Tornielli and Valente report that it was in 2007—not 2009, as Viganò has claimed—that Pope Benedict XVI issued his “instructions” to McCarrick, who replied with a letter to the cardinal prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. In his reply, McCarrick refused to accept the instructions from the Vatican that he move into either a monastery or a retirement home; and he had the audacity to propose four alternatives: a residence for retired priests, a parish in D.C., an apartment in the Vatican (which he would pay for himself), or a Catholic university somewhere in the United States. McCarrick’s situation became easier when Nuncio Pietro Sambi died unexpectedly in July 2011 and was succeeded by Carlo Maria Viganò, who proved less eager to enforce Benedict XVI’s instructions to McCarrick.

When Francis was elected pope, Viganò quickly discovered that he was not in step with the new pontificate. Another Roman source, a former diplomat who worked with Viganò, told Tornielli and Valente that the nuncio had tried to arrange for Robert Barron to be appointed archbishop of Chicago. Barron was rector of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary and had been designated by the former archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George. But in September 2014, shortly after George’s resignation was accepted, Pope Francis appointed Blase Cupich as Chicago’s new archbishop. The same source told Tornielli and Valente that, contrary to what Viganò suggests in his testimony, Cupich was indeed on the list of candidates sent to Rome (he was third) and had the support of other U.S. bishops.

One year later, when Pope Francis visited the United States, Viganò arranged for him to meet with Kim Davis—against the advice of Archbishop Kurtz, who was president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The book provides a timeline of that day and of the days and weeks that followed, when it became clear that Viganò had ambushed Pope Francis, as well as the leadership of the USCCB. A few months later, Viganò, having turned seventy-five, had to offer his resignation. Pope Francis quickly accepted the offer.

Today, the Vatican and parts of the Catholic Church in the United States seem to be looking at each other in disbelief, and Il giorno del giudizio provides further evidence of this estrangement. Tornielli and Valente both have many years of experience covering the Vatican and the global church (including the Eastern churches and the Chinese church). Their book conveys the attitude within the Vatican about what is happening on this side of the Atlantic. Through Tornielli and Valente, we hear what Rome has to say about these extraordinary past six months. The chapter dedicated to “the American schism” is a short history of the astonishing aftermath of the publication of Viganò’s testimony on August 26. Two dozen U.S. bishops sided publicly with the former Vatican diplomat who was trying to force Pope Francis to resign. Most of the other bishops were silent, and the leadership of the national bishops’ conference waited weeks before signaling the U.S. episcopate’s continued support for the bishop of Rome. What happened at the USCCB meeting in Baltimore two weeks ago has to be seen in this context. The authors write about the “genetic mutation” of U.S. Catholicism that has taken place over the past decade, as the neoconservative celebration of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI has given way, in many of the same quarters, to a more traditionalist rejection of the current pope. Rome is particularly worried about what might happen at the next conclave, given that conservative groups in this country have announced their intention to gather information that could be used against possible candidates for the papacy—beginning with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Most of those who covered for McCarrick or ignored warnings about him are already dead or retired. The information presented in this book, along with whatever emerges from the Vatican’s own investigation, will be useful for the tribunal of history, but probably never for a court of law, either secular or ecclesiastical. But Il giorno del giudizio is definitely a post mortem on Operation Viganò. Once the radicalized ecclesiastical opposition to Pope Francis saw that they had failed to impeach him for the purported heresy of Amoris laetitia, they tried another kind of attack: character assassination. Both maneuvers emerged from conservative circles within the U.S. church—a minority of bishops, clergy, and lay Catholics active in the media. What looks to many American Catholics like a simple quest for the truth about McCarrick and his enablers looks to Rome like an effort by influential U.S. Catholics to depose Pope Francis by blaming him for things that happened under his predecessors.