A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair Church
By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, 2002
Goldhagen, a Harvard University professor and author of the best-selling Hitler's Willing Executioners, examines the question of the Catholic Church's moral culpability in the Holocaust. Review by Jonathan Dorfman (11/24/2002) Buy it at Amazon
Constantine's Sword: The
Church and the Jews
By James Carroll, 2001
Carroll, a novelist and Globe columnist, makes a sprawling examination of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church beginning with the New Testament and proceeding through World War II.
Review by Paul Wilkes (1/7/2001)
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Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit
By Garry Wills, 2000
In an impassioned, critical examination of the papacy through history, Catholic scholar Wills argues that the doctrinal pronouncements of recent popes
have eroded the church's moral authority.
Review by Paul Wilkes (10/7/2000)
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Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834
By Nancy Lusignan Schultz, 2000
Lusignan Schultz, a professor at Salem State College, tells the story of the burning of a Charlestown convent house in 1834, one of the most notorious anti-Catholic incidents in the Boston area.
Review by Michael Kenney (6/11/2000)
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Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II
By George Weigel, 1999
In a monumental, 1,000-page biography that reads more like an encyclopedia, journalist Weigel provides a detailed look at the pope's life and an exhaustive defense of his often-contested views.
Review by Paul Baumann (10/10/1999)
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The Legend of Pope Joan: In Search of the Truth
By Peter Stanford, 1999
British journalist Stanford provides a compelling account of one of the least-known stories in Catholic history: How in 853 an Englishwoman dressed as a man and reigned as Pope John VIII for two years.
Review by Diego Ribadeneira (1/25/1999)
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Selling Catholicism: Bishop Sheen and the Power of Television
By Christopher Owen Lynch, 1998
Owen Lynch, a professor at New Jersey's Kean University, analyzes
the influence of the enormously popular television pastor Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, whose show regularly drew 10 million viewers in the mid-1950s.
Review by Diego Ribadeneira (11/13/1998)
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Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II
By Jonathan Kwitny, 1997
Journalist Kwitny provides an admiring profile of Pope John Paul II, including an analysis of the pontiff's opaque philosophical writing, highly theoretical ideas about sex, and profoundly Polish worldview.
Review by Paul Baumann (11/16/1997)
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The New Men: Inside the Vatican's Elite School for American Priests
By Brian Murphy, 1997
Journalist Murphy goes inside the walls of the Pontifical North American College in Rome and into the minds and souls of seminary students wrestling with the momentous decision of whether to go into the priesthood.
Review by Diego Ribadeneira (10/31/1997)
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The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism
By Michael W. Cuneo, 1997
Cuneo, a professor at Fordham University, uses the Second Vatican Council and the seismic shift it unleashed as a framework for vivid profiles of the church's unnoticed players: Catholic fundamentalists.
Review by Diego Ribadeneira (7/3/1997)
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Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church
By Thomas J. Reese, 1997
Reese, a Jesuit priest, penetrates the shroud of mystery surrounding the Vatican, painting a vivid picture of the internal operations of the Holy See that highlights the tensions that tear at the church.
Review by Diego Ribadeneira (1/31/1997)
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Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900-1920
By Paula M. Kane, 1994
Kane, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, studies Catholic society in Boston in the early 20th Century, focusing on the reign of the powerful Cardinal William Henry O'Connell.
Review by Michael Kenney (6/18/1994)
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Generous Lives: American Catholic Women Today
By Jane Redmont, 1992
Redmond, a theologian and Catholic lay minister, probes the conflicts between being a Catholic and being an American woman through in-depth interviews with more than 100 women across the country.
Review by Teresa Hanafin (11/12/1992)
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