EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Dictator Pope

    Book Details:
  • Author : Marcantonio Colonna
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2018-04-23
  • ISBN : 162157833X
  • Pages : 256 pages

Download or read book The Dictator Pope written by Marcantonio Colonna and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-04-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marcantonio Colonna's The Dictator Pope has rocked Rome and the entire Catholic Church with its portrait of an authoritarian, manipulative, and politically partisan pontiff. Occupying a privileged perch in Rome during the tumultuous first years of Francis’s pontificate, Colonna was privy to the shock, dismay, and even panic that the reckless new pope engendered in the Church’s most loyal and judicious leaders. The Dictator Pope discloses that Father Mario Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) was so unsuited for ecclesiastical leadership that the head of his own Jesuit order tried to prevent his appointment as a bishop in Argentina. Behind the benign smile of the "people's pope" Colonna reveals a ruthless autocrat aggressively asserting the powers of the papacy in pursuit of a radical agenda.

Book The Pope and Mussolini

Download or read book The Pope and Mussolini written by David I. Kertzer and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The compelling story of Pope Pius XI's secret relations with Benito Mussolini. A ground-breaking work that will forever change our understanding of the Vatican's role in the rise of Fascism in Europe.

Book Lost Shepherd

    Book Details:
  • Author : Philip F. Lawler
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2018-02-26
  • ISBN : 1621577538
  • Pages : 256 pages

Download or read book Lost Shepherd written by Philip F. Lawler and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-02-26 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faithful Catholics are beginning to realize it’s not their imagination. Pope Francis has led them on a journey from joy to unease to alarm and even a sense of betrayal. They can no longer pretend that he represents merely a change of emphasis in papal teaching. Assessing the confusion sown by this pontificate, Lost Shepherd explains what’s at stake, what’s not at stake, and how loyal believers should respond.

Book The Political Pope

    Book Details:
  • Author : George Neumayr
  • Publisher : Center Street
  • Release : 2019-03-12
  • ISBN : 9781455570157
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book The Political Pope written by George Neumayr and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of the left's efforts to politicize the Vatican and the battle to stop it-before the Catholic Church as we know it is destroyed. Pope Francis is the most liberal pope in the history of the Catholic Church. He is not only championing the causes of the global Left, but also undermining centuries-old Catholic teaching and practice. In the words of the late radical Tom Hayden, his election was "more miraculous, if you will, than the rise of Barack Obama in 2008." But to Catholics in the pews, his pontificate is a source of alienation. It is a pontificate, at times, beyond parody: Francis is the first pope to approve of adultery, flirt with proposals to bless gay marriages and cohabitation, tell atheists not to convert, tell Catholics to not breed "like rabbits," praise the Koran, support a secularized Europe, and celebrate Martin Luther. At a time of widespread moral relativism, Pope Francis is not defending the Church's teachings but diluting them. At a time of Christian persecution, he is not strengthening Catholic identity but weakening it. Where other popes sought to save souls, he prefers to "save the planet" and play politics, from habitual capitalism-bashing to his support for open borders and pacifism. In THE POLITICAL POPE, George Neumayr gives readers what the media won't: a bracing look at the liberal revolution that Pope Francis is advancing in the Church. To the radical academic Cornel West, "Pope Francis is a gift from heaven." To many conservative Catholics, he is the worst pope in centuries.

Book The Next Pope

    Book Details:
  • Author : Edward Pentin
  • Publisher : Sophia Institute Press
  • Release : 2020-07-07
  • ISBN : 1644133121
  • Pages : 370 pages

Download or read book The Next Pope written by Edward Pentin and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Watch the Highlights Video of the June 24 live panel discussion from Rome.??????? When Pope Francis' pontificate has passed, it's very likely that one of the nineteen cardinals featured in these pages will be elected to become the next Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, the spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics and the most influential and widely respected moral and religious figure in the world. Yet outside the Vatican walls, despite the considerable roles that some of these men play in the Church and in the world, few of them are known by the public — or even by their brother cardinals. Hence this book, an engrossing and thoroughly documented instrument through which a future pope may be known

Book Pope Benedict XVI

Download or read book Pope Benedict XVI written by Stephen Mansfield and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-07-21 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a new foreword on the resignation and legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. The sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI comes as the capstone to a papacy that that shocked some and delighted others. Pope Benedict was both an ardent intellectual and a driven traditionalist charged with leading a divided Catholic Church into a new era. In Pope Benedict XVI, bestselling author Stephen Mansfield tells the story of a youth who grew up in Nazi Germany and went from being a liberal theologian associated with Vatican II to a theological conservative who became Pope John Paul’s closest ally. As a cardinal, the outgoing pope pursued a firmly traditional path in the last quarter century: he excommunicated radical priests, cracked down on Marxist liberation theology in Latin America, and shaped some of John Paul’s more socially conservative positions. He also drew a line of distinction between Catholicism and other faiths, promulgating respect for—but not equality among— the historic religions. To some, Pope Benedict was the ultimate insider whose election ensured that the revolution of John Paul was rendered permanent in our century. Mansfield’s portrait of Pope Benedict was validated by recent history: Benedict XVI will be remembered as the Great Custodian. He sustained the return to tradition marked by John Paul. Pope Benedict XVI examines its subject specifically from the perspective of a non-Catholic—a committed Christian without fealty to Rome. Mansfield’s academic depth, his poetic but widely accessible writing style, and his ability to take complex religious ideas and make them understandable to the nonreligious make his treatment of Pope Benedict XVI significance for readers of all philosophies and faiths.

Book The Invention of Power

    Book Details:
  • Author : Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
  • Publisher : PublicAffairs
  • Release : 2022-01-18
  • ISBN : 154177440X
  • Pages : 339 pages

Download or read book The Invention of Power written by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Why Nations Fail, this book solves one of the great puzzles of history: Why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world? Western exceptionalism—the idea that European civilizations are freer, wealthier, and less violent—is a widespread and powerful political idea. It has been a source of peace and prosperity in some societies, and of ethnic cleansing and havoc in others. Yet in The Invention of Power, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita draws on his expertise in political maneuvering, deal-making, and game theory to present a revolutionary new theory of Western exceptionalism: that a single, rarely discussed event in the twelfth century changed the course of European and world history. By creating a compromise between churches and nation-states that, in effect, traded money for power and power for money, the 1122 Concordat of Worms incentivized economic growth, facilitated secularization, and improved the lot of the citizenry, all of which set European countries on a course for prosperity. In the centuries since, countries that have had a similar dynamic of competition between church and state have been consistently better off than those that have not. The Invention of Power upends conventional thinking about European culture, religion, and race and presents a persuasive new vision of world history.

Book On Heaven and Earth

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jorge Mario Bergoglio
  • Publisher : Image
  • Release : 2015-12-22
  • ISBN : 0804138729
  • Pages : 258 pages

Download or read book On Heaven and Earth written by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and published by Image. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller! From the man who became Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio shares his thoughts on religion, reason, and the challenges the world faces in the 21st century with Abraham Skorka, a rabbi and biophysicist. For years Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina, and Rabbi Abraham Skorka were tenacious promoters of interreligious dialogues on faith and reason. They both sought to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large. On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina in 2010, brings together a series of these conversations where both men talked about various theological and worldly issues, including God, fundamentalism, atheism, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and globalization. From these personal and accessible talks comes a first-hand view of the man who would become pope to 1.2 billion Catholics around the world in March 2013.

Book The Pope at War

    Book Details:
  • Author : David I. Kertzer
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2022-11-17
  • ISBN : 0192890735
  • Pages : 664 pages

Download or read book The Pope at War written by David I. Kertzer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with discoveries, this is the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII's struggle to response to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Nazi domination of Europe.The Pope at War is the third in a trilogy of books about Pope Pius XII's response to the rise of Fascism and Nazism. It tells the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII's struggle to respond to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the ongoing Nazi attempts to exterminate the Jews of Europe. It is the first book dealing with the war to make extensive use of the newly opened Vatican archives for the war years. It is based, as well, on thousands of documents from the Italian, German,French, British, and American archives. Among the many new discoveries brought to light is the discovery that within weeks of becoming pope in 1939, Pius XII entered into secret negotiations with Hitler through Hitler's emissary, a Nazi Prince who was married to the daughter of the King of Italy and who was veryclose to Hitler. The negotiations were kept so secret that not even the German ambassador to the Holy See was informed of them. The book also offers new insight into the thinking behind Pius XII's decision to maintain good relations with the German government during the war, including keeping the Germans happy while they occupied Rome in 1943-1944. And throughout, David I. Kertzer shows the active role of the Italian Church hierarchy in promoting the Axis war while the pope, who as bishop ofRome was responsible for the Italian hierarchy, offered his silent blessings and cast his public speeches in such a way that both sides could claim support for their cause.

Book The Malta Exchange

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steve Berry
  • Publisher : Minotaur Books
  • Release : 2019-03-05
  • ISBN : 1250140269
  • Pages : 415 pages

Download or read book The Malta Exchange written by Steve Berry and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The next in New York Times top 5 bestseller Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series involves the Knights of Malta, papal conclave, and lost documents that could change history. A deadly race for the Vatican’s oldest secret fuels New York Times bestseller Steve Berry’s latest international Cotton Malone thriller. The pope is dead. A conclave to select his replacement is about to begin. Cardinals are beginning to arrive at the Vatican, but one has fled Rome for Malta in search of a document that dates back to the 4th century and Constantine the Great. Former Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is at Lake Como, Italy, on the trail of legendary letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini that disappeared in 1945 and could re-write history. But someone else seems to be after the same letters and, when Malone obtains then loses them, he’s plunged into a hunt that draws the attention of the legendary Knights of Malta. The knights have existed for over nine hundred years, the only warrior-monks to survive into modern times. Now they are a global humanitarian organization, but within their ranks lurks trouble — the Secreti — an ancient sect intent on affecting the coming papal conclave. With the help of Magellan Billet agent Luke Daniels, Malone races the rogue cardinal, the knights, the Secreti, and the clock to find what has been lost for centuries. The final confrontation culminates behind the walls of the Vatican where the election of the next pope hangs in the balance.

Book Pilgrimage

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mark K. Shriver
  • Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
  • Release : 2017-08-22
  • ISBN : 0812987551
  • Pages : 334 pages

Download or read book Pilgrimage written by Mark K. Shriver and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A down-to-earth and deeply intimate portrait of Pope Francis and his faith, based on interviews with the men and women who knew him simply as Jorge Mario Bergoglio Early on the evening of March 13, 2013, the newly elected Pope Francis stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and did something remarkable: Before he imparted his blessing to the crowd, he asked the crowd to bless him, then bowed low to receive this grace. In the days that followed, Mark K. Shriver—along with the rest of the world—was astonished to see a pope who paid his own hotel bill, eschewed limousines, and made his home in a suite of austere rooms in a Vatican guesthouse rather than the grand papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. By setting an example of humility and accessibility, Francis breathed new life into the Catholic Church, attracting the admiration of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In Pilgrimage, Shriver retraces Francis’s personal journey, revealing the origins of his open, unpretentious style and explaining how it revitalized Shriver’s own faith and renewed his commitment to the Church. To help us understand how Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, Shriver travels to Bergoglio’s native Argentina to meet with the people who knew him as a child, as a young Jesuit priest, and as a reformist bishop. Shriver visits the confessional where Bergoglio first felt called to a faith-based life and takes us to the humble parish where the future pontiff’s pastoral career began: in a church created from a converted vegetable shed in an area just outside the city of Buenos Aires. In these impoverished surroundings, Bergoglio answered Christ’s call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless, following the example set by his papal namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. In this deeply reported yet highly personal book, Mark K. Shriver explores how Francis's commitment has struck a chord in the hearts of millions who long to make faith, love, humility, and mercy part of their lives as they go out into the world to serve and learn from the most marginalized. Praise for Pilgrimage “Well-researched . . . Pilgrimage shines a light on [Pope Francis’s] unexplored aspects. . . . A very timely and important addition to the literature on the life and person and thinking of Pope Francis. Everybody interested in Pope Francis will enjoy reading this biography.”—The Washington BookReview “Apt to stir the soul of readers . . . While this is a rich telling of Bergoglio’s life and ascension to the papacy, it is more movingly a spiritual memoir that draws us deep into a knowing of this at once humble and soul-stirring rekindler of faith.”—Chicago Tribune “A fascinating portrait of a man and a nourishing account of spiritual yearning.”—Booklist “This fast-paced and fascinating tale takes us on Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s pilgrimage from his grandmother’s knee in the Italian-Argentine community, through years of success and sorrow in the tumultuous country that he loved, to his surprise election as Pope Francis.”—Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848–1868 “All people of good faith, including those whose lives are not guided by religious beliefs, will be inspired and enlightened by the compelling manner in which Pilgrimage brings us closer to the heart and mind of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis. I highly recommend this book; it will make a difference in your life.”—Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap.

Book Papal Power

    Book Details:
  • Author : Paul Collins
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1997
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 244 pages

Download or read book Papal Power written by Paul Collins and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The St  Gallen Mafia  Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church

Download or read book The St Gallen Mafia Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church written by Julia Meloni and published by Tan Books. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-1990s, a clandestine group of high-ranking churchmen began gathering in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Opposed to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the circle plotted a revolution in stealth. By 2015, their secret ached to be told. Before an audience, Cardinal Godfried Danneels joked of being a part of a "mafia." But as explosive as Danneels's confession was, a thick cloud of mystery still enshrouds the St. Gallen mafia. In this compelling book, Julia Meloni pieces together the eerie trail of confessional evidence about the St. Gallen group. Copiously researched and grippingly narrated, The St. Gallen Mafia sheds light on the following: The mysteries of the 2005 conclave, where mafia members grew divided over a plan to back Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope. The war against Benedict XVI by the mafia's Cardinal Achille Silvestrini - and the mysterious "confessions" believed to be linked to him. The enigmatic, complicated relationship between the mafia's Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and Benedict XVI. The mafia writings that presaged a new Francis - and the 2013 conclave that elected him. Martini's enduring role as an "ante-pope" - a "precursor" for Pope Francis.

Book Franco

    Book Details:
  • Author : Enrique Moradiellos
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Release : 2017-12-18
  • ISBN : 178672300X
  • Pages : 264 pages

Download or read book Franco written by Enrique Moradiellos and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 20th November 1975, General Francisco Franco died in Madrid, just before his 83rd birthday. At the time of his death he had been the head of a dictatorial regime with the title of 'Caudillo' for almost 40 years. In this book, Enrique Moradiellos redraws Franco in three dimensions - Franco, the man; Franco, the Caudillo and Franco's Spain. In so doing, he offers a reappraisal of Franco's personality, his leadership style and the nature of the regime that he established and led until his death. As a dictator who established his power prior to World War II and maintained it well into the 1970s, Franco was one of the most central figures of twentieth-century European history. In Spain today, he is a spectre from a regrettable recent past, uncomfortable yet still very real and significant. Although a realtively minor dictator in comparison with Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin, Franco was more fortunate than them in terms of survival, long-lasting influence and public image. A study of his regime and its historical evolution sheds new light on fundamental questions of European history, including the social and cultural bases for totalitarian or authoritarian challenges to democracy and sources of political legitimacy grounded in the charisma of a leader. In this book, Enrique Moradiellos Garcia examines the dictatorship as well as the dictator and, in doing so, reveals new aspects to our understanding of General Franco, the Caudillo.

Book The Green Pope

    Book Details:
  • Author : Miguel Angel Asturias
  • Publisher : Jonathan Cape
  • Release : 1971
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 416 pages

Download or read book The Green Pope written by Miguel Angel Asturias and published by Jonathan Cape. This book was released on 1971 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, tells the story of an ugly American, George Maker Thompson. Thompson was a pirate in the Caribbean but feels that he's wasted his time as a pirate on the sea and that making money on the water will not lead to the riches that he wants to accumulate. It’s not a particularly secret wisdom that those who have wealth are likely to have power too. After all, it’s money that makes the world go round... at least a materialistic world like ours. Little wonder that our society produces considerable numbers of men and women whose primary goal in life is to gain money and ever more money. In The Green Pope by Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1967 “for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin-America”, a young American who cares for nothing but wealth and power starts a banana plantation in Guatemala mercilessly ruining, driving out or even killing small local farmers and opponents on his rise. Neither the suicide of his fiancé, the death of his wife in childbirth or the pregnancy of his unmarried daughter make him reconsider his priorities.

Book Hitler s Pope

    Book Details:
  • Author : John Cornwell
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2000-10-01
  • ISBN : 1101202491
  • Pages : 452 pages

Download or read book Hitler s Pope written by John Cornwell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2000-10-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “explosive” (The New York Times) bestseller that “redefined the history of the twentieth century” (The Washington Post ) This shocking book was the first account to tell the whole truth about Pope Pius XII's actions during World War II, and it remains the definitive account of that era. It sparked a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Award-winning journalist John Cornwell has also included in this seminal work of history an introduction that both answers his critics and reaffirms his overall thesis that Pius XII fatally weakened the Catholic Church with his endorsement of Hitler—and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.

Book Witness to Hope

    Book Details:
  • Author : George Weigel
  • Publisher : Zondervan
  • Release : 2009-10-13
  • ISBN : 0061758647
  • Pages : 1228 pages

Download or read book Witness to Hope written by George Weigel and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 1228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER "A remarkable book. Weigel's biography is likely to remain the standard one-volume reference on John Paul II for many years to come." — Pittsburg Post-Gazette ?“Fascinating. . . sheds light on the history of the twentieth century for everyone.” —New York Times Book Review The definitive biography of Pope John Paul II that explores how influential he was on the world stage and in some of the most historic events of the twentieth century that can still be felt today Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures—some might argue the singular figure—of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics—and changed the course of history. As even his critics concede, John Paul II occupied a unique place on the world stage and put down intellectual markers that no one could ignore or avoid as humanity entered a new millennium fraught with possibility and danger. The Pope was a man of prodigious energy who played a crucial, yet insufficiently explored, role in some of the most momentous events of our time, including the collapse of European communism, the quest for peace in the Middle East, and the democratic transformation of Latin America. With an updated preface, this edition of Witness to Hope explains how this “man from a far country” did all of that, and much more—and what both his accomplishments and the unfinished business of his pontificate mean for the future of the Church and the world.