The Vatican Diaries: a Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church

By Raig Wilson
USA Today
February 20, 2013

http://books.usatoday.com/book/john-thavis-throws-open-the-doors-in-%E2%80%98vatican-diaries/r850468


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."

Yes, having a pope is nice, but what's really needed, according to Thavis, is a crack CEO and CFO, someone who can pull the place together. And more than that, it really needs a slick PR team to send out one clear message.

Not that Thavis really wants the slick PR team to exist. If one was in place, he wouldn't have been able to write the revealing book he did. To all journalists' delight, it appears folks at the Vatican like to talk — everyone from the red-hatted and sometimes back-stabbing Cardinals all the way down to the Sunday ushers who seat pilgrims from around the world. But their message is rarely the same. Gossip is the daily litany.

And that's what makes Thavis' book so readable. You want the scandals? Yes, they're all here. Debates over condoms, celibacy, break-away groups and possible anti-Semitism? All here, too. Throw in an eccentric wine-swigging Latin scholar who not only survived but thrived at the Vatican for 50 years, and you've got yourself a good tale.

Little of the book is salacious. It's just laid out like a well-reported story. As Thavis writes in the introduction, "This is a book of fact, not fiction."

Still curious about who outgoing Pope Benedict really is? Thavis tackles that question, too, in the book's final chapter. But even he, with all his insider knowledge, comes up short, never hinting about the possibility of a surprise resignation. Enigmatic remains the word.