A book review from The Movie Snob:

All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks, by John L. Allen, Jr. (2004). This is a very interesting little book by the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter (an American publication of liberal/progressive leanings). First, Allen gives a very useful thumbnail summary of the various bodies that make up the Catholic hierarchy in Rome, from the Pope on down. He then debunks the "top five myths about the Vatican" before proceeding to explore the psychology, sociology, and theology of the Vatican apparatus. After doing all this in just over 200 pages, he tackles the immense project of trying to explain why the Church in America (to say nothing of the American media) and the Church in Rome seemed to have so much trouble understanding each other when communicating about the clerical-sexual-abuse crisis that erupted in 2002. Finally, he wraps up with a somewhat less thorough analysis of the Vatican’s response to the American military build-up and invasion of Iraq. All in all, a very interesting and enlightening book, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.