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Article: Dissecting John Paul II.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- February 4, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE PONTIFF IN WINTER: TRIUMPH AND CONFUCT IN THE REIGN OF JOHN PAUL U By John Cornwell Doubleday, 336 pages, $24.95
Even those who are bitterly disappointed in the papacy of John Paul II, as author John Cornwell clearly is, should offer a more balanced assessment of his reign than his The Pontiff in Winter presents. While some assessments border on hagiography, this one leans toward wholesale condemnation. At the end of the book, he characterizes Pope John Paul's lengthy papacy thus: "His major and abiding legacy, I believe, is to be seen and felt in various forms of oppression and exclusion, trust in papal absolutism, and antagonistic divisions."
It is ...