Summary
The public square: a continuing survey of religion, culture, and public life - Book Review
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Extract
The Vatican vs. 'Americanism'.
John Allen has written an exceedingly valuable book. It is titled All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks (Doubleday, 392 pp., $24.95). Never mind that he speaks dismissively of those who write "instabooks" on matters Catholic, while admitting that he pulled this one together in less than a month. John Allen has a lot that is worth pulling together. Never mind that book-size length is achieved by a lot of padding from his earlier reporting from Rome, such as more than a hundred and fifty pages of chronological accounts of the sex abuse crisis and the Vatican's response to the war in Iraq. It is very useful material to have all in one place. The book also provides a thoughtful summary of what Allen has learned about the Holy See over his years of trying to be assiduously fair while reporting for the decidedly leftist National Catholic Reporter. Had the title not been taken by a recent and less interesting volume, Allen might well have called his book Inside the Vatican.
There are analytically descriptive sections on the structure, psychology, and sociology of the Vatican, along with a treatment of "myths" about the Vatican. The Holy...See the full content of this document
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