The last three successors of St. Peter have all singled out one book—Robert Hugh Benson’s 1907 dystopian novel Lord of the World—as required reading for our times. Their endorsements raise an obvious question: Why would three popes point modern Catholics to a century-old work of fiction?
Benson, an Anglican convert ordained a Catholic priest in 1904, imagined a future where “the forces of secularist materialism, relativism, and state control triumph everywhere,” according to the author’s own premise. In that world technological progress erases cultural diversity, religion is pushed to the margins, and a winsome yet destructive Antichrist consolidates global power. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—later Pope Benedict XVI—called the novel “gives much food for thought” in a 1992 lecture at the Catholic University of Milan, suggesting that Benson’s warnings deserved serious reflection.
How, then, does the book illuminate the challenges Catholics face today? Pope Francis explained in Budapest in 2023 that the story “shows that mechanical complexity is not synonymous with true greatness and that in the most ostentatious exteriority is hidden the most subtle insidiousness,” according to his address to Hungary’s academic community. Francis found the novel “in a certain sense prophetic” because it depicts a future where “everything, in the name of progress, is standardized; everywhere a new ‘humanism’ is preached that suppresses differences, nullifying the life of peoples and abolishing religions.” He noted that Benson’s characters accept euthanasia, abandon national languages, and view the sick as disposable, so that “life in society becomes sad and rarefied” and “the world seems at the mercy of a perverse vitality, which corrupts and confuses everything.”
Pope Leo XIV (then-Cardinal Robert Prevost) drew the same lesson in a pre-conclave interview: Lord of the World “speaks about what could happen in the world if we lose faith,” highlighting our need to “continue to live with a deep appreciation of who we are as human beings…understanding the relationship of ourselves with God and the love of God in our lives.” For Leo XIV, the novel is not merely a cautionary tale; it is a mirror that shows the soul-damage wrought when society sidelines the Gospel.
What should a Catholic reader do with this three-fold papal recommendation?
- Read prayerfully. Approach Benson’s story not as escapist entertainment but as a spiritual exercise. Where does the fictional world resemble today’s headlines? Where do its characters reflect your own temptations to comfort, conformity, or despair?
- Discern the signs of the times. Francis warned that “ideological colonization” can creep in through seemingly benign talk of unity and progress. Use the novel to sharpen your Catholic imagination so you can recognize when technology, politics, or culture demand a loyalty that belongs to Christ alone.
- Strengthen hope. Despite its bleak landscape, Lord of the World assumes Christ’s ultimate victory. Benedict XVI saw “much food for thought” precisely because the book dramatizes the clash between a Church that trusts in divine providence and a world that trusts only in itself. Let that contrast deepen your confidence in the Gospel.
- Share the insight. A single novel recommended by Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV is a gift for catechists, book clubs, and families. Reading it together can spark conversations about human dignity, authentic progress, and the Church’s mission to keep faith alive in every age.
Benson wrote more than a century ago, but the papal chorus urging us to read him is fresh. Their message is clear: if we wish to meet today’s cultural pressures with clear eyes and a steadfast heart, Lord of the World offers both a sobering diagnosis and a bracing call to fidelity.
