Title: Pope John XXIII
Author: Thomas Cahill
Publisher: Viking Books, January 2002

This book isn’t something I would normally have read, but it was loaned to me
by a friend. It was written in an interesting manner and held my attention while
covering a topic that I knew very little about. It was intriguing to read about
some of the machinations of Vatican politics, the promotion of men up the
hierarchical structure the Roman Catholic church has devised, the selection
of popes by the college of cardinals, and the sometimes nebulous, often
nefarious intertwining relationships between the Vatican, Pope, and the nation
states of Europe.

The book came across to me as fairly pro-Roman Catholic. Someone more
inclined to the Roman Catholic way of thinking probably wouldn’t have taken
it that way, however. In the first chapter, Mr. Cahill comments:

Vatican propaganda notwithstanding, Peter was never “bishop of Rome.”

He goes on to give a brief history of the development of the various “sees”, the consolidation
of religious power in Rome, and the development of the situation as we find it today, including
some passing references to the pertinent Scriptural passages.

Born Angelo Roncalli, in Sotto il Monte Italy, he is shown to be a humble, God-fearing
man who seems to have truly desired to do good for others in whatever circumstances
he found himself. He apparently helped a great many Jewish people get out of
Europe through Turkey during the early years of Hitler’s rise to power. He claimed
God’s grace and mercy often, seems to have been a man of prayer, and was loved
by people where ever he was. Yet, it cannot be forgotten, that he was thoroughly
Catholic, believed in and trusted the rites and rituals of the Romish church, and
was steeped in Mariology.

John XXIII is given a fairly favorable treatment and is supposed, if not by the auther, then
by many of his sources, as a true Christian man among all of the others in the Romish
church hierarchy who are, well, less so. It is striking that even as such, he is seen in some of
his more diplomatic posts, especially in France, attending parties where he would often
be found with a glass of champagne in one hand and a cigarette in the other. We would
differ with the author in our interpretation of what kind of testimony this would be for
a true Christian man, and how the seriousness of it would reflect on the testimony of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

The book contains in a very few places some quite objectionable language. This
seems to be a deliberate attempt at shock on the part of Mr. Cahill as it was not
in the context of a quotation but merely one of his interpretations and could have
been avoided rather easily.

The writing has made me eager to read Mr. Cahill’s more well known work,
How the Irish Saved Civilization.