Today I sit down with renowned historian of the Catholic Church, Ambrogio Caiani to discuss his most recent work: Flirting with Evil: The Catholic Church in the Age of Total War and Globalization. 

The history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is one of spies, scandals and bad
political choices. It's a shadowy, ornate world of cover-ups and hidden motives. In this book,
Ambrogio Caiani lifts back the heavy velvet curtains of the chancel and peers behind the
locked mahogany doors of the Vatican to reveal the shocking truths that make up a century
of Catholic corruption.

For many, Catholicism's flirtation with evil has become impossible to ignore: a pope courting
Nazi officials and, horribly, turning a blind eye to the Holocaust; the Vatican becoming
embroiled in a series of dodgy financial dealings; the child abuse continuously perpetrated
by members of the clergy. Time and time again, Catholic figures have made terrible choices
in private and preached in public about goodness and morality.

This is the first history that focuses exclusively on Catholicism throughout the twentieth
century, sketching not only scandalous stories of corruption but also lively portrayals of
Catholicism's key characters – from a beret-clad communist revolutionary priest to the bizarre
morning routine of the pope who followed a daily cold bath with dry unbuttered toast.
Caiani, a critical Catholic himself, takes a frank and sceptical look at the trajectory of global
Catholicism and wrestles with vital questions about the future of the church. Taking in the
wider socio-political contexts of a world at war and the accumulating momentum of social
progress, this brilliant history traces the evolution of the Catholic church alongside the
development of our modern society right up to the election of Pope Leo XIV in 2025.

Buy The Book HERE.