Festschriften inevitably tend to be something a curate's egg. This one, dedicated to the great Belgian Catholic historian, Roger Aubert, is no exception. The 750-page work has thirty-five contributors, the ‘great and good’ among scholars of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century papacy, though one is surprised to find only one American and one Spanish author here and none from either Britain or Germany. The work is divided into two initial sections –‘The papacy in general’ and (popes) Leo xii, Pius ix and Leo xiii – followed by separate sections on successive popes down to 2005, omitting John Paul i. The collection is remarkable in its temporal and geographical range – everything from an essay by Jan Roegiers on Annibale della Genga (later Leo xii) as nuncio in Belgium from 1794 to 1808 to an historical-anthropological analysis of five centuries of Catholic missionary activity by Jean Pirotte. Similarly, the themes range from the great sweep of the previously mentioned essay to a fascinating vignette piece ‘Modernist vehicle or instrument of the apostolate? Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto/Pius x and the utilisation of the bicycle by the clergy’ by Dries Vanysacker.

There are some very interesting, thoughtful essais, like Jean-Marc Ticchi's piece on ‘Universalism and Italianism: two facets of the “Roman spirit”’ and Andrea Riccardi's ‘John Paul ii: from the Polish nation to the family of nations’. Some are summary synopses of familiar subjects, and no less valuable for that. On the other hand, Andrè Haquin's ‘From Gregory xvi (1831–1846) to Paul vi (1963–1978): the popes and the liturgical movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’ says virtually nothing new about the subject. Marc Agostino's ‘The significance of some consistories of the twentieth century: stages in the reform in capite from Pius xi to Paul vi’ very concisely delineates the way in which successive popes brought about the ‘internationalisation’, as well as the ‘de-Italianisation’, of the Sacred College and its greater representativeness of the universal Church's residential sees, as opposed to the dicasteries of the Roman curia.

Since the collection was published three years after the opening of the papers of Pius xi (1922–39) in the Vatican Archives, one would expect much use of those papers in the section devoted to Papa Ratti and it is not surprising, therefore, that this is the largest section – nine essays. Some essays make use of these papers to great effect, such as Jan De Mayer and Jan Roobrouk's essay on international organisations and policy of the Holy See in the pontificate of Pius xi (1922–39) and also Claude Troisfontaines's excellent essay on ‘Pius xi and Catholic intellectuals in France’. Daniele Menozzi provides a masterly exploration, in ‘Natural rights and human rights: the opposition of Pius xi to rotalitarianism’, of the way in which Pius xi, in his public utterances and solemn writings, condemned the ‘statolatry’ of the totalitarian dictatorships on the basis of natural law, and the Church's absolute right to interpret that law in respect to the rights of individuals and groups in civil society. The underlying implication of his argument is that, under Papa Ratti, Catholicism effectively constituted a fourth totalitarian system, alongside Italian Fascism, German National Socialism and Stalinism, a thesis prospected by others, including the writer of this review. Taking into account the superb essay by Émile Poulat on the quiet negotiations of 1920 to 1924 which succeeded in resolving the vexed problem of the Associations Diocésanes in France, the section on Pius xi must be regarded as the most valuable in the whole book.

Given the lack of Vatican archival sources, rather fewer essays are devoted to Pius xii (two), John xxiii (two), Paul vi (three) and John Paul ii (three). In these cases very effective use is made of other sources, especially other diplomatic papers and papal speeches and writings. The section on Paul vi also includes an appreciation by Giuseppe Tognon of the life and work of, and a moving tribute to, another great Catholic historian, the Italian Pietro Scoppola, who died in 2007. All in all, this is a very useful and thought-provoking contribution to scholarship on the modern papacy.

Continuing with the theme of the modern papacy, Samuel Gregg in his contribution to the Continuum series Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers explores the thought of John Paul ii and Benedict xvi, men whom he acknowledges ‘As established European thinkers in their own right’ (p. 3). He argues that these popes have convincingly defended the traditional balance between faith and reason as crucial to the uniqueness of Catholic thought.

Gregg focuses on the attitudes of Wojtyla and Ratzinger towards the Catholic Church's contemporary ‘dialogue with modernity’. He foregrounds their critique of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council and the more liberal Catholic interpretations of them, as espoused, for example, by theological journals like Concilium, explaining Ratzinger's view that aggiornamento has often degenerated into a mere accommodation to modern society or, even worse, has identified ‘modern progress so strongly with Christian redemption’ (p. 56). Thence he moves to the broader critique developed by Wojtyla and Ratzinger of contemporary, secularised western society and all its ills.

Gregg concludes by saying, ‘Like them or loathe them, the achievement of John Paul ii and Benedict xvi may perhaps have been the re-establishment of the papacy as a significant intellectual reference point in the modern world for many secularists and Catholics alike’ (p. 136), adding that ‘the papacy need never fear that it will relapse into irrelevance’ (p. 137). Perhaps not irrelevance, but the continuing furore about the covering-up of child abuse is greatly damaging to the moral authority of the papacy.

Gregg's work is a useful introduction to the thought of Wojtyla and Ratzinger and thus essential reading for anyone engaged in serious study of the present-day papacy.