Jesus Wept

Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church

De: Philip Shenon

Narrado por: Richard Cohen

From the best-selling author and former New York Times investigative reporter, an unprecedented look at the defining struggles of the modern Catholic Church, told through the lives of the last seven popes—carrying us from the wake of World War II up through the present day and providing essential context around the most pressing issues faced by Pope Francis

"An extraordinary accomplishment: controversial, but crucial for discussions in today’s Catholic Church.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When the jolly Italian peasant-turned-cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli of Venice was elected Pope John XXIII in 1958, change was in the air. The Church, many said, had refused to enter the twentieth century. In response, Pope John launched Vatican II, an “ecumenical council” that summoned hundreds of church leaders to Rome. It marked one of the most progressive turns the Church had taken in centuries: “medicine of mercy,” as Pope John called it. Yet not everyone in the Church was prepared to accept this modernization. The lines were drawn—in a battle that continues to rage into the twenty-first century.

In Jesus Wept, Philip Shenon takes us inside the Holy See to reveal its intricacies, hypocrisies, and hidden maneuverings, bringing all the momentous disputes and issues vividly to life: priestly celibacy, birth control, homosexuality, restoring ties with other Christians and Jews, shameful sex abuse crimes, the role of women in the Church.

In his rich portrayals of the popes from John to Francis, Shenon draws on research across four continents, including hundreds of interviews and the exhaustive archival material. He also brings to light other key figures in the Church, such as Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the incredibly powerful, conservative, and staunchly anticommunist director of the Holy Office under Pius XII, who lived proudly by the motto semper idem—“always the same.” This is a consummate, vibrant history of the modern Church.

©2025 Philip Shenon (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“With sharp portrayals of the last seven men who have served as supreme pontiffs, Jesus Wept delivers a compelling recent history of the 2,000-year-old institution whose leaders reach for heaven but often fall spectacularly, sadly, into the morass of mortal fallibility . . . Nothing is spared.”—Mary Jo McConahay, The New York Times Book Review

“Lively . . . [A] crisp account . . . Popes are people, too, and one strength of Jesus Wept is that it shows them as such.”—Cullen Murphy, Air Mail

“An impressive overview of the Catholic Church told in a neat, nuanced narrative that captures its triumphs along with its abysmal failures.”—Teddy Duncan Jr., Washington Independent Review of Books

Shocking and educational

It’s difficult to see how anyone can read this book and remain Catholic. The greed, ruthless machinations, egoism, moral blindness and grotesque crimes of the hierarchy are damning, but hardly surprising. I now understand so much that seemed inexplicable to me when I was growing up Catholic, I was following Christ’s direction to love, serve, forgive, lift up the lowly, shelter the vulnerable whoever they may be, and to deal with the log in my own eye before condemning my neighbor for the splinter in his. Meanwhile the men leading the Church were doing anything but. They were busy destroying my Church, my country. and my faith. There were many moments in this book when I gasped out loud at their extremely heinous behavior. The Church needs cataclysmic change to cleanse itself of its sins. It will never be put right until it addresses the intrinsic evil and tunnel-vision of an all-male and celibate priesthood. And after reading this book, I realize that is just the beginning of the change that is needed.

The Truth about the Catholic Chirc

The very intimate side of the Church in its recent history … astounding in its detail.

Lucid History of the Modern Church

This is an excellent presentation of a well-researched account of recent church history. Highly recommended!

The reader of “ Jesus Wept” is doing a terrible job.

I cannot continue listening to the reader of “ Jesus Wept”; he is so bad !
He is unable to read coherently.

Very informative

This book is one of the most informative about the last seven popes for the general audience. It shows detailed connections among those living in the same decades. I especially appreciated learning about the on and off relationship between Hans Kung and Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) throughout their lives. I am not sure why Richard Cohen was chosen as a narrator. I just think the ponderousness of such a voice was distracting. I have no problem with his British accent, but I would think the narrator should reflect the author. Philip Shenon is a native of San Francisco and now lives in Washington DC.

Journalistic excellence

Research quality and the book organization. Clarity of themes and excellent audio.. Profound focus. Highly recommend recommended.

Terrific Historical Overview

Well-written and enormously interesting. Took me a minute to get used to the reader’s voice, but I soon enjoyed that, too. Definitely recommend!

Too long by 3x

If you strip out all the side stories, hubris, hypocrisy, and confirmation bias this book would be cut by two-thirds. Maybe Sheron has a reason for long chapters about bishops and cardinals that don’t appear to be main characters in the lives of the seven popes — but he never shares it.

What is most disappointing about this book is that virtually every person in the book is measured by the single metric of the sexual abuse scandals. As tragic as they are, and as much effort is still needed to heal those wounds, it is NOT the only metric of the Catholic Church. Although to be fair, when Sheron can’t measure a person by how little they did to address the sex scandals, he does like to measure them by how anti-Semitic he perceives them to be.