Download or read book Pope Joan written by Donna Woolfolk Cross and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama—love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets. Cross has written an engaging book.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In this international bestseller and basis for the 2009 movie of the same name, Donna Woolfolk Cross brings the Dark Ages to life in all their brutal splendor and shares the dramatic story of a woman whose strength of vision led her to defy the social restrictions of her day. For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die—Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Now in this riveting novel, Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept. Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn. When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak—and his identity—and enters the monastery of Fulda. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer. Eventually, she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest office in Christendom—wielding a power greater than any woman before or since. But such power always comes at a price . . . “Brings the savage ninth century vividly to life in all its alien richness. An enthralling, scholarly historical novel.”—Rebecca Fraser, author of The Brontës

Download or read book The Accidental Pope written by Ray Flynn and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The former US Ambassador to the Vatican and the bestselling author of The French Connection join forces to write an unforgettable, compelling novel about a humble fisherman who is elected as the next Pope. Locked in a stalemate after days of voting, the College of Cardinals struggles through the arduous process of electing a new pope after the death of Pope John Paul II. In an effort to break the impasse at the conclave, Brian Comiskey, Cardinal Primate of All Ireland, in a stunning surprise development, withdraws from the race. Explaining his decision, he offers an anecdote about being among a boat load of clerics who were caught in an unexpected storm, then miraculously rescued by his friend Bill Kelly, a former priest and now a Cape Cod fisherman. The next day at the Sistine Chapel, still undecided about who they should vote for, the Cardinals smile to themselves as they cast what they think are throw-away symbolic votes for Bill Kelly--but no one is laughing when he is elected Pope. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Bill Kelly is on his boat at sea when he has a very clear and disturbing revelation: God is once again calling him to serve his Church. Thus begins the reign of the first American Pope. Written with the style of bestselling novelist Robin Moore and the political brilliance and authority of former U. S. Ambassador Raymond Flynn, The Accidental Pope is not a religious book about politics, nor a political book about religion, but a story that gives insight into the Vatican and the role of the Holy See in world events. The Accidental Pope is a globetrotting tale full of suspense, drama, and humor.

Download or read book The Two Popes written by Anthony McCarten and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY BEHIND THE SCREENPLAY OF THE TWO POPES, THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING ANTHONY HOPKINS AND JONATHAN PRYCE (PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE POPE). From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour comes the fascinating and revealing tale of an unprecedented transfer of power, and of two very different men - who both happen to live in the Vatican. In February 2013, the arch-conservative Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement: he would resign, making him the first pope to willingly vacate his office in over 700 years. Reeling from the news, the College of Cardinals rushed to Rome to congregate in the Sistine Chapel to pick his successor. Their unlikely choice? Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,200 years, a one time tango club bouncer, a passionate soccer fan, a man with the common touch. Why did Benedict walk away at the height of power, knowing his successor might be someone whose views might undo his legacy? How did Francis - who used to ride the bus to work back in his native Buenos Aires - adjust to life as leader to a billion followers? If, as the Church teaches, the pope is infallible, how can two living popes who disagree on almost everything both be right? Having immersed himself in these men's lives to write the screenplay for The Two Popes, Anthony McCarten masterfully weaves their stories into one gripping narrative. From Benedict and Francis's formative experiences in war-torn Germany and Argentina to the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the Church to its foundations, to the intrigue and the occasional comedy of life in the Vatican, The Two Pope glitters with the darker and the lighter details of one of the world's most opaque but significant institutions.

Download or read book Pope Francis written by Paul Vallely and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From his first appearance on a Vatican balcony Pope Francis proved himself a Pope of Surprises. With a series of potent gestures, history's first Jesuit pope declared a mission to restore authenticity and integrity to a Catholic Church bedevilled by sex abuse and secrecy, intrigue and in-fighting, ambition and arrogance. He declared it should be 'a poor Church, for the poor'. But there is a hidden past to this modest man with the winning smile. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was previously a bitterly divisive figure. His decade as leader of Argentina's Jesuits left the religious order deeply split. And his behaviour during Argentina's Dirty War, when military death squads snatched innocent people from the streets, raised serious questions – on which this book casts new light. Yet something dramatic then happened to Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He underwent an extraordinary transformation. After a time of exile he re-emerged having turned from a conservative authoritarian into a humble friend of the poor – and became Bishop of the Slums, making enemies among Argentina's political classes in the process. For Pope Francis – Untying the Knots, Paul Vallely travelled to Argentina and Rome to meet Bergoglio's intimates over the last four decades. His book charts a remarkable journey. It reveals what changed the man who was to become Pope Francis – from a reactionary into the revolutionary who is unnerving Rome's clerical careerists with the extent of his behind-the-scenes changes. In this perceptive portrait Paul Vallely offers both new evidence and penetrating insights into the kind of pope Francis could become.

Download or read book The Pope written by Lp Lovell and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-19 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I'm a priest, a messenger of God, a good man. At least that's what I would have them all believe. She's a lost lamb, cast adrift from her flock and seeking shelter from the wolves snapping at her heels. She's looking for salvation, protection, forgiveness for her sins. I'm not the man to give it to her. But for the first time in my life, I want to be. Little does she know... For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Download or read book The Last Pope written by Luis Miguel Rocha and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-08-14 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost thirty years after the world was stunned by the shocking death of Pope John Paul I, journalist Sarah Monteiro finds an envelope stuffed in her mailbox. The contents hold the key to uncovering the truth about that mysterious death. Drawn into a vortex in which deadly mercenaries, crooked politicians, and princes of the Church itself have formed an alliance of deception, Sarah must decide between revealing the truth and saving her own soul.

Download or read book The Pope s Assassin written by Luís Miguel Rocha and published by Putnam Publishing Group. This book was released on 2011 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating the suspicious death of a historian who had just discovered a set of church scrolls from A.D. 325, Vatican secret agent Father Raphael Santini uncovers evidence implicating an ambitious British journalist who knows dangerous Vatican secrets.

Download or read book Pope Francis in His Own Words written by Pope Francis and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insights from the world's newest spiritual leader on everything from forgiveness and faith to mercy and money, from prayer and parenting to tango and soccer Book jacket.

Download or read book All the Pope s Men written by John L. Allen, Jr. and published by Image. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Pope written by Gerhard Cardinal Muller and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an introduction to the theological and historical aspects of the papacy, an office and institution that is unique in this world. Throughout its history up to our present time, the Petrine ministry is both fascinating and challenging to people, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Gerhard Cardinal Müller speaks from a particular and personal viewpoint, including his experience of working closely with the pope every day as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He addresses, in particular, those dimensions of the papal office which are crucial for understanding more deeply the pope as a visible principle of the church’s unity. 500 years after the Protestant reformation, the book offers insights into the ecumenical controversies about the papacy throughout the centuries, in their historical context. The book also exposes prejudices and cliches, and points to the authentic foundation of the Petrine ministry.

Download or read book Lord of the World written by Robert Hugh Benson and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Pope s Daughter written by Dario Fo and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucrezia Borgia is one of the most vilified women in modern history. The daughter of a notorious pope, she was twice betrothed before the age of eleven and thrice married—one husband was forced to declare himself impotent and thereby unfit and another was murdered by Lucrezia’s own brother, Cesar Borgia. She is cast in the role of murderess, temptress, incestuous lover, loose woman, femme fatale par excellence. But there are two sides to every story. Lucrezia Borgia is the only woman in history to have serve as the head of the Catholic Church. She successfully administered several of Renaissance Italy’s most thriving cities, founded one of the world’s first credit unions, and was a generous patron of the arts. She was mother to a prince and to a cardinal. She was a devoted wife to the Prince of Ferrara, and the lover of the poet Pietro Bembo. She was a child of the renaissance and, in many ways, the world’s first modern woman. In this richly imagined novel, Nobel laureate Dario Fo reveals Lucrezia’s humanity, her passion for life, her compassion for others, and her skill at navigating around her family’s evildoings. The Borgias are unrivalled for the range and magnitude of their political machinations and opportunism. Fo’s brilliance rests in his rendering their story as a shocking mirror image of the uses and abuses of power in our own time. Lucrezia herself becomes a model for how to survive and rise above those abuses. Part Wolf Hall, part House of Cards, The Pope's Daugther will appeal to readers of historical fiction and of contemporary fiction alike and will delight anyone fascinated by Renaissance Italy.

Download or read book Church of Spies written by Mark Riebling and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart-pounding history of how Pope Pius XII -- often labeled "Hitler's Pope" -- was in fact an anti-Nazi spymaster, plotting against the Third Reich during World War II. The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pope Pius in fact ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he sent birthday cards to Hitler -- while secretly plotting to kill him. He skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. Under his leadership the Vatican spy ring actively plotted against the Third Reich. Told with heart-pounding suspense and drawing on secret transcripts and unsealed files by an acclaimed author, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. Riebling reveals here how the world's greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.

Download or read book The Pope of Palm Beach written by Tim Dorsey and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Florida’s king of mayhem—"compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny" (Boston Globe) New York Times bestselling author Tim Dorsey—comes a diabolically madcap adventure featuring the indomitable Serge A. Storms. No one worships the Sunshine State as much as Serge A. Storms. Perpetually hunting Floridian arcana and lore, he and his permanently baked sidekick, Coleman, are on the road again. This time they’re on a frenzied literary pilgrimage that leads them back to Riviera Beach, the cozy seaside town where the boys spent their formative years. Growing up, Serge was enthralled by the Legend of Riviera Beach, aka Darby, a welder at the port who surfed the local waves long before the hot spots were hot. A god on the water, the big-hearted surfer was a friend to everyone—the younger surfers, cops, politicians, wealthy businessmen and ordinary Joes—a generosity of spirit that earned him the admiration of all. Meanwhile, there was a much murkier legend that made the rounds of the schoolyards from Serge’s youth—that of the crazy hermit living in a makeshift jungle compound farther up the mysterious Loxahatchee River than anyone dared to venture. Then Serge moved away. But never forgot. Now he’s back, with those legends looming larger than ever in the rearview mirror of his memory. As his literary odyssey moves north from Key West, closer and closer to his old stomping grounds, Serge digs into the past as only Serge can. Along the way, he unintentionally disturbs some long-forgotten ground, attracting the attention of a cast of villains that only Florida can produce. As the body count grows, so does the list of questions: Why are the guys in the hard hats worried about the monkeys? When do you hack a motel air-conditioner? How does Coleman get high with cat toys? Who is expecting the dildo? And will book tours ever be the same after Serge decides to check one out? Told in alternating flashbacks between Serge and Coleman’s childhoods and the present day, The Pope of Palm Beach is a witty and deliciously violent delight from the twisted imagination of Tim Dorsey.

Download or read book To Change the Church written by Ross Douthat and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).

Download or read book A Pope and a President written by Paul Kengor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even as historians credit Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II with hastening the end of the Cold War, they have failed to recognize the depth or significance of the bond that developed between the two leaders. Acclaimed scholar and bestselling author Paul Kengor changes that. In this fascinating book, he reveals a singular bond—which included a spiritual connection between the Catholic pope and the Protestant president—that drove the two men to confront what they knew to be the great evil of the twentieth century: Soviet communism. Reagan and John Paul II almost didn't have the opportunity to forge this relationship: just six weeks apart in the spring of 1981, they took bullets from would-be assassins. But their strikingly similar near-death experiences brought them close together—to Moscow's dismay.Based on Kengor's tireless archival digging and his unique access to Reagan insiders, A Pope and a President is full of revelations. It takes you inside private meetings between Reagan and John Paul II and into the Oval Office, the Vatican, the CIA, the Kremlin, and many points beyond. Nancy Reagan called John Paul II her husband's "closest friend"; Reagan himself told Polish visitors that the pope was his "best friend." When you read this book, you will understand why. As kindred spirits, Ronald Reagan and John Paul II united in pursuit of a supreme objective—and in doing so they changed history.

Download or read book On the Pope written by Joseph de Maistre and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-25 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Pope (Du Pape) is the main political-philosophical work of the counter-revolutionary writer and philosopher, Joseph de Maistre. Maistre worked for 20 years on the writing of his magnum opus, a book that laid the foundation for his invention of political ultramontanism. Ultramontanism was a school of thought of the Catholic Church that promoted the doctrine of central papal supremacy in matters of governance and spirituality. Championed by Pope Pius IX, the ultramontanists attained their greatest triumph in the late 19th century with the formal proclamation of papal primacy and infallibility. On the Pope is divided into four parts. In the first part, Maistre makes the argument for his thesis that there is "no pope without the supremacy which belongs to him" and "no Catholicism without one pope." His argument in favor of papal infallibility stands out in the history of theology because he was among the earliest Catholic writers to openly discuss the doctrine. Part two reveals the key components of Maistre's political thought: His absolutist ideas about the nature of sovereignty, his unique argument for the divine origins of all forms of political sovereignty, and his rejection of social contract theories on the origin of society and sovereignty. Part three is devoted to demonstrating Maistre's argument that, above all, nations need a higher sovereign to help protect against the abuses of power, and that this sovereign should be the pope, as the savior and creator of European civilization. He argues that the only nations that have known civil liberty are those which "have remained sufficiently under the influence of the Sovereign Pontiff." Part four deals primarily with "schismatic churches." Maistre felt that the schismatic churches would inevitably fall into Protestantism, and from Protestantism through Socinianism into philosophic indifference. For "no religion can resist science, except one."