Murder in the Vatican is two books in one volume. The Revolutionary Life of John Paul is the only existing biography of the 33-day Pope. The Vatican Murders of 1978 investigates the murders of John Paul and his six closest confidants.The Church, in its biographical briefs, keeps his life a secret, The Secret Life of John Paul. It would prefer that people remember him as a man who ignored the issues of his day and spent his life on his knees. Nothing could be more short of the truth, for, as a matter-of-fact, he had spent much of his life pulling others up off of their knees and putting them to work caring for the immense orphan population of his time. Concerning the issues, particularly human rights issues, for twenty years as a priest and a bishop, he was a rampaging locomotive running about the press and the courts of Italy. It was his lobbying in Italian Parliament that had made it legal for single persons to adopt children in Italy. When a member challenged, "But, that would make it legal for homosexuals to parent children," he responded, "The need to parent children is a basic human want ...Until the day comes that we can guarantee basic human rights to the tiniest minority we cannot truthfully call ourselves a democracy. " In a general audience, a reporter challenged him on the possibility of women ordination. John Paul reached for a microphone and told the crowd, "Never, forget that God is more our Mother than She is our Father." Then there is the most prolific testimony of this man who, more than any other, brought about sexual education into both private and public schools, "We have made of sex the greatest of sins, whereas in itself it is nothing more than human nature and not a sin at all."