Paul VI

Paul VI: The First Modern Pope by Peter Hebblethwaite, 710 pages

Giovanni Battista Montini had a long career in the Roman Curia as a protege of Pius XII before becoming archbishop of Milan, then succeeding his friend St John XXIII as Pope Paul VI.  If anyone had ever been prepared to be elected Pope, it was him.  His pontificate, however, was troubled.  "Traditionalists" battled "progressives", and neither faction thought much of the man in the Chair of Peter.  The former blamed him for the chaos and uncertainty that followed the end of the Second Vatican Council, the latter could never forgive him for Humanae Vitae or Inter Insigniores. Pope Paul became caricatured as "the Hamlet of the Vatican", forever trying to make up his mind.

Hebblethwaite sets out to rescue Bl Paul VI from this mischaracterization.  His Paul is a man of action, inaugurating the era of international Papal trips with high-profile visits to Jerusalem and the UN, building ecumenical bridges with Anglicans and the Orthodox, and helping to negotiate the Helsinki Accords.  He is "the first modern Pope", the man who retired the triple-crowned tiara, who dispelled the shadow of Pio Nono, who opened the windows of the Church to the fresh air of the modern world.

Unfortunately, though he tries to avoid them, Hebblethwaite continues to fall into journalistic cliches - progressives "plan" while conservatives "scheme", the former "meet" while the latter "conspire".  Choices the author approves of are described as bold, decisive moves, while ones he disapproves of are cast as feeble compromises.  Perhaps the low point is reached when the author accuses Marshall McLuhan, Evelyn Waugh, and Jacques Maritain (among others) of having "not even tried to understand the Council", and then goes on to insinuate that Maritain had become senile.

Hebblethwaite digs beneath the surface, but by searching for novelty rather than continuity, damages his own account.