Blurring the temporal and the spiritual …

… Tim Parks reviews ‘Avarizia’ by Emiliano Fittipaldi and ‘Merchants in the Temple’ by Gianluigi Nuzzi, translated by Michael Moore — LRB 18 February 2016. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

…  the fact remains that the Vatican is in Rome, and that as long as the Church hangs on to this handkerchief of temporal power, it is tied to Rome and locked into Italy and the Italian mindset, which is notoriously resistant to evangelical fervour, or indeed any spirituality cut loose from bureaucracy, which remains one of the country’s great passions.