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Father Joe's fallout - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

VANCOUVER - Previously in this space, I submitted a review of Tony Hendra's steady bestseller Father Joe. I wasn't alone in receiving the book so glowingly. It remains a glorious book despite recent infamy. A couple of weeks after the book was released to much fanfare - a remarkable and effusive front page review on the cover of the New York Times book review, hitting number one at Amazon.com, and the endorsement of Don Imus - came a story that Hendra's 39-year old daughter, Jessica, was alleging that she had been molested by her father when she was a child.

When the story broke, which first appeared in the same New York Times, the proverbial shit hit the fan. With the Times devoting over 2,000 words on a story based on an allegation, Hendra was on the defensive with e-mails to the Times, the gossip columns at the New York Daily News, as well as the Washington Post. Reporters began contacting Don Imus, who was queried for his opinion as it was his approval that single-handedly propelled the book into a bestseller. The book, as my review stated, was a confessional of Hendra about his life of sex, satire and drugs. It revolves around the relationship he had in his life - from teen hood to middle age - with a Benedictine monk whom he affectionately called Father Joe.

Whilst answering questions about the alleged molestation, Tony Hendra claimed that her allegations stem from a long and troubled past that his daughter has hand mentally, insinuating that she suffers from some sort of disorder. Whether or not the allegations are true, the situation with his daughter raises some questions about the credibility of the book, especially since the book revolved around Hendra's storied life, and his daughter is hardly mentioned in the book. One doesn't know if Hendra did molest his daughter. Weeks after the story broke we still don't know the truth.

The allegations came about three weeks or so after the book was released. The New York Times received an unsolicited submission for its op-ed page from Jessica Hendra. In it she wrote that though her father's confessional was personal and deeply meaningful, she took umbrage with the fact that it was a "comprehensive confessional," as he did not mention that he had molested her when she was younger. The Times did not publish the op-ed piece, instead sent it to the newsroom whereupon a reporter was assigned.

A week or so later, Daniel Okrent, the New York Times's ombudsman, in his regular column, focused his attention on the Hendra allegations. He had received feedback from readers who were curious as to why the Times ran the story on the allegations. Okrent, whose role was created after the Jayson Blair debacle, holds the papers feet to the fire, agreed that the Times had handled the story well, in assigning a reporter to look into the allegation. However, Okrent wondered why the Times would devote the column inches on the story as Hendra was hardly a public official, priest or teacher, and that the allegations were old, and the parties had seemingly gone on their respective ways, save for recent events when the book was published. Whether the allegations are correct or false, the damage is done. As he points out, assertions linger; denials evaporate.

The situation does not ruin the book's credibility or shatter the book's purpose or subject. It is, as one critic who adored the book said, a painful and regrettable addendum to an otherwise wonderful book. Hendra argues that he did not include his daughter's erroneous allegation in his book, because it would have caused greater harm to the parties involved now, as well as the young children that he has with his present wife Carla, who alleges that it's all a ploy to grab publicity; as well as the young children that Ms. Hendra has herself. One does not even wish to wonder if in fact Hendra did molest his daughter. It is unspeakable were it true, but obviously there has been far enough damage as it is.

Tony Hendra did however write a remarkable book that impacted me greatly, not to mention the many readers who have obviously bought and read the book. The book really isn't about the sinner Hendra. Rather it's a memoir about the experiences had with Father Joe, the beacon that Father Joe provided in his often dark life. For that the book is still worth getting and reading, for Father Joe is a book about those wonderful and inalienable qualities of listening, understanding and forgiving. Such tenets of the human heart are perhaps apt for those involved in the fallout of an otherwise fine memoir. The message of Father Joe is obvious, that mere mortals are hardly perfect and that to alleviate such imperfections, it is in faith that some comfort is possible.

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Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra (ISBN: 1400061849) is published by Random House, and is $35.95 CDN ($24.95 USD).

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