Translated by Brian Heffernan
This book gives an engaging behind-the-scenes look at the life of Willem van Rossum (1854–1932), a Dutch priest from humble origins on the fringe of global Catholicism, who rose to dazzling heights in the centre of Vatican power and helped change the face of his church. The narrative is rich with evocative detail, about ideological conflicts and power politics within the Catholic church, about clerical privilege and ecclesiastical pomp and circumstance, about power relations between priests and women religious, and about the global direction of Catholic missions. It tells the story of a cardinal with a vision who was instrumental in securing the future of Catholicism by allowing the non-Western world into the very heart of the church.
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