Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church

There are one billion Catholics in the world today, spread over every continent, speaking almost every conceivable language, and all answering to a single authority. The Vatican is a unique international organization, both in terms of its extraordinary power and influence, and in terms of its endurance. Popes come and go, but the elaborate and complex bureaucracy called the Vatican lives on. For centuries, it has served and sometimes undermined popes; it has been praised and blamed for the actions of the pope and for the state of the church. Yet an objective examination of the workings of the Vatican has been unavailable until now.

Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with Vatican officials, this book affords a firsthand look at the people, the politics, and the organization behind the institution. Reese brings remarkable clarity to the almost Byzantine bureaucracy of congregations, agencies, secretariats, tribunals, nunciature, and offices, showing how they serve the pope and, through him, the universal church. He gives a lively account of how popes are elected and bishops appointed, how dissident theologians are disciplined and civil authorities dealt with. Throughout, revealing and colorful anecdotes from church history and the present day bring the unique culture of the Vatican to life.

The Vatican is a fascinating institution, a model of continuity and adaptation, which remains constant while functioning powerfully in a changing world. As never before, this book provides a clear, objective perspective on how the enormously complex institution surrounding the papacy operates on a day-to-day level, how it has adapted and endured for close to two thousand years, and how it is likely to face the challenges of the next millennium.

If these are things you've wondered about, this is the book for you. Reese approaches these things as though he were an anthropologist or a management consultant, with a keen eye for the nuances of interpersonal relationships within the Vatican bureaucracy. My only complaints are that the amount of detail can be overwhelming, and Reese sometimes gets bogged down in a wooden style of writing. It's best to start reading this book in the middle, because the beginning is rather dry. On the other hand, the anecdotes are a strong plus. To give one example, the story of John Paul II reprimanding the Archbishop of Denver to his face creates a mental image that is hard to forget.

The last chapter is the most provocative, where Reese suggests reforms that are both logical and unrealistic: He argues that Vatican administrators should not be allowed to become cardinals, which in papal elections would cause a monumental power shift toward those who are in closer touch with the laity. Reese suggests priests play a major role in selecting bishops, as was the case before the 1800s, in contrast to the current practice in which the pope appoints ultraconservative bishops who can't relate to anyone in their diocese.

According to Reese, the underlying problem is that the Vatican is more interested in doctrinal purity than keeping people in the church. Meanwhile the laity are voting with their feet, gravitating to pastors who ignore papal instructions, or leaving the church altogether.


A Balanced View   May 7, 2002
 16 out of 21 found this review helpful

Reese has written a book that can be daunting to someone who may be looking for quick answers. The Vatican is such an arcane institution that it is impossible to give a short, comprehensive answer on the operation of the Curia. As a researcher, I found Reese's work immensely informative; it also provides some balance to the more sensational allegations of Luigi Marinelli, although I doubt that his work is to be discounted either. It shows an institution that is prone to the same errors of judgement and behaviour in its denizens as any other, but with a higher degree of moral rectitude expected from it. It is a fascinating excursion into one of the world's oldest surviving bureaucracies.