Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
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My opinion . . . .
I am basing the following paragraphs upon the description of the audiobook at Downpour:
Marcantonio Colonna’s The Dictator Pope has rocked Rome and the entire Catholic Church with its portrait of an authoritarian, manipulative, and politically partisan pontiff. Occupying a privileged perch in Rome during the tumultuous first years of Francis’ pontificate, Colonna was privy to the shock, dismay, and even panic that the reckless new pope engendered in the Church’s most loyal and judicious leaders. The Dictator Pope discloses that Father Mario Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) was so unsuited for ecclesiastical leadership that the head of his own Jesuit order tried to prevent his appointment as a bishop in Argentina. Behind the benign smile of the “people’s pope” Colonna reveals a ruthless autocrat aggressively asserting the powers of the papacy in pursuit of a radical agenda.
Frankly, I think that this probably is more suitable as fodder for the tabloids found at the supermarket checkout lanes, and consumed by people who are easily duped or find such caca posing as news to be entertaining. (For the benefit of those in the U.K., and maybe elsewhere, where this is not the case with tabloids, I think that I can safely say that people here in the 'States generally have a very negative view of tabloids published here in the United States (they're considered trash) than containing real news, such as the results of serious, honest pieces of investigative work). (As a side note, I wish that all of the newspapers in the U.S. would go to a tabloid format--that format is so much more convenient to use than the big, standard, unwieldy one that newspaper publishers inevitably use! What is preventing that? Probably the negative image of publications in tabloid form!)
I consider myself relatively well informed about current events, and I have never heard anything about any of the things that the description mentions about Pope Francis. From Day One, I've heard almost nothing negative against Pope Francis (other than by people who are opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, and the papacy in general), at all. But, perhaps the author genuinely has uncovered some secrets--I'll try to be open-minded.