Vicars of Christ. Popes, Power, and Politics in the Modern World (review)

Vicars of Christ. Popes, Power, and Politics in the Modern World. By Michael P. Riccards. (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. 1998. Pp. xi, 356. $29.95.)

As the present pontificate seemingly enters its final stage, this study of the papacy in the modern world is timely. The author begins his account with Pius IX, who left his successors the modern ultramontane papacy with "its cult of personality, its strong Roman Curial bureaucracy and monopoly over dogmatic teachings." And he argues that succeeding popes have adhered to this legacy while guiding the Church--skillfully for the most part--through "one of the most explosive and violent centuries in the annals of mankind."

To those who think otherwise and have accused the popes of often blocking "progress" he insists on the built-in limitations of the papal office. Unlike leadership in other fields, the primary responsibility of the pope is not to keep their followers in sync with changing trends and currents but to preserve the ancient traditions of the Church. Moreover, popes are usually fairly old when assuming office and therefore not disposed toward innovation.

At the same time he points out how on occasion elderly popes have undertaken bold acts of leadership that surprised the world. The most obvious, of course, was the act of John XXIII in calling a council, but he shows that there were others as well. How remarkable it was, he says, to witness "an eighty-one-year-old Leo, a sheltered religious prelate, electrifying the Western World with a denunciation of exploitation and a call for justice and comity." And no encyclical has so added to the intellectual and teaching powers of the Roman Church as has Rerum Novarum.

Other interesting observations abound. For instance, speaking of the diplomatic skill of Benedict XV he notes how his successors, the great church diplomats Pius XI, Pius XII, Paul VI (and even John XXIII indirectly), were schooled either by Benedict or by his associates. His portrait of Paul VI is noteworthy: A man of subtle mind trained in the arts of listening, delaying, and calibrating responses, he was able to ward off the danger of a major schism by his humility, patience, and fortitude.

Perhaps more arguable is his view of John Paul II as one who will go down in history as "a charismatic and formidable reactionary figure who began in earnest the process of reining in the Church and spurning the excesses of the modern world. He will be seen as having turned away from the spirit of Vatican II, while repeating the expressions of its rambling documents and religious clichés."

One also wonders whether his benign judgment on the silence of Pius XII vis-à-vis the holocaust will stand the test of further research in the archives as called for recently by an international commission. For Riccards his silence was "the moral dilemma of one man acting morally in an immoral world." But altogether this is a well balanced and insightful study.

Thomas Bokenkotter
Xavier University (Cincinnati)

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