unchanged.

[John]

My question relates to the title of book 2: Old men don't walk to Egypt. Who says they don't? Why did you title the book around this aspect of St. Joseph?

I have always understood the key argument for Joseph being older than Mary to be that Jesus's brothers and sisters are Joseph's by an earlier marriage. And also that this more easily explains Joseph's absence after the infancy and childhood narratives, that being older it is not surprising that he died younger. But life was more difficult and an infected scratch could be easily fatal. So the real issue I have with a younger virginal Joseph is understanding where Jesus's brother and sisters come from. And to have had a previous marriage with multiple children, Joseph doesn't have to be ancient - late 20s, or 30s would explain it.

My second issue with the argument is that it makes much more sense in an age when everyone drives everywhere, than it does in an age in which everyone (except the well off) walks everywhere. The personal side of this is that next year, when I will be 65, my wife and I will finish our staged walk of the Camino, walking from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela, almost 500 miles, longer than a walk from Bethlehem to Egypt, and we are not uncommon, every year that we have walked we have met numerous people in their 60s, and most pilgrims are in their 30s and 40s, what I think of as St. Joseph's most likely age, certainly not old men.

That said, I love the choice of St. Joseph as the second saint in this series and having him become the spiritual father for a girl whose father is absent - I haven't finished yet, but am looking forward to doing so today.

[Manuel]

John wrote: "I have always understood the key argument for Joseph being older than Mary to be that Jesus's brothers and sisters are Joseph's by an earlier marriage. "

This is the prevailing interpretation in the Eastern Church. In the Catholic Church the main interpretation is that Jesus's "brothers and sisters" were actually cousins, or in general, relatives. It is argued that Jews of that time used the term "brother and sister" to mean "relatives." In any case, this discrepancy between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches is not considered important, as the point has never been defined under authority.

My personal idea is similar to yours: that Joseph was probably around 40 in the first two chapters of Mathew, therefore he could have had children by a previous marriage, that would have become independent by the time of Jesus's birth; so, 30 years later, he would have died at 70: the typical Biblical lifetime.

But what Corinna says (that old men don't walk to Egypt) is also applicable in that case: 40-year-old cannot be considered old men, then or now.

However, your case is somewhat different. 65-year-old men at the time of Christ were old men. I doubt they would have resisted a walking trip to Egypt, probably under forced march, as they would be flying from persecution. Even though their trip could have been shorter than it's sometimes envisioned, for the boundary between Egypt and Judea was at that time around what today is Gaza.

[Fonch]

Sandra Miesel would have written about this question. I could look for it.

[Fonch]

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2...

[Corinna]

John wrote: "My question relates to the title of book 2: Old men don't walk to Egypt. Who says they don't? Why did you title the book around this aspect of St. Joseph?

I have always understood the key argument..."

I don't actually have a strong opinion on whether Saint Joseph was old or young. The title is a snappy quote by Mother Angelica, the founder of EWTN, who took that view (as mentioned in the story). It has been popularised further by Father Donald Calloway who has written a very popular book on Saint Joseph. It seems slightly the more likely to me, and gives a far more beautiful witness to chastity than the theory that he was too old to be interested, but who knows?

Although I present Saint Joseph as young in this book and in my other book about him, the spin-off Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep?, I also include in the suggested reading in the spin-off a novel (My Brother's Keeper) that takes the opposite view and presents the brothers and sisters of Jesus as Joseph's children. But in Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep? I give a very clear (I think!) presentation of how natural it might have been for Jesus's 'brothers and sisters' to be Joseph's nephews and nieces.

My main concern, especially in the afterwords, is actually to ensure teens understand that most of these theories are just that, theories, and not Church teaching. Because I have encountered people getting extremely vehement about one theory or the other and actually claiming it to be Church teaching, when, of course, the Church doesn't teach definitively on any of it.

One thing I would say about walking, we tend to think that people in the past, because they walked so much, were able to go on walking a lot comparatively late in their lives. This is not necessarily the case. I know someone from Africa who in her youth used to walk for I forget if it was 5 or 8 hours a day to attend Mass and do diocesan work. Fast forward to only her 40s/50s, and she had leg trouble and couldn't do long distance walking at all. So some people may have gone on walking longer but the ones who had to walk most in their youth may have simply become prematurely old and had to stay home at Passover or ride on a donkey or cart if their family was well enough off to have one.

[John]

Corinna wrote: "John wrote: "My question relates to the title of book 2: Old men don't walk to Egypt. Who says they don't? Why did you title the book around this aspect of St. Joseph?

I have always understood the..."

Thank you, I hadn't yet finished the book and seen the other materials you referenced. And I take your point that none of this is church teaching. I guess my response to Mother Angelica is 30 or 40 isn't old and who says old men can't walk to Egypt? But my response to those who think a young 20 y.o. Joseph demonstrates more piety than a 30 or 40 y.o. Joseph is "why on earth do you think a 30 or 40 y.o. isn't interested"?

I speak Korean, and am very familiar with the fact that in Korean culture family members and close friends are often addressed as "brother" or "sister," or more specifically as "big brother" or "big sister." I think this is fairly common in countries with a Confucian culture and brings with it a host of cultural rules. So I can envision this aspect of 1st century Jewish culture. But in Korea, which is more Confucian than China, I don't think it is as common for third parties to refer to those relationships as siblings.

So, in my mind there are two reasonable explanations for how Mary is always a virgin and yet Jesus has "brothers and sisters." And that, Mary's eternal virginity, is the only doctrinal issue. On that the East and West agree. Everything else should be read and considered in love.

[Corinna]

John wrote: "Corinna wrote: "John wrote: "My question relates to the title of book 2: Old men don't walk to Egypt. Who says they don't? Why did you title the book around this aspect of St. Joseph?

I have alway..."

Personally, I would consider 30/40s a grey area, not falling automatically in the young or the old camp. To me, the 'old' depictions would be 50+, bearing in mind the lower life expectancy of the time. At the end of the day, no age, young or old, is conclusive regarding whether Joseph had other children. In that period, he could be in his 20s, have several small children, his wife died, and he immediately remarries to find them a new mother. Most normal thing in the world back then.

Totally agree that Mary's eternal virginity is the solid point of reference and all else must be proposed and discussed in love, as interesting and inspiring theories.