Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Factual errors detract from an otherwise good book, February 13, 2000
By A Customer
As a person who has a great interest in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as substantial expertise on the subject, I was eager to read this book. I found "Passing the Keys" to be an extremely interesting and insightful work on the creation of cardinals and the election of popes in the twentieth century. The author has brought together in one volume much information which has hitherto been known only by those who have made detailed studies and inquiries into the subject area. This is certainly the first time that many of these accounts have appeared in English. I would have rated this work excellent if it had not been for the number of factual errors in this book. For example, the author consistently uses the terms archpriest and archdeacon to describe the senior cardinal priest and the senior cardinal deacon. The proper terms are "first priest" and "first deacon." On pages 84 and 95, the author attributes the rank and title of archbishop to Monsignor Domenico Tardini. Tardini was not named an archbishop until December 14, 1958 - the day before he was created a cardinal. In the footnotes on page 348, the author states that Tomas Ó Fiach retired. In fact, he died, and this is stated correctly on page 330 (6). Still on page 348, footnote 127, the author attributes the interruption of the studies of Jan Korec to the suppression of religious orders in East Germany. This should have read "Czechoslovakia." Again on page 348 (128), the author states that Alexandru Todea was consecrated by Archbishop Gerald P. O`Hara. Todea was consecrated by Bishop Joseph Schubert, who was the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Bucharest. These and other factual errors detract from the excellence of this book. The author also uses the names Frank, Ed and Jamie for Cardinals Francis Spellman, Edward Mooney and J. Francis McIntyre. The use of diminutive names for these cardinals is inappropriate and does nothing to enhance this work. The use of Jamie in reference to Cardinal McIntyre shows a lack of familiarity with the biography of this prelate. Cardinal McIntyre was known to his friends as Frank. He did not use his first name, which is evident by his use of the initial "J." The index also contains errors in the listing of Hispanic and Gaelic names. Hispanic names are consistently incorrectly given using the maternal names rather than the paternal names. For example, when I opened this book to the index, I immediately went to look for entries for a late friend, Cardinal Carlos Oviedo Cavada, and, looking in the "O" section, I found no citations. My friend`s name is found in the index, incorrectly, as "Cavada, Carlos Oviedo", instead of "Oviedo Cavada, Carlos." Likewise, the name of the late Archbishop of Armagh, Tomas Ó Fiach, is found under the letter "F" instead of the letter "O". No book dealing with names, dates and events can ever be totally error-free, but this book has more errors than one would expect in such a work. Due to these factual errors and others, I give this book 3 stars.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Factual Fiction, January 9, 2000
By A Customer
I was amazed that a book could contain so many factual errors, such as the incorrect first names of noted theologians: Avery Dulles, for one. The use of the informal Frank for Francis Cardinal Spellman was laughable. The repetition of whole paragraphs and misspellings certainly brings into question whether there was a competant editor available or even spell check.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Passing the Book: A flawed guide to Conclavology, April 5, 2005
This month's coming conclave (April 2005) is all the context needed to realize one of the greatest difficulties with joining the burgeoning industry publishing guides to "The Election of the Next Pope" - the risk of becoming outdated is almost impossible to avoid.
Given the possibility that some interested layfolk or cramming journalist might pick up this volume in hopes of better understanding papal conclaves, however, it seems worthwhile to revisit "Passing the Keys: Modern Cadinals, Conclaves and the Election of the Next Pope" by Francis Burkle-Young, nominally a major media consultant and historian on the workings of the Vatican.
Already six years in the past, "Passing the Keys" stumbles out of the blocks with risky assumptions about the then-future: Burkle-Young assumes that John Paul II, already plagued with health difficulties, would very likely pass on before the end of the century. Yet the Holy Father proved much more resilient than Burkle-Young - and, in fairness, many other observers - suspected, extending his pontificate to a near record breaking 26 years, 5 months. In doing so he also held two more consistories in 2001 and 2003, creating 42 and 30 new cardinals respectively (out of a canonically standard body of only 120 voting cardinals) - greatly altering the complexion of the any future conclave to such an extent as to render the last part of his book largely irrelevant. It also allows Burkle-Young to fall victim to the same presumption which has defeated other Vatican watchers and Pope-makers - the Polish Pope had a knack for outliving many "papabili," either figuratively (by living so long as to render them too old to be viable) or literally. Burkle-Young's decisive prediction that "Carlo Maria Martini will probably be the next pope" (p. 431) falls into the former category: Martini is now retired and engaged in scholarship in Jerusalem, at 78 effectively too old to be considered a viable candidate.
"Passing the Keys" focuses almost entirely on the history and workings of consistories (meetings held for the appointment of new cardinals) and conclaves (the meeting as a body of al eleigible cardinals for the sole purpose of electing a new pope) in the 20th century. A brief chapter, "The beginnings of the Contemporary Church" skips lightly over the conclaves which elected Leo XIII (1878), Pius X (1903), Benedict XV (1914) and Pius XI (1922); the subsequent conclaves all get chapters unto themselves, albeit with the two "Pauline" conclaves of 1978 understandably combined into one chapter. Special chapters are devoted to the "Pauline Revolution," in which Paul VI's efforts to drastically alter the customs, rules and composition of the College of Cardinals are detailed, and to the developments and consistories in the early and later years of John Paul II. The book wraps up with the largely nugatory final chapter on "The Next Pope," followed by three appendices for the three currently operative apostolic constitutions governing the operation of conclaves: Universi Dominici Gregis (1996), Romano Pontifici Eligendo (1975) and Ingravescentem Aetatem (1970).
The obsolesence of the final chapter might be beyond Burkle-Young's control but other difficulties are more difficult to excuse. Commentators have long observed the numerous fact-checking failures which riddle "Passing the Keys." This seems all the more odd given Burkle-Young's considerable familiarity with Church history and operation: the misnaming of Avery Cardinal Dulles, the perplexing employment of "archdeacon" and "archpriest" instead of senior cardinal priest and senior cardinal deacon; the use of diminutives for the surnames of Cardinals Spellman, Mooney and McIntyre - to name just a few.
Yet even this is small change next to the more substantive difficulties with "Passing the Keys." It firstly suffers from a confusion of ambition: It tries to provide more than just a mere history of recent conclaves yet fails to provide enough background and grounding in canon law and theological context to be something more. Likewise it is written with more than just a standard journalese but never rises to a level of sophistication which would properly mark it as a a real scholarly contribution. Above all it is badly marred by a problematic theological perspective and a distinct ideological agenda which distorts the entire work. It declaims in the very first sentence that "Papal elections are human, not divine events." Certainly the human component is essential and undeniable (and sometimes flawed); but the rejection of even the pretence of the working of the Holy Spirit is one which would be firmly rejected by virtually every cardinal of the last century, let alone the previous nine, and thus leaves "Passing the Keys" operating on an entirely different plane than its nominal subject. This essentially modernist attitude not surprisingly informs a distinctly liberal perspective which shapes the entire narrative and the analysis of the papabili candidates: the voyage of the Church to move firmly "into the modern world" (p. 4), one begun gloriously under Leo XIII, then derailed by a scheming Hapsburg Emperor to produce the ultra-conservative Pius X, then resumed in halting steps with Pius XI and XII until coming into the full sun of enlightenment under that most cherished of liberal Popes, John XXIII - only to be yanked off the tracks again by "the most conservative Pope since Pius X," John Paul II (p. 288). Burkle-Young is left to wax hopefully that Cardinal Martini would be quickly elevated as (what else?) John XXIV, hopefully to move towards fulfilling so many liberal Catholic goals like women's ordination, liturgical simplification, scaling back of Marian devotions, increased ecumenical outreach, and allowance of divorce and contraception. All of which might be more bearable if Burkle-Young had simply been more frank about such agendas, though still difficult to square with some of the more problematic caricatures. Theologically, John Paul II was far closer to John XXIII (who would have shrunk in dismay from many of these current liberal goals) than any of his pre-conciliar predecessors. But then theology is not one of the strong points of "Passing the Keys." Church factions are always reduced to mere party positions.
All of which is not to say "Passing the Keys" is totally without value. It is admirably footnoted and provides a reasonable guide to further reading on the subjct; and includes certain obscure anecdotes of note, such as Karol Wojtyla's initial desire to be names Pope Stanislaus, the horrific details of Pius XII's failed embalming, or the raising of 120,00 lira for expenses at the 1922 conclave when it seemed that a long, protracted conclave was afoot. The vote totals of various ballots in recent conclaves are also of interest, if of dubious veracity given the difficulty, which Burkle-Young notes early on, of verifying notoriously secret conclave ballots. But for those wanting more current and accurate conclave - and papabile - information, they might be best off sticking with National Catholic Reporter's admirable John Allen - wither his recent books "Conclave" and "The Next Pope," or, better yet, his recent and current writings on the subject in NCR.
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