Carl Bernstein

Marco Politi

Recounts the life, religious career, and political influence of Pope John Paul II

John Paul II and the History of Our Time

His Holiness

Sjoerd de Jong

Levensbeschrijving van Joannes Paulus II, sinds 1979 paus, met nadruk op zijn politieke activiteiten.

Johannes Paulus II en de verborgen geschiedenis van onze tijd

Zijne Heiligheid

In 2000 Jahren Kirchengeschichte hat es das nie gegeben: Eine Virus-Pandemie zwingt die Kirche, ihre Gotteshäuser zu schließen, die Feier der Sakramente einzustellen. Alte und Kranke sind isoliert, sterben alleine. Kritik regt sich, die Kirche lasse ihre Gläubigen im Stich, ziehe sich zurück. Mit seiner außergewöhnlichen Geste füllt Franziskus diese Lücke. Die eindrücklichen Bilder des einsamen Gottesdienstes am 27. März 2020 gingen um die Welt: Der Papst steht alleine auf dem verregneten Petersplatz, ein weißer Fleck in der Dunkelheit. Sein Weckruf: Schlimmer als die gegenwärtige Krise wäre nur, die Chance, die sie birgt, ungenutzt verstreichen zu lassen. Und er denkt vor allem an die Zeit nach der Pandemie: Franziskus fordert eine Gesellschaft für alle, eine Wirtschaft im Dienste des Gemeinwohls, eine Politik, die den Schwächsten eine Stimme gibt.

Franziskus, die Pest und die Heilung der Welt

Im Auge des Sturms

A behind-the-scenes view of the power struggles within the Vatican and “a look inside the byzantine halls of the institutional Catholic Church.”—Publishers Weekly A journalist who has long covered the Vatican, Marco Politi takes us deep inside the struggle roiling the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church worldwide, beginning with Benedict XVI, the pope who famously resigned in 2013, and intensifying with the unexpected election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, now known as Pope Francis. Politi’s account balances the perspectives of Pope Francis’s supporters, Benedict’s sympathizers, and those disappointed members of the laity who feel alienated by the institution’s secrecy, financial corruption, and refusal to modernize. Politi dramatically recounts the sexual scandals that have rocked the church and the accusations of money laundering and other financial misdeeds swirling around the Vatican and the Italian Catholic establishment, and how Pope Francis’s attempts to address these crimes has been met with resistance from entrenched factions. He writes of the decline in church attendance and vocations to the priesthood as the church continues to prohibit divorced and remarried Catholics from receiving Communion. He visits European parishes where women perform the functions of missing male priests—and where the remaining parishioners would welcome the ordination of women, if the church would allow it. Pope Francis’s emphasis on pastoral compassion for all who struggle with the burden of family life has also provoked the ire of traditionalists. He knows from experience what life is like for the poor in South America and elsewhere, and highlights the contrast between the vital, vibrant faith of these parishioners and the disillusionment of European Catholics. As Pope Francis and his supporters are locked in battle with the defenders of the traditional hard line and with ecclesiastical corruption, the future of Catholicism is at stake—and it is far from certain Francis will succeed in saving the institution from decline.

Marco Politi

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