I am mulling upon a story that will be told from the POV of a 'Brother' or clergyman near and dear to the Pope. Does anyone have any recommendations on references to help me learn about the inner workings of the Vatican? Day in the life accounts, memoirs, etc... I am sure I can find what I am looking for but I felt that the wide array of intelligence around here might have some good suggestions.
Thanks
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
The so-called Vatican Leaks Scandal ongoing now about private papal papers misapprehended by personal assistants and secretaries might offer insights. One book in particular is a collection of private papers collected by an Italian journalist, Ratzinger was afraid by Gianluigi Nuzzi, English translation, "The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI," e-book only, available at Amazon.
The courtly intrigues of the present day papacy are little different if at all from any church era. Those in power are naturally surrounded by petty intrigues, power squabbles, and corruption. Personal assistants and so on are often at the center of contentions.
Posted by mfreivald (Member # 3413) on :
I would also caution you to double-check any research. There's tons of misinformation (and just blatant lying in a lot of cases) out in the ether about the Church. For any given smear campaign, you can usually find something to put the accusations in context, but it sounds like you are looking more for day-to-day interworkings, so that stuff shouldn't really matter to you.
They are all human beings, of course, so you will find all kinds of bad behavior from time to time. After all, Jesus himself hand-picked a traitor, and he warned us about "wolves in sheep's clothing" among his own. So with prudent research you should be able to find examples for as many villains or saints you need for any given story.
Believe it or not, Catholic sources can be pretty good for learning all about the scoundrels. They can be harder on the scoundrels than outside sources when it's deserving.
Posted by mfreivald (Member # 3413) on :