"I have felt like Saint Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us so many days of sun and of light winds, days when the catch was abundant; there were also moments when the waters were rough and the winds against us, as throughout the Church’s history, and the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I have always known that the Lord is in that boat, and I have always known that the barque of the Church is not mine but his. Nor does the Lord let it sink; it is he who guides it, surely also through those whom he has chosen, because he so wished. This has been, and is, a certainty which nothing can shake."
––Benedict XVI, General Audience, 27 February 2013

Roberto Regoli offers a keen and comprehensive preview of Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate, which will be better understood only after time has passed and more becomes available. As an historian, Regoli provides ample context to frame the theology and pastoral priorities of a pope, professor, priest, and figure of history who has been shaped by his times, and who will undoubtedly be remembered as deeply orienting the Church toward the future. The perspective and questions offered by Regoli will likewise be a key component to the scholarship surrounding Pope Benedict's pontificate for decades to come, and he significantly broadens what has already been compiled by Anglophone writers.

Written by one of the foremost historians of Pius XII, the present biographical study, unlike the greater part of the vast and growing historiography of Pope Pius XII, is a balanced and nonreactive account of his life and times. Its focus is not on the pope’s silence during the Holocaust, though it does address the issue in a historical and objective framework. This is a biography of the man as well as the pope. It probes the roots of his traditionalism and legalism, his approach to modernity and reformism in Church and society, and the influences behind his policies and actions.