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Letter from Rome: The last of the gentleman editors

A tribute to John Wilkins, who edited 'The Tablet' from 1982 to 2003
Letter from Rome: The last of the gentleman editors

Photo: Unsplash

Published: May 02, 2022 03:01 AM GMT
Updated: May 02, 2022 03:01 AM GMT

It is all the fault of John Wilkins. If not for him, it is very likely that I would be living in Hungary right now and would have never pursued a career of writing and commenting on the Vatican and church affairs.

It's a long story that goes back two decades ago to the Great Jubilee of 2000 when I was in my 11th and, it turned out, final year of working at Vatican Radio.

I can't recall exactly how it came about, but Margaret Hebblethwaite, who was already writing regularly for The Tablet of London, was in Rome and invited me to lunch.

Someone told her to contact me to find out what was "really going on" inside the Roman Curia. As I started to speak very freely of things I could never say on "the pope's radio," she began scribbling notes furiously.

I was an avid reader of The Tablet and considered myself part of the "loyal opposition" that the paper's well-known editor, John Wilkins, articulated so masterfully week after week in its pages. John died last week aged 85.

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