A fascinating and enlightening look at the world’s oldest and most mysterious institution, written by an American journalist with unparalleled knowledge about the Vatican's past and present. The sexual abuse scandals that shook American and British Catholicism in 2002 brought to light a long-standing cultural gap between the English-speaking Catholic world and the Vatican. In Rome, the crisis was often seen as an attack on the Church mounted by money-hungry lawyers, a hostile press, and liberal activists who used it as a way to turn attention on such concerns as celibacy, women’s ordination, and lay empowerment. When the Vatican struck down the U.S. bishops’ draft for handling allegations of sexual abuse, many saw it as an attempt to curb an independent American Catholic church. Yet, as time passed, it became clear that the Vatican’s well-founded concerns about due process were shared by most liberal U.S. bishops and canon lawyers. ALL THE POPE’S MEN is a lucid, in-depth guide to the sometimes puzzling, often incomprehensible inner workings of the Vatican. It reveals how decisions are made, how papal bureaucrats think, and how careers in the Roman Curia are shaped. It debunks the myths that have fed the distrust and suspicions many English-speaking Catholics harbor about the way the Vatican conducts its business, explains who really wields the power, and offers entertaining profiles of the personalities, historical and present-day, who have wielded that power for good and for bad. A thoughtful analysis of the recent sexual abuse crisis sheds light on how the Vatican perceives the Church in the United States. Balanced, lively, and filled with Vatican history and lore, ALL THE POPE’S MEN provides the general reader with an authoritative picture of the highly charged relationship between the Vatican and the richest, most influential national Catholic church in the world today.

The leading Catholic commentator and historian Michael Walsh throws open the mysterious and secretive world of the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. They are Catholicism's 'nearly men' who never became Pope but who have been the power behind the papal throne throughout the ages. This eminently readable and often entertaining account tells the stories of some 200 outstanding (for all kinds of reasons) cardinals from the beginnings of the office in the 8th century, through the Middle Ages when cardinals ranked with royal princes, to more recent distinguished wearers of the red cap - among them the greatly missed Basil Hume and Joseph Bernadin. Here we meet the kingmaker cardinals, the politically ambitious, the saintly, the venial, the scholarly, the pastors, and the cardinals with wives and children.

“Simply brilliant” essays on the leaders who have most powerfully shaped not just the Church itself, but the course of human history (Catholic Library World). The Bishops of Rome have been Christianity’s most powerful leaders for nearly two millennia, and their influence has extended far beyond the purely spiritual. The popes have played a central role in the history of Europe and the wider world, not only shouldering the spiritual burdens of their ancient office, but also contending with—and sometimes precipitating—the cultural and political crises of their times. In an acclaimed series of BBC radio broadcasts, Eamon Duffy explored the impact of ten popes he judged to be among the most influential in history. With this “enlightening” book (Booklist), readers may now also enjoy Duffy’s portraits of these ten exceptional men who shook the world. Beginning with St. Peter, the Rock upon whom the Catholic Church was built, he follows with Leo the Great (fifth century), Gregory the Great (sixth century), Gregory VII (eleventh century), Innocent III (thirteenth century), Paul III (sixteenth century), and Pius IX (nineteenth century). Among twentieth-century popes, Duffy examines the lives and contributions of Pius XII, who was elected on the eve of the Second World War, the kindly John XXIII, who captured the world’s imagination, and John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years. Each of these ten extraordinary individuals, Duffy shows, shaped their own worlds—and in the process, helped to create ours. “The author is an accomplished writer who is able to make history read like a dramatic novel…Those looking for a concise and even entertaining primer to the papacy will find this collection, if not infallible, at least very worthwhile.”—Publishers Weekly

Work contains history of popes from Saint Peter, the first Bishop of Rome to Pius IX, who was elected in 1846 "[while the preceding work was passing through the press, intelligence was received of the death of Gregory XVI ...]" vol. 2, p. 432. "This work opens to our view a clear exposition of the public history and private practices of the men, who, from the position of simple pastors of a singe church, advanced their authority, step by step, until they became not only the ecclesiastical, but in fact the temporal lords of Christendom"--Translator's Preface, p.[3].

"The Popes shows the human aspects of the vicar of Christ while reassessing the myths surrounding the person. Theological evaluations are avoided to give readers a more realistic view of these men and the part they played in the shaping of history."--BOOK JACKET.