While an angels-and-demons narrative thread is simplistic and reductionist, it is not essentially wrong. But a romping good read is trapped by a lazy hermeneutic of conspiracy.

Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church
PHILIP SHENON

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In his long career as investigative journalist, Philip Shenon has reported on many “secretive and powerful organisations”, among them the CIA, Mossad and the Mafia. But the Catholic Church is unique in threatening its “internal enemies” with the damnation of their eternal souls. Which is why so few senior church people step forward to expose corruption and wrongdoing. And why – he pens this in his “Acknowledgements” – Shenon is grateful to those cardinals et al. who “took the risk” of discreetly directing him to sources of information that “the Vatican has long been determined to hide, especially about the priestly child-abuse crisis”.

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