"Pope Francis is prepared to say "bring on the collapse", as perhaps the only way of purging a disgraced Church. "It is not impossible," Francis has said, "that I will go down in history as the one who split the Catholic Church?" However, for Catholics as a whole, the Church will, if Francis is successful, be a friendlier, more empathetic, presence in their lives. Bestselling author, Vanity Fair regular contributor, scholar and teacher John Cornwell...

A behind-the-scenes view of the power struggles within the Vatican and "a look inside the byzantine halls of the institutional Catholic Church."-Publishers Weekly A journalist who has long covered the Vatican, Marco Politi takes us deep inside the struggle roiling the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church worldwide, beginning with Benedict XVI, the pope who famously resigned in 2013, and intensifying with the unexpected election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio,...

"An excellent study of churches on the fringe that incubate new ideas and shed new light on mainstream religion."-Times Higher Education Independent Catholics are not formally connected to the pope in Rome. They practice apostolic succession, seven sacraments, and devotion to the saints. But without a pope, they can change quickly and experiment freely-with some affirming communion for the divorced, women's ordination, clerical marriage, and...

A gripping exploration of the relationship between sex and our society, with a foreword by bestselling author A. J. Jacobs Why do political leaders become entangled in so many sex scandals? How did the U.S. military inadvertently help make San Francisco a mecca of gay culture? And what was the original purpose of vibrators? Find out the answers to all these questions and more as journalist Ross Benes delves into the complicated relationship between...

Conocé Francisco. Nacido Jorge Mario Bergoglio en Buenos Aires, Argentina, Francisco es el primer Papa de las Américas. Él es también el primer Papa para reemplazar uno de estar!

Meet Pope Francis. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis is the first Pope from the Americas. He's also the first Pope to replace a living one! Learn all about the Pontiff in this Level 1 reader, carefully leveled for an early independent reading or read aloud experience.

The Catholic Church is on the verge of a transition of great consequence. As Catholic theologian, historian, and papal biographer George Weigel notes, the next pope will probably have been a teenager or a very young man during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965); he may even have been a child during those years. Thus the next pope will not have been shaped by the experience of the Council and the immediate debates over its meaning and reception...