This is an excellent work which provides information on the Holy Father and summarizes his views from previous written works. As then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he published nearly 50 books on the Church. He truly is "hands-on" and clearly understands what is going on in the Church outside of Rome. A quick and easy read that will bring you up to date on Benedict XVI.

Robert Moynihan gives us an accurate overview of the vision of Pope Benedict. The first part of the book gives us a sense of the background and values of the new Pope based on the Pope's past writings and interviews and based on Moynihan's own repeated conversations with Benedict when he was a cardinal. The second part is a topical collection of the Pope's views on many issues ranging from various theological dogmas to matters of morality to issues in the Christian life such as suffering and loneliness. The third and last part of the book consists of a reprinting of the first messages and homily of the new Pope from that extraordinary month of April 2005. You will get a good sense about the new Pope's vision from this book. Personally, I was struck by the Pope's strong views on the urgency of liturgical reform and on the centrality of defending human dignity.