Customer Reviews

Selecting the Pope: Uncovering the Mysteries of Papal Elections

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I finally read this over the past few days and I must confess I'm getting more information out of watching CNN and the networks. Not recommended as your primary source, or secondary actually. But if you have to have every book on this subject, feel free to snap it up.

For educators or people interested in how the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church is elected, this is an excellent resource. Easy to read, with charts to inform what happens in the Church from the day the Pope dies until a successor is chosen. Also includes some of the "major players" and what is the criteria that will be used in choosing the next pontiff. Afterword includes the "Apostolic Constitution" written by Pope John Paul II.

A well-informed Vatican-watcher, much read in recent weeks, estimates that there are at least six English-language "quickie" books now being written about the election of Benedict XVI, from authors like Fr. Andrew Greeley and the generally more respected journalist John L. Allen. There were a number of "quickie" books produced before the late pontiff's death too, and in the wake of the last month's events their time has largely come and gone. That's definitely the case with "Selecting the Pope" by Greg Tobin.

Produced in 2003, which even then was apparently considered "the waning days of a pontificate" (p. viii), this book gives a rapid thumbnail portrait of the history and roles of the papacy, the various methods of papal election over the centuries, former and current curial law concerning the process, and "the challenges awaiting the next pope." If that seems like a lot of ground to cover in just over 100 pages, you're right. In fact, if you were or still are interested in more than the most cursory overview of these questions, there are significantly more in-depth references than this one. Personally, I would start by pointing you to the works of the aforementioned John L. Allen.

As a whirlwind guide to the processes to be used (or, that were used) in the election of the pope to follow John Paul II, this is an adequate though far from exceptional resource. There's nothing especially wrong here, and if all you're looking for is a rapid explanation of what happened and why, this is a good enough place to start. It's definitely a fairly quick read (and probably didn't take too long to write, either).

But for insight as to what was going to happen behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel, however, all I can do is point out the following, from pages 114-115:

"A curial cardinal is, almost by definition, not *papabile.* Although Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- which used to be the Holy Office, and before that the Inquisition -- is a highly regarded theologian and intellectual, he is one of the least likely to be elected pope."

Oh well.

The book is very sketchy with respect to details and the important history of the Catholic church and the middle ages. The author spends little ink on the history of the papacy during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The "selection" of the pope during those tumultuous years was indeed a very different process compared to the section during the 19th and 20th centuries! The authior seems to concentrate and details the process during these later centuries and seems to gloss over the middle ages when the Catholic Church ruled not only the Vatican, but also the Governments of virtually all Europe. For a more accurate and detailed account of how the popes were "selected" during the middle ages (3 centuries), I would recommend Wm Manchester's history of the middle ages "A World Lit By Only Fire". This is an unbias account of the papacy during the middle ages and how it shaped the future of the Catholic Religion.