John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark and a Tor science fiction author, gave an interview to Jeff Diamant that was recently posted to Inside New Jersey. Editor Moshe Feder is also quoted:

“You have to admit, I’m being a good sport about this,” says the archbishop of Newark. John J. Myers, the spiritual leader of 1.3 million Catholics, a man who wears well the stateliness of his high church office, who goes through life addressed as “Your Excellency,” who is revered in Catholic circles as a canon lawyer and a proud, conservative rock of his church, is, at this moment, speaking through the face hole of a costume space helmet he has donned at the request of his guests. In a few minutes, standing in the grassy yard of his summer residence in Hunterdon County, he will even don pointy Spock ears and a pair of alien antennae. The bespectacled archbishop is doing this to promote and discuss a fun and uncanonic part of his life — his love of science fiction and, specifically, Space Vulture, a sci-fi novel he published in March with childhood friend Gary Wolf…

The publisher, Tor Books, loved the idea of promoting a book written by an archbishop and a ‘toon creator. And in what somehow seems fitting for this eclectic project, the editor was a guy named Moshe. That’s Moshe Feder, who enjoyed editing a Catholic honcho almost as much as Myers enjoyed writing the book. “There’s a slight incongruity: ‘Moshe Feder, graduate of yeshiva for 12 years, editing the archbishop,’ ” Feder joked. “It’s like if I went to Notre Dame and was editing a famous rabbi.”

[Via Andrew Porter and Ed Meskys.]