Patrick Jamieson, the founding editor of Island Catholic News, has written In the Avant Garde: The Prophetic Catholicism of Remi De Roo and Politics Within the Catholic Church (Ekstasis/Samarhan Press 2002, 250-920-0233, $34.95). During the 37 years that Remi De Roo was Bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Victoria, he was much in the news as a proponent for liberal values and change. He criticized capitalism for failing to adequately care for the disadvantaged, he chaired the B.C. Human Rights Commission and he became the longest-serving Catholic bishop in Canada. Financial irregularities that came to light after his retirement demoted him in the public eye. "I don't believe Remi is done,"; says Jamieson. 1-894800-02-8

Jamieson is also the author of a collection of poems, The Gray Door (Ekstasis 2004, $17.95), that reflects a secular Catholic spirituality. Many of the poems have arisen from the ashes of a failed marriage. Written mostly while Jamieson was living in Cape Breton and Sydney, Nova Scotia for four years, The Gray Door takes its title from Jamieson's view from a Sydney kitchen table. He continually gazed at a gray garage door at the rear of Sydney Millworks Ltd. "The purposes of the building must have changed because the door now faced onto a grassy fenced-in area; and I never saw it open." Born in Vancouver in 1947, Jamieson was raised in a military family of six children. He was appointed the first lay editor of the Prairie Messenger in 1981. He returned to the West Coast in 1986 and lives in Victoria.

BOOKS:

In the Avant Garde: The Prophetic Catholicism of Remi De Roo and Politics Within the Catholic Church (Ekstasis/Samarhan Press 2002) 978-1-89480-002-0 $34.95
The Gray Door (Ekstasis 2004) 1-894800-54-0 $17.95
The 'Vindication' of Remi De Roo: The Lacey Land Saga-Political Sea-changing in the Catholic Church (SAMARHANOR Press 2010) 978-0-9865254-6-9 $30.00


[BCBW 2011] "Religion" "Poetry"