Robert Moynihan’s biography of Pope Benedict XVI summarizes the Pope’s life and quotes from several of the Pope’s books and other writings. Moynihan has had several interviews with the Pope over the years, and he discusses the various controversies or crises facing the Church while the Pope was Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

These were not easy for him, but he and Pope John Paul II felt that action had to be taken. The issues involved Liberation Theology, which had mixed Marxism with Christianity. Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict felt that this was contrary to Christianity and had to speak out against this.

Another issue that Pope Benedict was involved in was the schism of Archbishop Lefebvre and his group. Pope John Paul had Cardinal Ratzinger try to bring Lefebvre back into the Church, even agreeing to allow Lefebvre to ordain one bishop to succeed him and to allow the group to continue to use the Tridentine Mass, but they had to acknowledge the Pope and the Second Vatican Council. Lefebvre could not agree to this and he ordained four bishops. By this action he was excommunicated, as were the four he ordained. Pope John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger had to confront several other issues which Moynihan discusses.

Moynihan, after the biography section, quotes extensively from Pope Benedict’s works. These quotes show the theology and spirituality of the new pope - Pope Benedict considers the liturgy as being an important part of life, as it is through the liturgy that some of theology and much of spirituality is expressed. He says that too much experimentation went on after Vatican II, and that some people went too far in removing symbols and such from the liturgy.

Robert Moynihan is the founder and editor of the magazine Inside the Vatican, a Catholic monthly magazine. He has a Ph.D. in medieval studies from Yale University.

This book has joined the developing line of books on the new Pope. This one is different from the others in that it takes quotes from several of Pope Benedict’s works that have been published over the years. The book reads very well and is well documented with a bibliography in the back of the book. Although there are no illustrations, the reader will get a glimpse into the mind of the new Pope.