John L. Allen, Jr., who has covered the Vatican for CNN, the National Catholic Reporter, and currently the Boston Globe, has been in the forefront of covering Pope Francis and understanding his mission. In Against the Tide, Allen reveals a pope who has fixed his sight on reform, on accountability and on the Church’s Social Gospel. Allen shows how the pope’s actions reach out to those who are disinterested, disenfranchised and lost ? and how his leadership, while beginning a new era, has roots that stretch back 2000 years.