The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy is the long title of the latest book by the world-renowned writer and Vatican analyst George Weigel.

The volume has been published by Doubleday Religion in the United States.

The book is a sequel to Weigel’s highly-acclaimed biography of the Polish Pope entitled Witness to Hope, published in 1999.  It focuses on the last years of the Pope’s life, his crippling illness and his battle with communism in the light of recently disclosed information.

Weigel also analyses the Pope’s handling of the Church’s sexual and financial scandals. (mk)