Praise
A frank, sometimes disturbing portrait of the Catholic Church's difficult voyage through the 20th century - humanity's godless nadir.
A brilliant, lively, meticulously researched history that pulls no punches in its assessments of the modern Catholic church. This is required reading for anyone interested in the church's authoritarian past, and the lessons it must learn in order to reform.
A searing critique from the inside ... [Caiani's] cautionary words regarding the church's cosying up to political power for its own, sometimes myopic, ends are salutary and chillingly current.
‘Flirting with evil makes uncomfortable reading for any true believer, but at least this impeccable fair-minded book concludes that the relationship was never fully consummated.’
Caiani asserts a tale of ‘heroism, compassion and standing up to dictatorship,’ but the book concentrates on the church’s ‘flirting with evil’ – a chronicle of lost opportunities, secrecy and moral and spiritual failure