Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution
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.
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Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution
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.
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Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution

Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution

by Marco Politi
Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution

Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution

by Marco Politi

eBook

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Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231540087
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 07/15/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 758,544
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Marco Politi has been a leading international expert on Vatican issues for more than forty years. He is a journalist with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano and was the Vatican correspondent for La Repubblica. With Carl Bernstein, he wrote the international best-seller His Holiness. His other books include Pope Wojtyla: The Farewell; The Return of God; I, Gay Priest; The Church That Says No; and Joseph Ratzinger: Crisis of a Papacy.William McCuaig is a translator living in Montreal.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Translator's Note
1. The Smell of the Sheep
2. Francis's Fear
3. The Coup d'État of Benedict XVI
4. The Secrets of an Anti-Italian Conclave
5. The End of the Imperial Church
6. The Face of a Parish Priest
7. Walking with Unbelievers
8. The Hidden Women Priests
9. Death in Front of the Vatican
10. The Self-Critique of a Pope
11. The Program of the Revolution
12. St. Peter Had No Bank Account
13. The Enemies of Francis
14. The War of the Cardinals
15. The Italian Knot
16. A Resignable Papacy
Notes
Index

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