Concerned about the widespread protest against papal leadership in the early 1970’s, Balthasar took up his pen, not only to defend the papacy, but also to get to the roots of — and to heal — what he called the “deep-seated anti-Roman attitude within the Catholic Church.” Without denying the “at times, shady history of the papacy,” he exposes the ultimately anti-incarnational attitude underlying the rejection of it. Ironically, Balthasar shows, both the historical abuse of papal power and the historical repudiation of it have shared a common error: the failure to integrate office with love so as to reflect the unity of sonship and priesthood in Christ himself.