THE POPES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

by Carlo Falconi ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 1968

Mr. Falconi's purpose in this book is to appraise the situation and accomplishments of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century by means of interpretive biographical sketches of the five pontiffs who reigned in the period 1903-1963; Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, and John XXIII. The book succeeds to the extent that it narrates and synthesizes the events of those successive reigns with that combination of piety and irreverence which is peculiar to the species of Italian Catholic journalist of which Falconi is the representative par excellence. While the work therefore has a facile and popular charm that will not be lost on the undemanding reader, the serious student of religious affairs will be more irritated than seduced by the author's willingness to achieve synthesis through the imposition of an external unity on events which can be justified neither by sound historical methodology nor by the perspective furnished by subsequent developments, and by his fondness for drawing dramatic, but not always real, contrasts between the personalities and policies of the subject popes. On the whole, then, the book is a readable and not uninteresting, but primarily subjective, history of the twentieth-century papacy, that will hold little appeal for a critical audience.

Pub Date: March 21, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION