John the Transitional Pope (Used)

By (author): Ernesto Balducci. This biography by Ernesto Balducci (English translation of his Italian "Papa Giovanni," 1964) covers Pope John XXIII, who was elected in 1958 at age 76 by cardinals expecting a brief, uneventful "caretaker" papacy. Instead he called the Second Vatican Council, launching sweeping reforms to Catholic worship and the Church's engagement with the modern world — defying the "transitional" label he was given at his election.