New thriller 'The Order' makes fiction from Catholicism's doctrinal friction

(REVIEW) Scandal and the Catholic Church are no strangers. Whether it’s the never-ending accusations of clerical sex abuse or financial hanky-panky at the Vatican Bank, it has not been an easy papacy for Francis. Doctrinal divisions among Catholics — traditionalists in the United States and Europe on one side, progressives among the church’s hierarchy on the other — has been a major storyline over the past few years.

With all this friction, one has to imagine there’s plenty of palace intrigue in Rome these days — and there is. The whistleblowing Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has made sure of it, as have the criminal actions of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Traditionalists versus progressives is the major plot of a new book called The Order by writer Daniel Silva, who puts these sinister inner workings that highlight this modern-day church power struggle — albeit a fictional account in this case — into greater focus.

Punctuating Silva’s 20th novel is legendary spy Gabriel Allon as he probes the seemingly mysterious death of Pope Paul VII, who could very well be a theological stand-in for Pope Francis. This made-up pope, however, isn’t just dead (the official story is that he had a heart attack), but he’s a friend of Allon’s.

An archbishop named Luigi Donati has a strong suspicion that the pontiff may have been murdered. The death of this made-up pope comes as Allon is trying to enjoy some downtime with his family in Venice. It doesn’t take long for Allon to become involved in this very, very complicated case. The fictional Paul VII has appeared in previous Silva books. In Silva’s made-up world, the papacies of Benedict XVI and Francis never occurred — Paul VII coming directly after the very real Saint Pope John Paul II. In an author’s note, Silva writes: “The Order is a work of entertainment and should be read as nothing more.”  

While Silva’s latest summer read is just the type of book you’d want to take with you to the beach, this thriller isn’t original. Allon’s investigation turns up that Europe’s far-right may be involved and that the discovery of a lost Gospel (in the Vatican Secret Archives, where else?) may also be to blame for their hatred of new immigrants as part of the rise of Christian nationalism in Europe.

While compelling, the material isn’t all that original. Dan Brown’s 2000 novel Angels and Demons, which was later made into a movie with Tom Hanks, covers similar ground. All Silva does in this book is update the bad guys with a 2020 politically populist twist.  

While Angels and Demons brought readers to various churches across Rome during its fast-paced plot, Allon is forced to travel further in this latest investigation, crisscrossing the Italian countryside to solve the caper. The storyline takes Allon to Florence’s famed Ponte Vecchio, a monastery in Assisi and, most notably, Rome’s Sistine Chapel. At a time when Americans can’t easily travel to Europe because of the coronavirus pandemic, this book allows the reader — all from the comforts of their home — to be transported to Italy at a time when many Americans would have been sightseeing there. Indeed, this is the type of book found at airport magazine shops.  

Some could argue that it’s the progressives who have damaged the modern church following the Second Vatican Council, but Silva’s latest thriller makes populist nationalists the bad guys and global progressives the good guys. That’s fine. My quibble is that some readers may actually believe this is a viable theory (despite Silva’s author’s note at the end of the 444-page book) to the divisions within Roman Catholicism. Beyond that, this is a fictional book that is very well researched, accented with Silva’s imaginative storytelling abilities and deep knowledge of geopolitics.   

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Before becoming a novelist famous for churning out spy novels, Silva was a journalist. Readers unfamiliar with Silva’s biography should know that he began his career at United Press International in 1984, where he covered politics. He was later appointed Middle East correspondent and based in Cairo. It was in 1987, while covering the Iran-Iraq war, that he met NBC’s Jamie Gangel and the pair later married. He eventually returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked for CNN as a producer for various TV shows such as Crossfire and Reliable Sources.

It was in 1997 that Silva left CNN and changed careers after his novel The Unlikely Spy, set in France during World War II, became a bestseller. Silva’s books are now translated into dozens of languages and sold around the world. You may have even seen one at your local bookstore or airport.

The Order may leave a few snickering, but it does serve a great escape from our current coronavirus realities — even though it heavily borrows from the religious and political world around us. Despite some familiar tropes about Vatican secrecy, this is a book worth your time. It is magnificently written and the story’s swift pace makes it required reading for anyone with a beach chair and a few hours to kill this summer.   

Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.