The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy
 
Could Pope Francis be the most tyrannical and unprincipled pontiff in modern times? Yes, says Church historian Marcantonio Colonna, in his controversial yet judicious new book, The Dictator Pope.
 
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope in 2013 as a liberal and a reformer. In fact, he was neither--except by coincidence. Though he was not well-known within the College of Cardinals that elected him, close observers in his native land already recognized him to be a manipulative politician, skilled at self-promotion, and a disciple of the populist dictator Juan Peron.
 
Behind the mask of a genial man of the people is a pope who cares shockingly little about theology or the liturgy but is obsessed with his own power. Allying himself with the most corrupt elements in the Vatican, Francis rules by fear. He has obstructed or reversed the very reforms that were expected of him and attempted to alter Catholic teaching by subterfuge. In The Dictator Pope you will learn:
 
Why the head of Francis's own religious order thought he should not be made a bishop
Why Francis may have diverted Church funds to support Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign
How true Church reformers have been punished by the Pope and his allies
How Francis himself has mused that he might be the cause of a schism in the Church
Why clerics in the Vatican have gone from dismissing Francis as a "clown" to fearing him as a dictator
 
Marcantonio Colonna has exhaustively mined his extensive contacts in the Vatican to produce a provocative and revealing account of Pope Francis's true motivations. The Dictator Pope is essential reading to understand one of the most enigmatic, and dangerous, figures to occupy the See of St. Peter.
 
Marcantonio Colonna is the pen name of Henry Sire (H. J. A. Sire), an author and historian. Sire was born in 1949 in Barcelona to a family of French ancestry. He was educated in England at the Jesuits' centuries-old Stonyhurst College and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he gained an honors degree in Modern History. He is the author of six books on Catholic history and biography, including one on the famous English Jesuit, writer, and philosopher Father Martin D'Arcy, SJ. The Dictator Pope is the fruit of Henry Sire's four-year residence in Rome from 2013 to 2017. During that time he became personally acquainted with many figures in the Vatican, including Cardinals and Curial officials, together with journalists specializing in Vatican affairs.