Taking advantage of hitherto untapped archival sources and the testimony of numerous witnesses, Chiron builds up a faithful portrait of a figure controversial at every stage of his career: from his anti-fascist activities as university chaplain to his work in the diplomatic corps, which would create tensions with Pius XII; from his heavy years as Archbishop of Milan to his Janus-like role at the Second Vatican Council, when his interventions alternately delighted and devastated both progressives and conservatives; from his intimate involvement in the recasting of the Roman Catholic liturgy to his adamant rejection of contraception, which left him abandoned by bishops and theologians who held the world's willing ear. Paul VI emerges as a pope torn between conflicting interpretations of aggiornamento and overwhelmed by crises in the Church as he tried to reconcile fundamental principles of dogma with pressures from modernist reformers.
YVES CHIRON, born in 1960, has written dozens of influential biographies, mostly of Catholic figures and movements, including Urban V, Pius IX, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, John XXIII, Annibale Bugnini, Dom Gérard Calvet, Frère Roger of Taizé, Charles Maurras, and Padre Pio.
JAMES WALTHER was a seminarian for ten years in the United States, Italy, France, and Belgium, during which time he twice assisted at the Veterum Sapientia summer Latin immersion workshops. He also earned the Brevet d'Aptitude aux Fonctions d'Animateur (BAFA) from the French Ministry of Education. After leaving seminary, he re-enrolled at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, where he completed an associate's in theology, a bachelor's in theology and philosophy, and a master's in dogmatic theology. He now works for the Veterum Sapientia Institute as their Technology Officer.