Marco Politi takes us deep inside the power 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 contested and 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 Catholic 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. Pope Francis has tried to shine a
light on these crimes, but his work has been met with resistance
from entrenched factions. Politi writes of the decline in church
attendance and vocations to the priesthood throughout the world as
the church continues to prohibit divorced and remarried Catholics
from receiving the communion wafer. He visits European parishes
where women now perform the functions of missing male priests-and
where the remaining parishioners would welcome the admission of
women to the priesthood, 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 in the Roman Curia and elsewhere. He knows from
personal experience what life is like for the poor in Buenos Aires
and other metropolises of the globalized world, and highlights the
contrast between the vital, vibrant faith of these parishioners and
the disillusionment of European Catholics. Pope Francis and his
supporters are locked in a battle with the defenders of the
traditional hard line and with ecclesiastical corruption. In this
conflict, 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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