Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. - book reviews

Cross Currents, Fall, 1998 by Ronald Burke

Kwitny is also convincing in dealing with other controversies. He compiles evidence that the attempted assassination of the pope was not supported by the Soviets, and shows how much of the money donated to Solidarity came from thieves who were stealing it from the Vatican in the infamous Banco Ambrosiano swindle. More significantly, he provides now documentation one close connection and secret meetings between Wojtyla and the "Committee for the Defense of Workers" (KOR), the illegal organization that became Solidarity.

Though neither a Catholic nor a trained theologian, Kwitny also takes some steps to show the positive influence of John Paul II in acknowledging past church mistakes that alienated scientists, non-Roman Catholic Christians, Jews, and adherents of other world religions. Although he avoids categorizing the pope as a misogynist, he criticizes John Paul II for insensitivity to the concerns of contemporary women, for cracking down on dissent, and for his lack of concern regarding church finances and clerical anguish over celibacy. He does not, however, explore deeply enough such inconsistencies as calling priests in Poland to stand up for justice while telling priests in Latin American to dissociate themselves from politics. Overall, Man of the Century is a well-supported portrait of John Paul II as one of the century's great proponents of nonviolence and responsible freedom.

Neither Bernstein/Politi nor Kwitny seems to be the definitive study of its subject, but both books are provocative in the stories they tell, especially in regard to the fall of the Soviet empire. Such accounts are put into a larger perspective by a popular history of the papacy by Eamon Duffy, a Roman Catholic professor of church history at Magdalen College, Cambridge. Written in conjunction with a British TV mini-series on the papacy, the book takes on the whole history of the papacy from its beginnings to the present. The book far surpasses the quality of texts for coffee table display, including more than 150 visual images (photographs, paintings, sculptures, maps, etc.). Its credentials as an academic work might seem threatened by the danger of bowing too low to the papacy, ignoring its greatest crimes, or of tuning history into expose, and overlooking the remarkable influence of the institution on the West.

Duffy avoids both these dangers, and his book is amazing for conciseness and accuracy. He is extraordinarily gifted in providing contextualization; he attempts to look at all of Western history through the lens of the papacy, explaining clearly and briefly the political, social, and economic backdrop to particulars papal era as they are discussed. With subtlety and wit, he offers criticism and correction to the papacy, but never so harshly as to interrupt his story. Saints and Sinners reveals the holiness, brutality, spiritual leadership, political power, great art, and open corruption that has characterized the papacy over the centuries. Duffy includes stories of the pope called "the terrible," the one who kept an elephant (who genuflected), and the last pope to have a Secretary of War, while also offering tales of the greatness and holiness that have occasionally graced the enduring office.