- Hebblethwaite, Peter
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▪ 1995British writer (b. Sept. 30, 1930, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England—d. Dec. 18, 1994, Oxford, England), was considered the foremost "Vaticanologist" in the English-speaking world and wrote the definitive biographies of two popes—John XXIII: Pope of the Council (1984; U.S. title, Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the Modern World, 1985) and Paul VI: The First Modern Pope (1993). Hebblethwaite was educated in England and France, joined the Society of Jesus in 1948, and was ordained a priest in 1963. His attendance at the final sessions of the Second Vatican Council sparked his interest in the papacy and the modernization then taking place in the church. Hebblethwaite was editor of the Jesuit magazine The Month from 1965 to 1973. In 1974, unhappy with the church's slow progress on liberalization, he left the priesthood and married. He then was assistant editor of The Frontier (1974-76), a lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford (1976-79), and (from 1979) a writer for the National Catholic Reporter. Among his other books were The Year of Three Popes (1978) and The Next Pope, to be published posthumously. Hebblethwaite was a contributor to Britannica Book of the Year for some 25 years.
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Universalium. 2010.