Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution by Marco Politi (review)

The book by Marco Politi, veteran Italian journalist covering the Vatican, describes from the very title the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio – as “a revolution” that is opposed by many in the church. The title of the English edition of the book is a translation word by word of the title in Italian (Francesco tra i lupi. Il segreto di una rivoluzione) except that “inside story” is used instead of “secret.” It is faithful to the interpretation given by Politi to the pontificate of the first non-European pope elected to the chair of Peter.

The book is composed of brief chapters that are organized chronologically and are also thematic. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 address the person of Bergoglio, the conclave of 2013, and, a biographical portrait of the Jesuit former archbishop of Buenos Aires. These chapters offer a few insights about the difference between Francis and his predecessors. Chapter 3 calls Ratzinger’s decision to resign the “coup d’etat of Benedict XVI.” Politi perspicuously calls Ratzinger “a tragic figure” (23) – tragic in the sense of Greek tragedy. Chapters 5 to 12 focus on some of the many issues Pope Francis found key for reform of the church: the imperial style of the Catholic Church, the Vatican bank, the pastoral model of its ministers, dialogue with non-believers, the role of women, and the globalization of Catholicism. Chapters 13 to 15 give title to the book as they focus on the opposition to Francis: the entourage around Benedict XVI, theological and liturgical traditionalists, the bishops in some countries (including Italy and the USA), political neo-conservatives, and various sectors of the Roman Curia. The opposition coming from the Italian church deserves a special chapter, as does the “war of cardinals” that has been going on since Francis’s election. The last chapter (the longest of the book, twenty pages) analyzes the meaning of a “resignable papacy” after Benedict XVI’s decision, which “utterly changed the anatomy of the papacy” (206).

This is a book of a journalist and lacks some of the nuances that are typical of the language of historians. But it is a book full of precious insights from a journalist who is not (and has never been) afraid of making some enemies among the “who’s who” of the Vatican. Moreover, the study of a particular pope and his pontificate while it is still unfolding is one of those enterprises that require a mix of different approaches: biographical, theological, historical, and political among others. For those who observe a pope and try to capture the keys to the unfolding of a particular interpretation of the institution of the papacy by an individual elected to that office, a strict separation between historiography and journalism makes little sense. That is why historians and theologians must make good use of journalistic sources, and the book by Marco Politi is a good example of the kind of analysis specialized readers will find useful. Politi belongs to the old generation of Vatican observers, based in Rome and matured under John Paul,Francis II whom he also covered with important books (especially the one authored with Carl Bernstein about Wojtyla’s anti-Communist foreign policy).

Politi’s book was written between 2013 and 2014, but the English version has been brought up to date to April 2015. At more than three years from the beginning of Francis’s pontificate, this book is still helpful to understand the particular elements of this pontificate in light of the exceptional situation of the church at the beginning of 2013 when the pope resigned and a new conclave was called. Politi provides the reader with an understanding of things from the point of observation of Rome, which is still critical even in a globalized Catholicism. Politi has a good grasp of the historical depth of Roman Catholicism, and I think sums up very effectively the reasons we are still interested in...