VATICAN CITY
USA Today
By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY
February 20, 2013
Timing is everything, as they say, and John Thavis’ timing could not be better.
By sheer coincidence, The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church arrives just over a week after Pope Benedict’s shocking resignation announcement.
Wonder what’s going on behind those huge doors at the Vatican? Wonder what those cardinals are up to as they scurry about getting ready to elect a new pope? Wonder what the man who rings the bells when that new pope is finally elected is thinking? (Actually he’s waiting for the phone call that says it’s OK for him to let loose.)
Thavis answers all in this fascinating book.
An award-winning journalist recently retired from the Catholic News Services, Thavis has covered the Vatican since 1983. He knows his way around its marble halls, and it shows in this amazingly informative, and at times humorous, tour given by a true insider. (Often Thavis knew more about what was going on than the pope did.)
In short, the place, despite its grandeur, is a mess. Thavis has described the Vatican as “more Keystone Kops than Machiavelli.”
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