| Summary/Abstract |
This volume is a warning to Pope Francis: an engaging, ironic report of 300 pages or so, whose implicit message is that a change of pontiff alone is not enough to change the Vatican. From this perspective, The Vatican Diaries by John Thavis, a respected reporter and Rome bureau chief for the Catholic News Service of 30 years’ standing, packs a metaphorical punch. The diaries describe an enduring self-referential mentality – a conviction that nothing can actually change inside the Vatican walls and in the Catholic Church, and that in this universe of secrecy and mystery the truth is something to be manipulated and from time to time even fabricated for a ‘superior interest’, no matter what the faithful believe or what the media write and broadcast.
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