Capítulo 1
When the Pope Wept: The Battle for the Catholic Church's Soul
In the shadowy corridors of the Vatican, a battle has been raging for over six decades-not with swords and shields, but with encyclicals and theological arguments. Philip Shenon's "Jesus Wept" takes us deep into this struggle that began in 1958 with the election of Pope John XXIII, whose revolutionary vision for the Church challenged centuries of rigid tradition. The book has garnered attention from religious scholars and casual readers alike, with figures like Barack Obama listing it among his favorite reads of the year. Its unflinching examination of power, corruption, and occasional redemption within Catholicism's highest ranks reveals how seven successive popes have shaped-or damaged-the Church's relationship with the modern world. As one Vatican insider remarked, "When the pope weeps, the whole Church feels the tears."
Capítulo 2
The Vatican's Hidden World: A State Within a State
The Vatican City State exists as a sovereign nation of just 108.7 acres-smaller than most golf courses-yet wields extraordinary global influence. Established in 1929, this microstate maintains its own infrastructure, Swiss Guard security force, and diplomatic corps that rivals major world powers. The Holy See functions as the Catholic Church's global government, led by a cardinal secretary of state who serves as the pope's chief administrator and diplomat.
Inside this walled enclave, the Roman Curia-a bureaucracy of approximately 4,000 workers-operates as the Church's central nervous system. This predominantly male organization is divided into sixteen administrative departments (formerly called congregations, now dicasteries) led by cardinals and bishops appointed directly by the pope. The Curia has historically resisted change with remarkable effectiveness, outlasting popes and frustrating reformers for centuries.
The book reveals how this system created a culture of secrecy and self-preservation that proved disastrous when confronting modern challenges. When Pope John XXIII arrived in 1958, he found a Church frozen in time-still conducting Mass in Latin, viewing Protestants as heretics, and maintaining an "Index of Prohibited Books" that banned works by Voltaire, Kant, and even some Catholic theologians. The pope's private journal, discovered years later, revealed his shock at finding a "Church of No, Not Yes" that seemed more concerned with punishing sin than showing mercy.
This insular world would be dramatically challenged by forces both within and beyond Vatican walls-from theological reformers like Hans Kung to social upheavals like the sexual revolution-setting the stage for a decades-long struggle that continues today.
Capítulo 3
The Silent Pope and the Seeds of Change
Before the battle for the Church's soul could begin, it needed a catalyst. That came in the form of Pope Pius XII's death in October 1958, ending a 19-year papacy marked by authoritarianism and a troubling silence during the Holocaust. Despite being the first global celebrity pope whose face was recognizable to Catholics worldwide through newsreels and magazines, Pius XII's legacy was permanently stained by his failure to speak out against Nazi atrocities.
Born Eugenio Pacelli to a semi-noble Vatican family, Pius was especially beloved in Germany where he had spent twelve years as a diplomat. His household staff was composed entirely of German nuns led by Sister Pascalina Lehnert, who wielded such extraordinary influence that Vatican insiders called her "la popessa." Though prolific in writing forty-one encyclicals on everything from Marxism to appropriate musical instruments for worship, Pius's silence during the Holocaust overshadowed all else.
The evidence of his moral failure is damning. As Vatican Secretary of State in 1933, he drafted a pact with Nazi Germany that withdrew Church opposition in exchange for religious privileges, inadvertently helping Nazis identify Jewish converts. During the war, despite receiving concrete evidence of genocide and Sister Pascalina's pleas to speak out, Pius refused, citing fears of retaliation against Catholics and noting that millions of Catholics served in the German army. Though he helped save thousands of Rome's Jews when Nazis invaded Italy in 1943, this came too late for 1,300 already sent to Auschwitz.
After the war, Pius showed no regret for his Holocaust silence while becoming a fierce Cold Warrior, excommunicating Catholic communists-something he never did to Nazi Party members-and ironically asking, "How can the pope be silent?" when denouncing communist persecution of Catholics.
By the 1950s, young theologians like Hans Kung and Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI) were increasingly questioning the Church's rigid doctrines. Both were troubled by the Vatican's 1949 decree suggesting non-Catholics could only be saved through conversion to "the one true Church of Christ." They saw the Vatican's "crippling antimodern neurosis" dating back to Pius IX's infamous Syllabus of Errors that condemned religious freedom and continuing through Pius XII's silencing of progressive theologians.
When Pius XII died on October 9, 1958, his brief will read not as a celebration of his papacy but as a desperate plea: "Have mercy upon me, O God." He asked pardon from "all those whom I have hurt, harmed or scandalized" and requested no monuments to his memory. The stage was set for dramatic change.
Capítulo 4
The Revolutionary: John XXIII and Vatican II
White smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney on October 28, 1958, announcing the election of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli as Pope John XXIII. Unlike his predecessor, the new pope was short, rotund, and immediately approachable. Where Pius had been austere and distant, John brought warmth, humor, and accessibility to the papacy.
John XXIII quickly dismantled papal formalities, stopping practices like people kneeling before him or kissing his feet, banning flowery descriptions in Vatican publications, and insisting on plain language in official documents, citing Jesus's "appealing simplicity" as his model. When asked how many people worked in the Vatican, he famously quipped, "About half." On Christmas 1958, he visited a children's hospital, and the next day shocked officials by making an impromptu visit to Regina Coeli Prison, embracing inmates and revealing his own humble origins.
Just three months after his election, John announced plans for the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), hoping for aggiornamento-"bringing up to date"-and reconciliation with other Christian denominations. The cardinals met his announcement with silence, and many in the Curia were dismayed, but John persisted in his vision for renewal.
John moved decisively to heal the Church's relationship with Jews, drawing on his experiences in the Balkans and Istanbul where he had befriended many Jews. "We are all sons of the same Heavenly Father," he told American Jewish visitors. Five months into his papacy, he removed the offensive Latin word "perfidis" (faithless/perfidious) from Good Friday prayers, outraging anti-Semitic Curia bishops. Reporters discovered that as Archbishop Roncalli in Istanbul, he had helped rescue at least 25,000 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, often against Rome's wishes.
As the council approached, John learned he had inoperable stomach cancer but kept his diagnosis secret to avoid dampening enthusiasm for the council. On October 11, 1962, 2,540 cardinals and bishops assembled for Vatican II's opening ceremony. In his revolutionary address, John criticized those in the Curia who "can see nothing but prevarication and ruin" and declared the church must now "dispense the medicine of mercy instead of severity" and show herself as "loving mother of all."
The council's first substantive debate centered on liturgical reform, particularly ending Latin's exclusive use in worship. Despite Cardinal Ottaviani's furious opposition (during which his microphone was cut off), the council voted overwhelmingly (2,162 to 46) to approve liturgical reforms. This was followed by groundbreaking documents on ecumenism, religious freedom, and the Church's relationship with Judaism, which formally rejected the ancient "Christ killers" slur.
As John XXIII's cancer spread, causing constant pain, he refused to limit his schedule. He completed his groundbreaking encyclical "Pacem in Terris," addressed to all humanity and calling for nuclear disarmament. The document endorsed women's rights and religious freedom for all-positions that would have been considered heresy by his predecessors. In his final conscious moments on June 3, 1963, he exclaimed, "Lord, you know that I love you," leaving behind a Church forever changed by his brief but transformative papacy.
Capítulo 5
The Hamlet Pope: Paul VI's Struggle with Reform
Cardinal Giovanni Montini emerged as the progressive favorite to succeed John XXIII, despite lacking John's charisma. At sixty-five, he was seen as young enough to serve many years but not so long as to grow arrogant. Taking the name Paul VI, he immediately announced that Vatican II would continue, declaring he wanted the council to be remembered as "the preeminent part" of his legacy.
Paul VI quickly demonstrated his commitment to reform by appointing progressive Cardinal Suenens and other reform-minded cardinals to oversee council meetings. In his opening speech, he humbly described himself as "the least" of the bishops and made history by asking forgiveness from Protestant and Orthodox observers for Rome's role in Christian division.
Despite early promise, Paul found the pressures of his new life agonizing, treating every decision as a burden only he could bear. He saw most choices as traps where he would inevitably humiliate himself. His anxiety manifested physically-his shoulders hunched when speaking, as if pushed down by invisible weight. Cardinal Suenens observed that Paul appeared to be in physical pain when settling even routine disputes.
Paul struggled with constant comparisons to "the good pope" John XXIII. Some bishops suspected jealousy motivated Paul's decision to ignore John's wish to be buried at St. John Lateran, instead ordering his entombment beneath St. Peter's. By 1964, Paul faced mounting criticism both inside and outside the Church. The British magazine The Economist mocked him as "the Pope of Buts" for his inability to speak directly, while The New York Times called him a disappointment despite his brilliant mind.
The most consequential struggle of Paul's papacy centered on birth control. In 1964, he expanded the birth control commission from fifteen to fifty-eight members, adding scientists, doctors, and for the first time, women. The commission's final meetings revealed overwhelming support to lift the ban, with fifty-four of sixty-six members voting for change. Despite this clear recommendation, Paul VI agonized over the decision, telling philosopher Jean Guitton that changing the teaching would call "morality into question and show the fallibility of the church."
In July 1968, Paul VI released Humanae Vitae, reaffirming the Church's ban on artificial contraception against his own commission's advice. The encyclical faced withering criticism. The Economist called it "the fruit of papal isolation," while commission members publicly denounced it. Hans Kung later said Humanae Vitae had "destroyed" Vatican authority for a generation of Catholics.
Paul VI fell into deep depression upon returning to Rome from Colombia in August 1968, convinced he would face mockery and defiance for the rest of his papacy because of Humanae Vitae. His 1968 Christmas address was so bleak that aides urged him to revise it, but he refused, warning of imminent nuclear war and lamenting that "there are no longer any stable values of faith."
By the early 1970s, Pope Paul VI's papacy had descended into such turmoil that he publicly declared Satan was attacking the Church. The aging pontiff faced multiple crises: financial scandals erupted from his disastrous appointment of Michele Sindona to manage Vatican finances; synods continued to be seen as shams by reform-minded churchmen; and two-thirds of American priests believed Paul had abused his authority with Humanae Vitae.
In his final years, Paul VI spoke often of pain-dolore-both the church's and his own. Turning eighty in September 1977, he refused any celebration, preferring "solitude and prayer." Intensely lonely, he confided to his secretary John Magee that all his friends and family were dead, leaving him alone, and expressed uncertainty about his salvation. Paul's health deteriorated in summer 1978, and on August 6, he suffered a massive heart attack. His final words were an attempt at the Lord's Prayer before dying at 9:41 p.m.
Capítulo 6
Liberation Theology and the Church's Struggle with Social Justice
After Vatican II closed in 1965, Archbishop Helder Camara returned to Brazil in economy class, refusing the first-class travel preferred by other bishops. Though he never spoke publicly at St. Peter's during the council, his advocacy for the world's poor made him a celebrated figure, with French newspaper Le Monde describing him as "the one bishop at the council who merits the title of prophet."
Camara's influence spread as he invited European church leaders to witness Brazil's poverty firsthand. Cardinal Suenens, touring Recife's favelas in 1967, described the experience as "a thorn in my flesh," shocked by parishioners bringing single bananas as their only offering. Across Latin America, priests inspired by Vatican II established "comunidades de base" (base communities) in slums, helping residents create schools, sanitation projects, and labor unions.
The Jesuits, historically aligned with Latin America's elite, underwent a profound mission shift after Vatican II. Their new leader, Father Arrupe, wrote to Jesuit educators in 1966 demanding they recruit students from among the poor and ensure their education was "completely pervaded by the spirit of Vatican II." Under Arrupe's leadership, Jesuits sponsored thousands of base communities across Latin America and embraced a mission of total commitment to the poor.
Initially, liberation theology appeared to have Pope Paul VI's full endorsement. His 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio declared "the world is sick" and called for massive income redistribution, even suggesting violent revolution could be justified against "manifest, longstanding tyranny." The Wall Street Journal described the document as "warmed-over Marxism."
This progressive momentum would be dramatically reversed under Pope John Paul II, who viewed liberation theology through the lens of his anti-communist Polish experience. By the early 1980s, Cardinal Ratzinger had accelerated his campaign against liberation theology. After John Paul II's hostile reception in Nicaragua, where he confronted Sandinista supporters and scolded Father Ernesto Cardenal, Ratzinger eagerly drafted a decree condemning liberation theology as "heresy."
Despite criticism, Ratzinger released a formal report calling liberation theology "a perversion of the Christian message" that would create "new miseries and new slavery." The document was so inflammatory that even Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican Secretary of State, publicly denounced its negative tone.
The struggle over liberation theology revealed a fundamental tension in the post-Vatican II Church: would it prioritize doctrinal purity or social justice? For millions of poor Catholics in Latin America, this wasn't an abstract theological debate but a question of whether their Church would stand with them against oppression or side with their oppressors.
Capítulo 7
The Conservative Restoration: John Paul II and Benedict XVI
Following the brief 33-day papacy of John Paul I in 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland was elected as Pope John Paul II-the first non-Italian pope in 456 years. At 58, the youngest pope since 1846, he charmed the crowd in St. Peter's Square with his fluent Italian and self-deprecating humor. The media quickly dubbed him "John Paul Superstar," comparing him to Kennedy and Sinatra.
In his first address to the College of Cardinals, John Paul II positioned himself as a centrist committed to Vatican II reforms, promising interfaith dialogue, episcopal collegiality, and pledging "no intention of political interference" in geopolitics. However, his actions soon revealed him to be an iron-willed conservative who centralized Vatican power, intervened selectively in politics, and immediately shut down doctrinal debates by reaffirming Humanae Vitae, requiring nuns to return to traditional habits, and secretly suspending the laicization process for priests.
John Paul II's early travels established his global presence. His historic nine-day pilgrimage to Poland drew massive crowds, where he urged Catholics to defend their faith even at risk of martyrdom. However, his 1979 US visit disappointed many American Catholics when he firmly rejected any compromise on birth control, priestly celibacy, women's ordination, or abortion.
In November 1981, John Paul made his most consequential personnel decision when Cardinal Seper retired from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith due to ill health. The pope quickly selected 54-year-old Cardinal Ratzinger of Munich as successor. Though Ratzinger publicly claimed he resisted the Vatican transfer, describing his new position as a "bed of nettles," his friends believed he was actually thrilled by the appointment.
Under Ratzinger's leadership, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith returned to its pre-Vatican II role of identifying and punishing dissidents. In 1985, Ratzinger published "The Ratzinger Report," a book-length interview that amounted to a declaration of war on progressive Catholic thinking. He claimed the Church had moved from "self-criticism to self-destruction" after Vatican II and needed to return to traditional doctrine.
The cardinal attacked numerous aspects of modern society: "radical feminism" separating women from traditional roles, psychiatric care by "profane confessors," in vitro fertilization, rock music, yoga, and sexual freedoms. While conservative Catholics celebrated these "Ratz-zingers," many theologians were appalled by his "alarmist and lurid" language.
In John Paul II's final years, a devastating question haunted the Vatican: Why did the pope and Cardinal Ratzinger do so little about thousands of children sexually abused by priests? Despite later claiming he "immediately took matters in hand," evidence showed Ratzinger either suffered from faulty memory or was lying about his handling of abuse cases. By 2001, numerous high-profile cases remained uninvestigated, including Cardinal Groer's abuse of scores of boys in Austria and Father Maciel's serial child molestation.
When John Paul II died in 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI. Though initially promising to heal divisions, Benedict quickly resumed his conservative agenda, banning gay men from entering the priesthood and sending investigators to American seminaries to root out homosexuality. His 2006 Regensburg lecture quoting a Byzantine emperor's criticism of Islam sparked worldwide Muslim outrage, damaging Catholic-Muslim relations that John Paul II had carefully cultivated.
Benedict's papacy remained consumed by the sex abuse crisis and the "Vatileaks" scandal, when his personal butler Paolo Gabriele leaked thousands of pages of papal correspondence revealing systemic mismanagement and possible corruption. In February 2013, Benedict became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, leaving behind a church deeply divided and a public largely critical of his papacy.
Capítulo 8
Francis: A Revolution of Mercy and Humility
When 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio traveled to Rome following Benedict's resignation in 2013, he had no expectation of becoming pope. The first Jesuit pope and first from the Americas, he immediately established a different tone by rejecting the traditional trappings of papal office-refusing the jeweled cross, red mozzetta cape, and papal shoes, reportedly joking that "Carnival time is over."
Francis's first days established his papacy as a dramatic break from tradition through gestures of humility and accessibility. He rejected the ornate papal apartment, chose a simple silver fisherman's ring instead of gold, and insisted on living in the Santa Marta guesthouse. His installation ceremony was deliberately shortened to under 90 minutes, and he invited both world leaders and a garbage scavenger from Buenos Aires slums to attend.
The pope's humility captivated the world through countless gestures: carrying his own briefcase, driving a Ford Focus instead of limousines, washing prisoners' feet including women and Muslims, and embracing a man with severe facial deformities. His first foreign trip to Brazil culminated in a Mass for three million people, but his most shocking moment came during the return flight press conference when he said about gay priests: "Who am I to judge?" - five words that seemed to overturn centuries of church condemnation.
Francis began transforming the Vatican immediately, creating a Council of Cardinal Advisers (C-8) from around the world to guide him, undercutting the Italian-dominated Curia. He announced a synod of bishops to debate marriage and family issues with no restrictions on topics-even taboo subjects like birth control. The new pope granted revealing interviews, declaring the church had become "obsessed" with sexual morality issues and needed a "new balance."
Despite his progressive image, Francis demonstrated a persistent blind spot regarding clerical sex abuse. He made several inaccurate statements defending the Vatican's record, claiming in 2014 that "the Catholic Church is perhaps the only major public institution to have acted with transparency" on child abuse-a statement victims' groups called "simply delusional."
Francis described 2018 as el ano desesperado-the desperate year when his papacy came under siege. His disastrous trip to Chile, where he dismissed allegations against Bishop Barros as "slander," was quickly proven false when media reported that Cardinal O'Malley had personally delivered detailed allegations against Barros to Francis in 2015. Archbishop Vigano published a 7,000-word "testimony" alleging Francis had known about Cardinal McCarrick's abuse for years but done nothing. Though containing exaggerations and falsehoods, Vigano's central claim that Francis had been warned in 2013 was true.
After Benedict XVI's death in December 2022, Francis seemed emboldened to make sweeping changes he had previously resisted. In spring 2023, he moved decisively to dismantle the Regensburg network and other organized opposition to his papacy, demoting or ousting several churchmen close to Benedict. In July, Francis made his most shocking personnel decision: appointing his Argentine protege Archbishop Victor Fernandez to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, announcing he would also be made cardinal.
After a decade as pope, Francis privately recognized he had disappointed millions of Catholics who had once been excited about his election. Though he had changed the tone of Vatican debates by emphasizing mercy over punishment, little had changed in formal church teachings. His greatest failure was his continued refusal to meaningfully address the clerical sexual abuse crisis. Despite claiming his "conversion" after the 2018 Chilean abuse scandals, his words were never matched by decisive action.
Capítulo 9
The Battle Continues: The Church at a Crossroads
After Benedict's death, conservatives feared Francis would use his remaining years to advance progressive reforms. Their concerns were justified in December 2023 when Cardinal Fernandez issued a document allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. Though the church still recognized marriage as between a man and woman, priests could now offer blessings to gay couples seeking marriage. The document sparked celebration from Catholic gay rights groups but fierce opposition from conservatives like Cardinal Muller, who called such blessings "blasphemous."
Francis continued reshaping the College of Cardinals, naming eighteen voting-age cardinals in 2023 and twenty more in 2024, ensuring that 80 percent of the cardinals who would choose his successor were his appointees. By 2024, almost half of voting-age cardinals came from outside Europe and North America, reflecting his commitment to geographical and racial diversity.
As Francis entered his final years, he appeared confident his successor would continue his vision of a more tolerant church dispensing the "medicine of mercy" championed by John XXIII. When asked about the next conclave, Francis would cryptically suggest his successor would take the name John XXIV, honoring "the good pope" who had launched the battle for the church's soul that Francis and his allies still intended to win.
The battle that began with Pope John XXIII's election in 1958 continues today. The Catholic Church remains caught between competing visions-one emphasizing doctrinal purity and traditional authority, the other prioritizing pastoral mercy and engagement with the modern world. This struggle has defined seven papacies and will likely shape many more to come. As Philip Shenon's masterful account reveals, the tears shed by popes throughout this tumultuous period reflect both the pain of a Church in transition and the profound human consequences of decisions made behind Vatican walls.
