Enlightening and accessible to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the book illustrates the Church's struggle to balance the tension between traditional beliefs and contemporary skepticism.
In 2012 John Thavis retired as the prize-winning Rome bureau chief of Catholic News Service, the world's largest and oldest religious news agency. . In addition to Vatican coverage, Thavis has written extensively on religious affairs in Europe and the Middle East, winning awards for his first-hand reporting on war in the Balkans.
Praise for The Vatican Prophecies
“What makes this book a page-turner that many will find difficult
to put down are its countless stories about the work, convictions
and religious experiences of real people. . . . The Vatican
Prophecies examines a question that Thavis says ‘Catholic
thinkers and officials are trying to answer’ with mounting urgency:
‘In the 21st century, can the miraculous and the reasonable
peacefully coexist?’”
—Catholic News Service
“[Thavis's] new book shares how the Vatican deals with supernatural
— or supposedly supernatural — events, from holy relics to
instances of possession. Thavis makes it clear that events of
this sort put the Vatican in a difficult spot. On one hand, they
cannot reject such supernatural phenomena outright, as to do so
would reject many elements of the religion’s history. At the
same time, every claim of a supernatural or otherworldly presence
must be handled with extreme skepticism, to prevent the Church from
being taken in by charlatans, any one of whom could deal a blow to
the Church’s credibility.”
—The New York Post
“[A]s much a compulsory read for any Catholics who may think they
understand the mysterious side of their faith as it is for the
skeptics who criticize the Catholic customs.”
—The Daily Beast
“Thavis’s second book is a lively, far-reaching exploration of the
paranormal aspects of the Catholic faith, investigating both the
role that such phenomena play in the lives of parishioners and the
official stance of the institutional church . . . . [The Vatican
Prophecies] is an engaging introduction.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This engaging overview of contemporary supernatural occurrences is
filled with stories and case studies. Catholics and those
interested in Christian history will appreciate this exploration of
the efforts to balance modern rationalism with traditional
devotional practices.”
—Library Journal
“The process by which these supernatural events are authenticated
is expertly told by John Thavis, one of the world’s leading
Vaticanologists. In fact, that a book on so secretive and complex a
topic is so deeply researched, beautifully written, and artfully
told is something of a small miracle itself.”
—James Martin, S.J., author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Praise for The Vatican Diaries
“Wonder what’s going on behind those huge doors at the Vatican?
Wonder what those cardinals are up to as they scurry about getting
ready to elect a new pope? Wonder what the man who rings the bells
when that new pope is finally elected is thinking? Thavis answers
all in this fascinating book.”
—USA Today
“A veritable handbook on all things Vatican.”
—The Daily Beast
“A thoughtful meditation on recent papal administrations and the
bureaucrats, functionaries, and emissaries who advance or thwart
Rome's global ambitions.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Most fascinating is Thavis’ generous assessment of Benedict XVI,
whom he sees as an almost tragic figure.”
—The New Yorker
“Thavis’s Vatican Diaries is well worth putting on your Amazon wish
list.”
—Forbes
“[The Vatican Diaries] succeeds well in presenting the Roman Curia
as a flesh—and—blood community, a byzantine theater of the
sacred.”
—National Catholic Reporter
“Entertaining and readable.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A lively book that's steeped in history and personality.”
—The Eagle Tribune
“Thavis has offered this rare, perceptive and highly readable
glimpse into a power structure that is less in control than many
would have us believe.”
—America
“Illuminating and fully accessible to members of the faith and
doubters alike.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“In an age when social media threatens to emasculate news and
current affairs, Thavis’ work is a refreshing sign that great
journalism is not dead. Instead of the inane trivia that now passes
for ‘news’, Thavis provides us with an account of great depth
carefully tempered with censure and sympathy.”
—Justin Cahill, Booktopia
“An American Catholic who has done his homework, learned Latin and
Italian, made friends in high places, found his way for thirty
years in the maze of Church bureaucracy, gives us a humane and
realistic and (yes) humorous picture of a mortal institution that
guides hundreds of millions of mortals along the path from birth to
death and beyond. To an old Prot like me, it’s a tour of alien
terrain and a bridge to old and dear friends.”
—Garrison Keillor
“Vatican Diaries is a must-read for anyone interested in the
Vatican’s role in the Catholic Church and the world.
—Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
“The Vatican Diaries by John Thavis provides us with an intriguing
and much needed antidote to one of the most common problems
affecting many Catholics and non—Catholics who look at the Vatican
these days: the assumption of the cold ruthlessness of the
‘machine’. Thavis shows us also the deeply human side of the
Vatican, the last Empire and the last, great theater of the sacred
in Western Christianity.”
—Massimo Faggioli, University of St. Thomas
“In this highly readable memoir of being a journalist at the
Vatican, John Thavis follows the conclaves, sex scandals, internal
backstabbing and olympian nature of the popes with a sense of comic
relief at the caravan passing through his viewfinder.”
—Jason Berry, author of Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money
in the Catholic Church
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