The Vatican Diaries
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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John Thavis
About this listen
A revealing inside look at one of the world’s most powerful and mysterious institutions
For more than 25 years John Thavis held one of the most fascinating journalistic jobs in the world: reporting on the inner workings of the Vatican. His daily exposure to the power, politics, and personalities in the seat of Roman Catholicism gave him a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on an institution that is far less monolithic and unified than it first appears. Thavis reveals Vatican City as a place where Curia cardinals fight private wars, scandals threaten to undermine papal authority, and reverence for the past is continually upended by the practical considerations of modern life.
Thavis takes listeners from a bell tower high above St. Peter’s to the depths of the basilica and the saint’s burial place, from the politicking surrounding the election of a new pope and the ever-growing sexual abuse scandals around the world to controversies about the Vatican’s stand on contraception and more.
Perceptive, sharply written, and witty, The Vatican Diaries will appeal not only to Catholics - lapsed as well as devout - but to anyone interested in international diplomacy and the role of religion in an increasingly secularized world.
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Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of 31 men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue-collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community.
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New Orleanians are Picky
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Denial [Movie Tie-in]
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In her acclaimed 1993 book, Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt called David Irving, a prolific writer of books on World War II, "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial". The following year, after Lipstadt's book was published in the United Kingdom, Irving led a libel suit against Lipstadt and her publisher. Denial, previously published as History on Trial, is Lipstadt's riveting, blow-by-blow account of this singular legal battle.
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All hail victory for Lipstadt.
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Reagan at Reykjavik
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A dramatic account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland - the turning point in the Cold War - by Ken Adelman, Reagan's arms control director and a key player in that weekend's world-changing events. In October 1986, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a forty-eight-hour summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Planned as a short gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues, including SDI ("Star Wars") and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons.
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Outstanding Tribute
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The Path to Power
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This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
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The Best of all Biographies
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Dutch
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This book, the only biography ever authorized by a sitting President - yet written with complete interpretive freedom - is as revolutionary in method as it is formidable in scholarship. When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1981, one of his first literary guests was Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris developed a fascination for the genial yet inscrutable President and, after Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984, put aside the second volume of his life of Roosevelt to become an observing eye and ear at the White House.
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Painful
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The Front Runner (All the Truth Is Out Movie Tie-In)
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In May 1987, Colorado Senator Gary Hart seemed a lock for the party’s presidential nomination and led George H. W. Bush by double digits in the polls. Then, in one tumultuous week, rumors of marital infidelity and a newspaper’s stakeout of Hart’s home resulted in a media frenzy the likes of which had never been seen. Through the spellbindingly reported story of the senator’s fall from grace, Matt Bai, Yahoo News columnist and former chief political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, reveals the Hart affair to be far more than one man’s tragedy.
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Excellent writing and performance
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Three Days in Moscow
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In Three Days in Moscow, Baier explores the dramatic endgame of America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union and President Ronald Reagan’s central role in shaping the world we live in today. On May 31, 1988, Reagan stood on Russian soil and addressed a packed audience at Moscow State University, delivering a remarkable - yet now largely forgotten - speech that capped his first visit to the Soviet capital.
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Amazing!
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In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered.
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American lunacy, listenable as it gets
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Lenin's Tomb
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In the tradition of John Reed's classic Ten Days That Shook the World, this best-selling account of the collapse of the Soviet Union combines the global vision of the best historical scholarship with the immediacy of eyewitness journalism.
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The moral complexity of a comic book
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Parting the Waters
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Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.
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Excellent
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Good Day!
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In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
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Few have been a member of Donald Trump’s inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned 15 years - through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.
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Take if for what it's worth...
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The Time of Our Lives
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Peggy Noonan is one of the most brilliant and influential political thinkers and writers of our time. The author of five best-selling books ( What I Saw at the Revolution is now a classic), her column in The Wall Street Journal is a must-read for millions of Americans. Witty, incisive, and always original, Peggy Noonan is a conservative intellectual with wide-reaching appeal across the political spectrum. Now, for the first time, the best of Noonan's writing will be collected in one indispensable volume.
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What listeners say about The Vatican Diaries
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- Anon
- 02-15-15
great insight
I just got this book on a whim and didn't expect much but wow. thus author will teach you a lot of insider things you otherwise wouldn't know. a must have
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- S. Ruth
- 06-13-17
Probably more for Catholics
Maybe only for Catholics makes sense, but I figured this would teach me more about the Vatican, things that go on, how's it's run, and deeper insights.
I found it is more a collection of story's about people in the Vatican more so than the Vatican itself. I know only the pope by name, so I just really couldn't relate to the stories. If you follow the events, this will explain interesting behind the scene things from these events which may be very interesting to you though.
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- Robert N. Lettieri
- 10-03-22
Everything you wanted to know about the Popes....
But were afraid to ask...... fast moving and a great cocktail hour conversation and discussion topic.
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- LoveArt❤️
- 03-11-20
It was worth listening ......
Wow! What an eye opener! I am a Catholic believer who KNOWS that church is run by man and man are sinners.......EVERY PERSON in the church, regardless of position is a sinner. With that in mind, I was hesitant to listen to the book, because I thought it was another attempt to bring down the Catholic Church. Instead, what I learned is that the Vatican is an institution that is broken, like any other institution, and is in need of God's grace, touch, and healing. There are rogue priests, like in any other profession. The Vatican Diaries is an account of what goes on behind the Vatican Walls. It is a book difficult to stop until the end.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Virginia
- 07-29-16
Look into the Vatican's Closets Full of Skeletons
Would you consider the audio edition of The Vatican Diaries to be better than the print version?
I have more time to listen than to read.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The fact that the writer had valid credentials and access to the inner halls of the Vatican. It validated for me the truth of what he was reporting.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Everything you didn't know about the life and power of the Vatican.
Any additional comments?
This is one of those books for which I wished I'd had a "cheat sheet" to keep track of who did what and why. I should have kept a note book handy to write down all the names and what they did.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kimberly J. Koch
- 12-30-21
Brilliant told and narrated!
It was a very fascinating read. I appreciated the perspective that the writer took. I loved the narrator! He did a great job using different voices for the different people in the book!
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- Kathy in CA
- 07-02-14
Fascinating stuff!
I had expected a bit more on the current crisis the Vatican is facing, that of priests as molesters. While it was addressed on a limited basis, after reflection, I realized that it would be extremely difficult for any author to really know the extent and ins and outs of this apparently longstanding problem due to various obvious issues.
That being said, I very much enjoyed this listen. I never thought much about the politics of the Vatican or the encompassing power struggles going on in the Church at any time. This book was quite an eye opener for me and interesting all the way through. It addresses many current issues in a neutral, non-biased fashion.
Hillgartner does an excellent narration. Over all, I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the workings and politics of the Vatican.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Brenda
- 03-18-13
Timely and Well Balanced
This is not a book that extols the virtues of Catholicism or the wonderful works of Catholic charitable organizations. It focuses on how the Vatican operated during the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI from a reporters point of view. In that light, it is an interesting and very timely read for anyone who is interested in the behind the scenes workings of the Vatican. The author presents a balanced point of view and projects thoughtfulness as well as critical analysis of a number of high profile issues that have cast doubt and suspicion upon the Catholic Church in recent years. While he doesn't delve into every recent high profile scandal, he does report on some that are well known and others that are not so well known. Definitely worth the time if you're fascinated by church politics. The timing of the release of this book, just as Benedict announced his retirement and before the election of Francis, made it a most timely read.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Bill54494
- 04-14-17
For me, it was a page-turner
What made the experience of listening to The Vatican Diaries the most enjoyable?
While I have long known that the Vatican is far more complex than first meets the eye, this book delved deeply into that complexity, focusing primarily between the early 1990s and 2013.
Any additional comments?
The narrator Malcolm Hillgartner generally did a good job, but he had a number of annoying misses with pronunciations for some of the "churchy" language. For example, he routinely said "Habemus Papum", instead of "Habemus Papam"--although, since I do not have access to the print version of the book, this could have been the author's error, not the narrator's. All in all, I immensely enjoyed this book. I listened to it at every opportunity. It does have its shortcomings, such as a lot of chronological jumping around, but the insights it gives into the workings of the Vatican are fascinating. The chapter on "The Latinist" was particularly delightful, even though it was something of a diversion from the general theme of the book.
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- Benjamin Burns
- 03-15-16
Interesting and Unique Insights With a Few Flaws
If you could sum up The Vatican Diaries in three words, what would they be?
Confused, Interesting, and Insightful. As the words suggest, I felt the book (both its content and narration) were overall enjoyable and worthwhile. However, it suffered from a lack of a clear structure or over-arching narrative to bind together short tales offered by the author (who had a unique insider perspective on many of them). This was somewhat compounded by a narration which was at times lacking for emotion, and at other times tried a bit too hard to give quoted persons stereotypical accents to differentiate them.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
John Thavis, the author, had a fairly unique opportunity to observe the inner workings of Vatican City and the Catholic Curia for 30 years. Only a small handful of journalists have this kind of assignment, and I am sure most do not stay that long, or form as many profitable relationships with various insiders of all ranks. His tales were all interesting, and inspire a fresh perspective on the sometimes monolithic looking Curia.
What aspect of Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance would you have changed?
As I noted above, I wish he had shown a bit more emotion or animation (especially at times when the stories became saddening), while avoiding trying so hard to differentiate the quoted personages with over the top stereotyped accents / voices.
In general, however, Hillgartner provided a very professional sounding reading.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I have no idea.
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1 person found this helpful