This book is an engaging treatment of Pope Francis within Roman Catholicism as a system from the Protestant perspective. Many have seen Pope Francis only from the perspective of the Council of Trent or from a few of the favorite encyclicals promoted by more traditional Roman Catholics--and fail to see Francis's pontificate from a global perspective, in a time after the Second Vatican Council, the most recent Roman Ecumenical Council. Leonardo De Chirico is a scholar of Vatican II and is an informed writer aware of all Roman Catholicism in such a way as to avoid the selective provincialism that often hinders an accurate understanding of such a pivotal pontificate. De Chirico has provided a tour of Francis, his thought, his impact--and has aided the reader in seeing the threads to the past that provide the context for even the seemingly novel. Far from a radical departure or an anomaly--Pope Francis was fully Roman Catholic, loyal to the core of global Roman Catholicism for the twenty-first century.
