My daughter shares my penchant for books so she is always looking for something different for me for special occasions, etc. For my bithrday last month she gave me Basilica The Splendor And The Scandal: Building St. Peter's by R. A. Scotti. The story of St. Peter's is truly remarkable; it is filled with the exploits of genius, human frailty of nearly every kind--not all of which are defensible even in the cause of art and certainly not religion. Religion is often trumped by personal ambition; however, The Way of All Flesh may be unavoidable as Samuel Butler intimated although there may remain opportunities to mitigate the damage we do: perhaps the basilica is all the more remarkable as a consequence.