A good read for Francis devotees but far from unbiased journalism.
A praiseful portrait of Pope Francis.
British journalist Ivereigh (Fellow, Contemporary Church History/Campion Hall, Univ. of Oxford; The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, 2014) presents a hagiographic biography of the Francis papacy to date. In a detailed study packed with insider tidbits, the author examines various overarching issues that have affected and defined the Francis era. In addition to the inescapable issue of priestly abuse, Ivereigh also discusses such topics as Vatican finances, rehabilitation of divorced Catholics, human rights crises, and gender and sexuality controversies. An overarching theme is the problem of clericalism, which the author defines as “the perverse idea that clerics of any sort—bishops, priests, consecrated persons—are superior to non-clerics, who are treated as inferiors.” Clericalism, writes Ivereigh, has pervaded Catholicism for years and tainted it in countless ways, leading to many of the problems the church faces today. Whereas clericalism leads to a distance from those the church is meant to love, Francis is consistent in promoting “closeness” in every possible way. Ivereigh presents Francis as a nearly flawless figure, “an old Jesuit spiritual master” with “native cunning” who “truly imitates Christ.” The closest the author comes to criticizing Francis is in the chapter on the abuse crisis, in which he admits that Francis made certain missteps in his handling of specific cases. Francis’ critics, on the other hand, are “Pharisaical” examples of “naked legalism.” He even goes so far as to call them “neo-Donatists,” referring to an ancient heresy marked by a lack of mercy. Francis, “the master bridgemaker in an era of angry wall builders,” is presented as standing nearly alone against a moribund church and a misguided world. Ivereigh’s connections with church insiders—connections he does not hesitate to highlight—make for an interesting read. His lack of objectivity, however, detracts from an otherwise intriguing study.
A good read for Francis devotees but far from unbiased journalism.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-11938-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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