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HomeRaven, volume 25 (2018)

Raven, volume 25 (2018)

Available: online links below; in print

Vatican Flags, by William M. Becker

Vatican Flags: Keys and Crowns Since 1800 presents the history of the flags of the Papal States and today’s Vatican. This full-color issue is richly illustrated and well documented. Father Becker’s book is the fifth special issue of Raven: A Journal of Vexillology.

Flag lovers will be intrigued by the story that Father Becker tells and by the striking images in this book.  But Vatican Flags is not for flag lovers alone.  The story it tells is full of important reminders that there are different forms of power in the world, and that the human condition cannot be reduced to politics alone, or economics alone, or some combination of politics-and-economics alone.  The realm of the spirit still counts, and soulcraft shapes the future at least as much as statecraft.

George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.


Front Matter

Chapter 1: Toward the Modern Papal Colors (1800-1825)

Chapter 2: The Rise of Yellow-White Flags (1825-1870)

Chapter 3: Vatican City (1870-Today)

Appendices

End Matter


About the Author:

Rev. William M. Becker is a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester (Minnesota, USA).  After undergraduate studies at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, he studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, completing a doctorate (S.T.D.) in 1994.  Ordained in 1988, he has served in parish, chancery, seminary, and academic roles.  He is currently a pastor in Plainview, Minnesota.  Flags have interested him since boyhood; he joined NAVA in 1977.  He specializes in flags of his native Minnesota, as well as the papacy, having lived in Rome for eight years.  His vexillological work has appeared in the Flag Bulletin, NAVA News, Minnesota History, Flagmaster, and now Raven.


  • Scott D. Mainwaring, Ph.D., editor
Editorial Board:
  • Perry Dane, J.D., Rutgers University
  • Scot M. Guenter, Ph.D., San José State University
  • Anne M. Platoff, M.S., M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Kenneth W. Reynolds, Ph.D., Department of National Defence (Canada)
  • Peter Ansoff, Annandale, Virginia (ex-officio)

Raven is a benefit of membership in NAVA.