In the Courts of Three Popes
An American Lawyer and Diplomat in the Last Absolute Monarchy of the West
By Mary Ann Glendon
Image, 2024
219 pages, $27
Over the past six decades, Mary Ann Glendon has compiled a fascinating résumé. She has taught at Harvard Law School; been appointed to significant leadership posts under Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis; and served as the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See under President George W. Bush.
The goal of her latest book, In the Court of Three Popes, is to communicate the details of these appointments from her perspective as “an American lawyer and laywoman on the dynamics of three papal courts as each pope navigated the enormous cultural changes of the last century.”
Those who have enjoyed Glendon’s writing over the years will appreciate her description of growing up Catholic in 1940s and 1950s America. In fact, for all her book’s merits, I wish she had included more detail here. But the section that did describe Catholic life in America during these decades reminded me of Patrick Buchanan’s Right From The Beginning — in all the best ways.
In 1994, Glendon was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II to the new Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and the next year, he chose her to lead the Vatican delegation to the U.N.’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This event took place in my early 20s, and I remember wondering what possible benefit the Pope thought such ecclesiastical presence would have. The Pope’s words to Glendon illustrated a trepidation of his own: He told her that he was sending her to “be a voice for the voiceless” at the conference — which is pretty close to how it played out.
Pope John Paul II has been criticized for directing a Vatican presence at events such as these, but Glendon provides some explanation: “Under Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, Holy See diplomats had refrained from open criticism of regimes behind the iron curtain, believing that to be the best way of protecting the Church in those countries. John Paul II, however, regarded the Church’s primary role in the public square to be that of a clear and consistent moral witness. Under his pontificate, the Holy See became a leading champion of fundamental human rights.”
Similarly, there were also those who criticized Pope John Paul II’s various apologies to the world for the Church’s current and historical sins. Glendon expresses that she had concerns of her own: “I supported the Pope’s expressions of sorrow, but I also sympathized with the committee members who were concerned about the way that his words could be manipulated by persons who wished to silence or discredit the voice of the Church — not to mention those for whom no apology would ever be enough, unless the Church apologized for its very existence.”
As it turned out, there were those in both camps. Those who genuinely appreciated the apology, and those who simply scoffed at the Holy Father’s sincere expressions of heartfelt sorrow.
In 1994, to advance “the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and political science,” Pope John Paul II created the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, on which Glendon not only served but was appointed president by Pope John Paul in 2004.
Just four years later, she was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See by President Bush. Glendon tells an interesting anecdote about her nomination being held up by a certain Delaware senator named Joe Biden. A full generation after Biden led the charge against Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination, the senator opposed Glendon on the grounds that she had “failed to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration” while working for the Vatican.
Glendon points out the oddity with Biden’s position, since the law allowed for “activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits.” She explains that it was Ted Kennedy, oddly enough, who stepped in to help her with Senate approval.
Glendon illustrates that Bush had a deep appreciation for the Catholic faith: “George Bush, a Methodist, was quite conversant with Catholic social thought. He could ‘speak Catholic’ with ease and seemed to like doing so. Sen. John Kerry, who lost the Catholic vote to Bush by five points in 2004, did not have that ability. Neither did John McCain.”
Regarding the relationship between Bush and Pope Benedict XVI, Glendon writes, “No other U.S. president had ever consulted so frequently with a pope.” I thought Glendon’s observation was especially noteworthy, considering the research in Paul Kengor’s A Pope and a President, concerning the relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
On the topic of American presidents, Glendon also writes about an incident that was front-page news at the time in Catholic periodicals: She refused to attend an event in which both she and President Barack Obama were to be given an honorary degree by the University of Notre Dame. Her logic was not that Obama should be disallowed from speaking at Notre Dame; rather, it was the principle that an honorary degree should not be given to someone whose positions are clearly contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
It’s not possible in a short book review to recount all Glendon’s appointments, but it should be noted that she was also appointed by Pope Francis in 2013 to investigate the infamous recent irregularities at the Vatican Bank — a role she served for five years. Many readers will find that section very interesting and timely, as well.
Toward the end of her book, Glendon offers a comparative assessment for the three popes whom she served: “Unlike Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who taught, wrote, and spoke with great clarity and consistency, Pope Francis speaks more elliptically; his messages are often ambiguous or hard to interpret; his personality ismore multifaceted; and he often seems to contradict himself. Although he has been a vigorous champion of human rights in some contexts, he has made unprecedented concessions to China while remaining silent about that country’s treatment of its Uyghur population and other minorities.” That seems a just and charitable assessment.
Glendon also writes that she was encouraged that Pope Francis actively established committees such as the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and another commission to investigate the Vatican Bank.
Register readers will certainly appreciate Glendon’s book as a solid insight into the workings of the Holy See of the past quarter-century. It is important to acknowledge that it’s not often that a member of the laity achieves such positions, a point that Glendon acknowledges: “In my years of service to the Holy See, I was a stranger in a rather strange land — a layperson in a culture dominated by clergy, an American woman in an environment that was largely male and Italian, and a citizen of a constitutional republic in one of the world’s last absolute monarchies.”
