John Thavis recently retired as the prizewinning chief of the Rome bureau of the Catholic News Service, where he had covered the Vatican since 1983. He divides his time between Minnesota and Rome. The Vatican Diaries is his first book.
“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
"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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