Six Popes: A Son of the Church Remembers Hardcover – May 25, 2021

I just finished Msgr. Franco's book and couldn't put it down. What a life! And he is still going strong! The intimate glimpses of the church luminaries from Mother Teresa, Bishop Sheen, Cardinal Egan, and to all the six popes he witnessed provide an insider's tale that has never been told. Msgr. Franco is an incredibly humble man and we are lucky that he offered us a peak at all he has experienced in the church. You will enjoy this book that has provided us with all his insights into the church then and now!

What a life story from a man of great faith!

As he approaches his ninth decade of life, Monsignor Hilary C. Franco, author of “Bishop Sheen: Mentor and Friend,” has given us a gem of his reflections, “Six Popes: A Son of the Church Remembers,” encompassing a distinguished life that spans his nearly 70 years as a priest.As a son of Italian immigrants from Calabria, Franco grew up in the Bronx’s Italian Belmont neighborhood. His father, Tommaso, an old school socialist, had a falling out with their local pastor and never set foot in a church again until Franco’s ordination. At this time, his father presented him with parchment inscribed “Take Care of the People.” This stuck with Msgr. Franco and became the focus of his life.Monsignor Franco would go on to become one of the highest and most influential figures of the Roman Catholic Church. In his various roles, he would serve six Popes – John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis - of which three are now saints. He also became a trusted assistant and confident to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen which began early in his church career after being asked by Sheen to help him prepare for Vatican II.In his work for the church in Rome, New York City, and at age 80, pastor of St. Augustine’s in Ossining, New York, Franco interacted with US presidents, foreign heads of state, and religious leaders like Padre Pio and St. Mother Teresa. In “Six Popes,” he provides tidbits and insights on most he crossed paths with.With his work at the Vatican, he gained a macrocosmic view of the world’s problems, a global horizon, a universal approach, it was not limited to a microcosmic perspective. “The Vatican has in view the needs of all countries.” His horizons were expanded, and he learned to look at all things globally.“Six Popes” touches on Angelo Roncalli, Pope John XXIII, with whom he was a fellow alumnus of the pontifical Lateran University; his experience facing legalized segregation in the South while studying sociology at Fordham; the Vatican Ecumenical Council; the upheaval in the church in the world during the 1960s; efforts to overcome obstacles to Mother Angelica’s creation of EWTN; the Church’s pedophilia scandal; and most importantly, his love of parish work.When talking about the future, Monsignor Franco bemoans the emergence of relativistic perspective on morality, one in which there is no longer anything that can be constituted as an absolute good, any more than anything fundamentally evil; only relative value judgments. The latter being at the root of today’s pandemic of lies and divisiveness.“Six Popes: A Son of the Church Remembers’ is a quick and delightful read. Franco could have made it even better with more color on those he met along the way.

Title is a bit misleading. Enjoyed the stories, but they are a bit disjoint. Msgr’s previous book was better, IMO.

This is a terrible book. Poorly written. At points almost unintelligible. Repetitive. Avoid this at all costs.

I just closed the cover of Six Popes, and I have to say it's disappointing. The most glaring problem is that it utterly lacks any kind of flow or sense of a narrative arc. It is not a memoir, but more isolated snippets seemingly transferred from Monsignor's day-planner from years back. Many, many names, many of them of famous people, but virtually nobody in the book is ever fleshed out or given any kind of color. Section after section of 'Famous person one' came to dinner; was appointed this or that; said this or that unimpressive thing to famous person two; or acted like a completely normal person in "real life"' and then on to another diary entry about who joined this dicastery or travelled to that country or attended the other pontifical Mass or political funeral.Not being a New Yorker or someone intimately acquainted with the byzantine workings of the Vatican, I found all the references to various east-coast prelates and Vatican 'departments' somewhat mind-numbing after awhile and just endured them waiting (mostly in vain) for the moment when some person or event would spring from the pages in bold and living color. Major historic events - the March on Washington or various assassinations or attempted assassinations are mentioned in a long list of events, but apart from saying that on two occasions he 'cried like a baby,' Monsignor Franco doesn't give us any distinctive or personal view of these events. They happened on such-and-such a day and we organized a funeral later... just day-diary stuff, but no lessons drawn, insights, or even heretofore unpublished significant or revealing glimpses behind the scenes. (A bishop was ill at Bobby Kennedy's funeral and was offered the presidential helicopter to get home. He was fine the next day. For this I paid $25 and shipping?) Monsignor Franco says that he had a helper in the writing of this book. The helper should have thought of the reader. Readers who don't know the neighborhoods of New York or Rome, etc., are helped by someone giving a few descriptive phrases of the sights, sounds, smells, history, buildings, atmosphere, so that we can fix that in our memories and then attach it to any future reference made to that place. Likewise, the 'characters' (in this case, historical figures) mentioned should be given a clear fleshing-out, instead of reading like a long list of names in someone's date book. Consideration for the reader pulls the whole text together into one clear sequence of events, rather than jumping around from this event to that event at different historical periods with frequent parenthetical remarks saying (more about that later). Start at the beginning. Establish the place, the characters - flesh them out with at least a brief physical description (OK, one pope's large belly is mentioned and Monsignor Franco apparenlty regrets the lost of his hair; otherwise if you can't already picture these people in your mind, they are just a list of names). Then give us a story, a narrative: this happened, which led to that; while there, these other things happened and these problems and tensions arose and were resolved this way. It's all just so disjointed.This is admittedly probably the most glaring example of being out of touch with your potential reader. From page 114: 'A few days later, April 19th, I had dinner with Raimondi and a guest named Carlos from Mexico. Raimondi, recently nuncio to that country, was connected to Mexico's most powerful families.' Now I could have put down the book and gone online and searched for a man named Carlos from Mexico who might have been visiting Apostolic Delegate Raimondi in Washington DC on April 19th in 1968 (when I was six years old, and have an excuse for not paying attention to such matters), but why should I have to? A properly written memoir would have explained who this Carlos was, given a physical description, at least, to fix him vividly in the reader's mind, then some anecdote or explanation of why history needs to know where he ate dinner on April 19th, 1968. For my part, I remain unedified, but supplied hereafter with a memorable example of 'how not to write a memoir.'In fairness to Monsignor Franco, he says more than once that he was persuaded by friends to write the book. He didn't want to. He also says in the acknowledgements at the end that he has long withstood that pressure because his duties made it easy to decline the request, 'or simply because [he] was hesitant to divulge matters that belong in the archives in the bin marked "ancient history"' (169). He has probably written all that he can write and retain both personal modesty and priestly discretion about the private behavior and official events that he observed in his life.I learned a few things: Bishop Fulton Sheen didn't really want to be buried in his home town, but in New York (sorry, Michael Voris), but his wishes were over-ruled. Jorge Borgoglio really, really wanted the papacy (no surprise; the narcissism is unmistakable). Loretta Young refused to take her clothes off and got the role anyway. That's about it for memorable details.As for Monsignor Franco, despite being surrounded by the biggest of big-wigs in the Church and in the world for much of his life, he seems never to have lost his grip on himself and his purpose: to be a priest and serve the people in the parish. Perhaps that's why his reminiscences are so lacking in color and detail: a man who has spent many hours in the confessional surely cannot be overly impressed by the glitz and glamour of what the world calls 'celebrity,' nor by the meretricious baubles of worldly success. Perhaps in the end, Monsignor Franco's friends should simply have taken his 'no' for 'no' and left him alone. He doesn't seem to be impressed enough with himself or with the 'great' in the eyes of the world to write a gripping narrative of his own life walking alongside those who attract the attention of the media.Wait for paperback or borrow it. It's quick to read, but largely - sadly - mostly forgettable.

6 Popes - and Fulton Sheen the great American speaker who predicted much of the tragic lack of moral behavior of our current age. Friend of Saints and Popes alike the Monsignor ad he calls himself a “kid from the Bronx” is a remarkable success story in our day and age.

It’s a book.

OK, I have to admit that I read this with somewhat ignoble aspirations. I was seeking a more personal insight into the popes covered (I was born in the pontificate of John XXIII, and am old enough to remember, 'Paul, our Pope' in the Eucharistic prayer), their 'real' personalities and temperaments painted by someone who spent time with them in behind-the-scenes situations. Not exactly a 'Hollywood tell-all' gossipy book, but something a bit more revealing of how each man dealt with and lived out his pontificate, perhaps keys to his character and personality that would add depth and color to the pontificate, leading me to understand and sympathize with the struggles and issues faced by each man... Well, the author seems to be extremely discreet, which is a good thing, a good character trait. It just doesn't make for a deeply affecting and satisfying or even very memorable 'memoir' of the men he served. I felt that the book lacked those revealing anecdotes or descriptions - lacked 'color' - that would help me feel I knew the pontiffs better and sympathized with them more, understood the papacy more, after finishing the book. Apart from one VERY discreet observation about Pope Francis which does seem to reveal something about his somewhat unsettling public persona, I'm afraid I found the book somewhat self-erasing. I can't really remember anything apart from that one observation that made me say, 'Ahh... well, that fits what I've observed about the man.' The book did not make the popes stand out in my memory. I finished it, put it on the shelf, will not read it or refer to it again, and will not loan it to friends, and if they take it off the shelf and ask to borrow it, I won't be able to give it an enthusiastic recommendation, I'm afraid. I really hoped to get a sympathetic and memorable portrait of spiritual leaders I have prayed for all my life; even just coming away with a clear and vivid understanding of the sacrifice involved in accepting the role of Supreme Pontiff would have left an impression on me. But I have no memorable impressions from this book. Pity.