The Vatican's Women: Female Influence at the Holy See [Hardcover]

Paul Hofmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 2002

Four hundred of the 3,800 people who permanently live or work in the State of Vatican City, the smallest sovereign and independent state on the globe, are women. They are nuns and members of the laity; some are housekeepers of churchmen; others are secretaries, translators, editors, lawyers, and middle-level officials of the papal administration.

Expansive in scope and enlightening in detail, The Vatican's Women recalls women who wielded power in the Vatican, including St. Catherine of Siena, Queen Christina of Sweden, Mother Pascalina (Pope Pius XII's longtime housekeeper and confidante), and Mother Teresa. With an unflinching eye, Paul Hofmann examines the papacy's reaction to Catholic women's (and nuns') liberation, and women's struggles, especially today, to fortify their positions within the Church. The Vatican's Women is a thorough and revealing exploration that will herald a new level of insight and dialogue amongst feminists, theologians, and laypeople alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How do women influence the inner workings of the male-dominated Roman Catholic Church when the door to priesthood remains closed to them? To find out women's impact on the Vatican, Hoffman, a former Rome bureau chief for the New York Times, conducted interviews with more than 40 representatives of the church's distaff side and did historical research aided by two of the Vatican's women professionals. He learned that although they are barred from many official positions of authority, women have managed to exercise persuasive power at the Vatican into the present day. Indeed, some of Hoffman's strongest examples are of women who wielded great power while assuming traditional and even subservient roles. Chief among these was Mother Pascalina, a Bavarian nun who spent more than 40 years attending to the personal needs of Pope Pius XII, and who had so much influence that she was referred to by some as "the popess." This book is as much about the Vatican as it is about women and is full of interesting, gossipy tidbits drawn from the author's years of working and living in Rome. Although such details make for interesting reading and will certainly attract readers with a taste for scandal and rumor, their inclusion detracts from what otherwise might have been a more serious study of the role of women in the church.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Now over 90 years old, Hofmann, who served as foreign correspondent and Rome bureau chief for the New York Times, offers a glimpse into women's activities and powers within Vatican City, historical and contemporary. A cradle Catholic turned agnostic, the Vienna-born author covers everything from the Pope Joan legends to real-life stories of today's religious and laywomen working at the Vatican while also supplying information on the daily life and bureaucratic structures of the state. Though written in the engaging style of an insider and professional writer, the book is peppered with innuendo, conjecture, and heasay, as interviewed sources chose to remain anonymous. While pointing to women's genuine contributions within the Church's central administration over the years, Hofmann steadily focuses on the Vatican's lacunae regarding women and hardly at all on the spirituality of those the Holy See serves. Libraries owning the author's other publications (e.g., O Vatican! A Slightly Wicked View of the Holy See) may wish to purchase.
Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312274904
• ISBN-13: 978-0312274900
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,779,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Behind the scenes, November 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vatican's Women: Female Influence at the Holy See (Hardcover)

For those who still hold the outdated beleif that the Church is against women in any form, especially those in power, this book will be an eyeopener. For the rest of us who are educated, we will find the behind the scenes life at the Vatican interesting adn informative.