(2005) The Making of the Pope 2005. By Father Andrew M. Greeley. (ISBN: 0316325600 / 0-316-32560-0)

Book Description: Little Brown and Company, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2005. Stated First Edition September 2005, number line on copyright page reads: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Light Pumpkin Hard Cover Boards and White Spine with Gold Lettering. 254 pages, 5.75" x 8.5" tall, 1" thick, Illustrated with Glossy B&W Photos. As New copy - Never read.

Book Condition: As New.

Dust Jacket Condition: As New. NON price-clipped DJ [$23.95 US].

Synopsis: A definitive, firsthand account by the best-selling priest and novelist of the 2005 papal election process following the death of Pope John Paul II describes how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was selected to be the next spiritual leader.

About This Book: From the author of the classic The Making of the Popes 1978 comes this singularly perceptive analysis of the events and political forces in the Catholic Church that led to the selection of Pope Benedict XVI—and what this choice means for Catholics today.

The 2005 conclave offered a ripe opportunity for change. After twenty-six years under the leadership of the charismatic, socially conservative John Paul II, the Church was at a crossroads: American Catholics were increasingly dismissive of papal authority; Europe, according to the Vatican, was growing more and more secular; the largely conservative Catholics of the Third World appeared to be the Church’s future. The College of Cardinals faced a daunting task in selecting the next pope from a list of potential candidates that ran as high as twenty just weeks before the conclave. What led them to the controversial choice of Cardinal Ratzinger?

Sociologist, storyteller, journalist, and above all priest (for fifty one years), Father Andrew Greeley has used the skills of all his roles to write not only a sequel to his bestselling chronicle of the last two conclaves but an analysis of the crises, the confusion, the conflicts and the alienation that have beset Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council destabilized the Church. His diary of the 2005 conclave is not only a description of how Cardinal Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, but a meditation on the "remaking of the Church." With controlled passion he argues that the most serious problem is neither authority nor differences in sexual attitudes but the breakdown of communication at every level in the Church. To keep the faith alive and the worldwide community of Catholics intact, the Church’s leadership must admit that it doesn’t have all the answers and instead listen to the Holy Spirit, present everywhere in the Church. The solution to the current crisis, Greeley argues, is not the change of doctrine but the opening of communication links that will not only enable listening but will require it.

Benedict XVI became Pope because his fellow Cardinals viewed him as a man who would assure stability and continuity after the slow decline of his predecessor. At seventy-eight and in poor health, he himself said that it would not be a long papacy. Nonetheless he has ambitious plans for renewing faith in Europe and around the world. In The Making of the Pope 2005, Father Greeley explains why the new Pope’s success will depend first and foremost on his ability to listen. 

About The Author: Father Andrew M. Greeley (born February 5, 1928, Oak Park, Illinois) is an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and fiction writer.

Father Greeley is Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and is a Research Associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. He writes a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and contributes regularly to The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter, America, and Commonweal. He has given numerous interviews on radio and television.

Biography: After studies at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, he received an AB from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Chicago in 1950, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) in 1952, and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL) in 1954, when he was ordained.

From 1954-64 he served as an assistant pastor at Christ the King parish in Chicago, during which time he studied sociology at the University of Chicago. He received a Master of Arts in 1961 and then a PhD in 1962. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the influence of religion on the career plans of 1961 college graduates. At various times Greeley was a professor at the University of Arizona, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago.

Father Greeley has honorary degrees from the University of Arizona, Bard College (New York State) and the National University of Ireland, Galway. In 1981, he received the F. Sadlier Dinger Award, which is presented each year by educational publisher William H. Sadlier, Inc. in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the ministry of religious education in America.

Father Greeley's first work of fiction to become a major commercial success was The Cardinal Sins (1981). He then put out the Passover trilogy: Thy Brother's Wife (1982), Ascent into Hell (1983), and Lord of the Dance (1984). After that, he wrote on average a minimum of two novels per year. In 1987 alone he produced four novels and two works of non-fiction. He labels himself as "a smart-aleck, in other words, and a glib smart-aleck who can be dangerously humorous and even pugnacious when someone tries to put him down". His literary output has been such that it has been said that he "has never had an unpublished thought".

At the height of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, Greeley wrote The Priestly Sins (2004), a novel about a young priest from the Plains States who is exiled to an insane asylum and then to an academic life because he reports abuse that he has witnessed. His book, The Making of the Pope (2005) was intended as a follow-up to his The Making of the Popes 1978. This was a first-hand account of the coalition building process by which Joseph Ratzinger ascended to the papacy as Benedict XVI. Greeley has also dabbled in science fiction, writing the novels God Game and The Final Planet. Politically, he has been an outspoken critic of the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War, and supports immigration rights. His book entitled A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq 2001–2007 (2007), evaluates and presents the logic of the rush to start the Iraqi War by the Bush administration and its consequences for the United States.

Income: Income generated from the sale of his books has been used to fund certain philanthropies. In 1986, Fr. Greeley established a $1 million Catholic inner-city School Fund, providing scholarships and financial support to schools in the Chicago Archdiocese with a minority student body of more than 50%. In 1984, he contributed a $1 million financial endowment to establish a chair in Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Chicago. He also funds an annual lecture series, “The Church in Society”, at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, where he earned his S.T.L. in 1954. He donated several thousand dollars to the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Injury: He suffered a fractured skull and left orbital bone near his eye in a fall on November 7, 2008 in Rosemont, Illinois, when his clothing got caught on the door of a taxi as it pulled away, and was hospitalized in critical condition. His website indicates that he is still recovering from the traumatic brain injury that he received, and that his family hopes to be "continue to work so that, in spite of his injury, he can enjoy a quality of life in keeping with his imagination, intelligence, and service to his Church and community."

Health update April 2011 from downtown Chicago: Father Greeley is very much enjoying the Chicago Spring and looking forward to Easter, warmer weather, and more baseball. “He’s generally in very good spirits,” commented a family member, and “In many ways he’s kind of his old self”.

Father Greeley is pleased to finally publish a book many have said was his mission and destiny to write. He is very thankful to those who helped compile the immense amount of data, as well as those who generated it. This book is very important to him. It is his latest, and last book (out December 2010).

Father Greeley is still interested in technology and spends time every week viewing his e-mails, He is doing his best to answer when possible. He has frequent visits from friends and colleagues; and enjoys short excursions around Chicagoland. His family arranges for him to concelebrate Mass in his home on a regular basis.

Father Greeley very much enjoys watching local programming and news. “He’s a big sports fan,” a family member said. “So he watches the Cubs, Bears, and Blackhawks.”

Father Greeley wishes to offer up A Blessing for Easter Eve found in “Irish American Blessings and Prayers”

Other work: His column on political, church and social issues appears each Friday in the Chicago Sun-Times, and each Sunday in the Daily Southtown, a Chicago newspaper.