Augustine grows into a fascinating character; brilliant, handsome, and well suited to the theater and behind-the-scenes politics of the Vatican. He fights his sexual urges but finally surrenders once. The confidant of several popes, he becomes a wealthy man, climbing to the heights of the church, which he serves ably as diplomat, fund-raiser, and worshipper.

The people who cross his path are interesting, if far less so than Augustine himself. When the pope dies, there is a conclave to find his successor. Will it be the ambitious Augustine?

Sheehan's book has everything ; faith, greed, politics, good and evil, even a little sex.

The New York Times Book Review: Eugene Kennedy Galsworthy is a conceit, rich as raw honey, that allows Sheehan, a foreign correspondent for many years, to interpret "the tale of Latin Christianity in our modern time." He believes that the Second Vatican Council was a tragic failure and that the "Slavic Pope" is successfully leading a restoration of the candle-filled, world-shunning, saint-producing preconciliar church.