Antonio Socci

Quanto è costata in vite umane, in soldi, in devastazioni, libertà e democrazia, la conquista piemontese dell’Italia? Era inevitabile? C’erano vie migliori e, soprattutto, sarebbe stato possibile un’altra via che non discriminasse la Chiesa cattolica? A queste ed altre domande cerca di rispondere il giornalista e saggista Antonio Socci nel libro “La dittatura anticattolica”

A whiff of scandal has always clung about Caterina Fonsa. Ignoring it, she has lived quietly in early nineteenth-century Oporto, brought up her fatherless son, worked at her painting, and almost forgotten her lost lover. In 1832, everything changes when festering civil war in Portugal erupts into violence. Liberal Dom Pedro lands near Oporto to claim the throne for his daughter, Maria da Gloria, and the Portonians who welcome him find themselves under siege from his usurping brother, Dom Miguel. Old friends and old enemies converge on the beleaguered city, where Caterina is painting Dom Pedro's portrait and starting on a dangerous new career. She is soon being wooed again, while her son Lewis risks his life in Dom Pedro's service. There are surprises, and danger for him too. and much to learn. As always, Jane Aiken Hodge blends fact with fiction to tell a dramatic tale of love and war.

According to many informed observers, the Church is in the midst of the most serious crisis it has ever undergone. More and more questions keep arising about what really happened in 2013 with the surprising “resignation” of Benedict XVI, his decision to remain on as “pope emeritus,” and thus the presence of two popes living side-by-side. Why had the papacy of Benedict XVI become a sign of contradiction? What was happening on the geopolitical level? Who supported a “revolution” within the Catholic Church? Did, in fact, Pope Benedict truly resign? These are the questions Antonio Socci tries to answer, in what can only be described as an exciting “thriller,” closely scrutinizing the facts, along with the actions and words of Benedict XVI over the past six years, and concluding that he remains pope, a fact that has as-yet-unexplored consequences. In this compelling and well-documented work, Socci investigates the mysterious mission to which Benedict XVI has felt called in service of the Church and the world. The author hypothesizes that supernatural events may lie at the root of Benedict’s choice. In this vein, the reader is directed to an ancient prophecy in need of deciphering in relation to Benedict XVI, as well as a new, unpublished account of words spoken by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, which concern not only the Church but the whole world.