Book Comment: The Rise of Benedict XVI

     Allen, John L., Jr., The Rise of Benedict XVI.  The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 2005)

     John Allen is a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and is the Vatican analyst for the Cable News Network and for National Public Radio.  His book details, almost minute by minute, the events leading up to the death of Pope John Paul II and the subsequent election of Joseph Ratzinger as the 265th Pope, Benedict XVI.

     Allen believes that the main thrust of Benedict's papacy will be directed against the "dictatorship of relativism," the belief that objective truth does not exist.  Benedict has declared relativism to be "the greatest problem of our time."

     Benedict is not alone in this belief.