A revealing at Vatican’s inner workings

by Gunther Simmermacher · April 5, 2013

THE VATICAN DIARIES: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church, by John Thavis. Viking Adult (2013). 336pp. ISBN: 978-0670026715

Reviewed by G�nther Simmermacher

Regular readers of The Southern Cross will be familiar with the byline of John Thavis, who for almost three decades covered the Vatican for Catholic News Service.

Thavis gained a reputation for thoroughness and fairness. And he evidently had a wide network of anonymous sources within the Roman curia who would regularly give the journalist the inside scoop.

The timing of the publication of The Vatican Diaries in February, just after Pope Benedict�s resignation and before the conclave that elected Pope Francis, was fortuitous: the book became an instant hit, ranking high on the New York Times bestseller list, and deservedly so.

The Vatican Diaries provides a view into the workings of the Vatican City state and of the Roman curia. It reveals a very human institution charged with doing the work for the divine. Often it fails to meet its mandate amid intrigue, power-struggles, incompetence and confusion.

Describing the environment which he covered for so many years, Thavis is qualified to offer a perspective of the Vatican. He observes �a culture of miscommunication and miscues, of good intentions and flawed executions, of conflicting agendas and shifting alliances�. It is not the secretive monolith of popular perception.

�It is a culture in which clerical careerism often overshadows quiet dedication to the work of the Church. It is a culture founded on hierarchical order, but swamped in organisational confusion. It is a culture in which the pope is considered immune from criticism, yet too often is kept uninformed about the details of important decisions,� Thavis writes.

The author doesn�t flinch from naming those whose influence he considers to have been unhelpful. The admirers of former secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano and his successor, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will find The Vatican Diaries uncomfortable reading.

The call by many cardinals in the run-up to conclave that the new pope would have to reform the curia would appear to confirm Thavis� obseration.

Thavis highlight some difficult issues, and, especially in his treatment of the case of the thoroughly wicked Fr Marcial Maciel, he does so with courageous candour.

The book covers how the Vatican has handled specific themes, such as the sainthood cause of Pope Pius X, the sex abuse scandal and sexual teachings. It also charts the conflict between the need for underground parking and the preservation of archaeological treasures, introduces us to the forthright and entertaining Latinist Fr Reginald Foster OCD, looks at the function of the Samppietri (the workers at St Peter�s basilica), and takes the reader on a papal trip from the perspective of the press section.

The backstories and tangents reveal a picture of the workings of the curia � conglomerate of turfs whose interests sometimes clash.

The thoughtful chapter on Pope Benedict�s complex media profile � offering both a critique and defence of the former pope � is thoroughly illuminating but has been overtaken by events. Time will tell how much of Thavis� insights on the media and the papacy under Benedict can be applied to Pope Francis.

Thavis� prose is engaging; there is a great novel waiting to be written by him. He is also adept at making plain complex concepts.

His long exposure to the Vatican has provided him with a repository of amusing stories. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, such as the story of the (unfortunately unnamed) US president who concluded an inspection of Vatican officials by offering a spirited military salute to a liveried lift operator.

Another great story has a succession of inebriated journalists on a papal flight being invited to one-on-one encounters with Pope John Paul II.

There are also delicious trivial tidbits. For example, the pope has a button on the underside of his desk which he presses when he wants to cut short a private audience.

Southern African readers will be interested in the narrative of Pope John Paul�s 1988 visit to the region, with the emergency stop in Johannesburg. It is safe to say that Thavis is no admirer of Swaziland�s King Mswati.

John Thavis takes us on a tour of the Vatican that humanises an institution that is tasked to carry out the work of God. Sometimes it succeeds in doing so, and sometimes it fails miserably. The Vatican Diaries allows us to be both vigorously critical as well as forgiving of curial failings.