608 pages | 11th February, 2025 | Non-fiction | Religion
From the best-selling author and former New York Times investigative reporter, an unprecedented look at the defining struggles of the modern Catholic Church, told through the lives of the last seven popes—carrying us from the wake of World War II up through the present day and providing essential context around the most pressing issues faced by Pope Francis
When the jolly Italian peasant-turned-cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli of Venice was elected Pope John XXIII in 1958, change was in the air. The Church, many said, had refused to enter the twentieth century. In response, Pope John launched Vatican II, an “ecumenical council” that summoned hundreds of church leaders to Rome. It marked one of the most progressive turns the Church had taken in centuries: “medicine of mercy,” as Pope John called it. Yet not everyone in the Church was prepared to accept this modernization. The lines were drawn—in a battle that continues to rage into the twenty-first century.
In Jesus Wept, Philip Shenon takes us inside the Holy See to reveal its intricacies, hypocrisies, and hidden maneuverings, bringing all the momentous disputes and issues vividly to life: priestly celibacy, birth control, homosexuality, restoring ties with other Christians and Jews, shameful sex abuse crimes, the role of women in the Church.
In his rich portrayals of the popes from John to Francis, Shenon draws on research across four continents, including hundreds of interviews and the exhaustive archival material. He also brings to light other key figures in the Church, such as Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the incredibly powerful, conservative, and staunchly anticommunist director of the Holy Office under Pius XII, who lived proudly by the motto semper idem—“always the same.” This is a consummate, vibrant history of the modern Church.
"A fleet and vivid new history of the papacy in the mass-media age . . . The narrative is alive, intricate, and reliable . . . The depth of Shenon’s reporting, combined with his narrative’s strict observance of chronology, gives fresh emphasis to material lost in the churn of the news cycle."
The New Yorker
“With sharp portrayals of the last seven men who have served as supreme pontiffs, Jesus Wept delivers a compelling recent history of the 2,000-year-old institution whose leaders reach for heaven but often fall spectacularly, sadly, into the morass of mortal fallibility . . . Nothing is spared.”
Mary Jo McConahay, The New York Times Book Review
“Gripping and damning.”
The Economist
“The result of prodigious research, Shenon's book is endlessly fascinating, insightful, and brilliantly told. Even at its significant length, it is always interesting and highly readable, and Shenon's final analysis is inarguably a marvel.”
Booklist, starred review
“A detailed, well-researched, and quite frankly epic examination of the Roman Catholic popes of living memory . . . [Shenon’s] assessments are honest and, at times, brutal . . . Apologists for the church will doubtlessly find plenty of reason to argue with Shenon, but he also gives them a great deal of material to defend. An extraordinary accomplishment: controversial, but crucial for discussions in today’s Catholic Church.”
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“[Shenon] paints a richly detailed portrait of a complex, hierarchical, and secretive institution as it grappled with a modernizing world.”
Publishers Weekly
Philip Shenon was a reporter for The New York Times for more than 20 years, serving as both a Washington and foreign correspondent. He is the author of one book on the Kennedy assassination and one on the 9/11 Commission. He lives in Washington, DC.
US: Knopf
Audio: PRHA
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