Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII

by John Cornwell

The explosive (The New York Times) bestseller--now with a new introduction by the author When Hitler's Pope, the shocking story of Pope Pius XII that redefined the history of the twentieth century (The Washington Post) was originally published, it sparked a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Now, award-winning journalist John Cornwell has revisited this seminal work of history with a new introduction that both answers his critics and reaffirms his overall thesis that Pius XII, now scheduled to be canonized by the Vatican, weakened the Catholic Church with his endorsement of Hitler--and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Religion, World War II, Politics, Holocaust

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Cornwell is a British journalist, author, and academic. Since 1990 he has directed the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is also, since 2009, Founder and Director of the Rustat Conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (University of Leicester) in 2011. He was nominated for the PEN/Ackerley Prize for best UK memoir 2007 (Seminary Boy) and shortlisted Specialist Journalist of the Year (science, medicine in Sunday Times Magazine), British Press Awards 2006. He won the Scientific and Medical Network Book of the Year Award for Hitler's Scientists, 2005; and received the Independent Television Authority - Tablet Award for contributions to religious journalism (1994). In 1982 he won the Gold Dagger Award Non-Fiction (1982) for Earth to Earth. He is best known for his investigative journalism; memoir; and his work in public understanding of science. In addition to his books on the relationship between science, ethics and the humanities, he has written widely on the Catholic Church and the modern papacy.

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cornwell has written a devastating condemnation of Cardinal Pacelli (later Pius XII). So far, I have read the chapters describing Pacelli's utterly immoral role in bringing Hitler to a position of dictatorial power by passage of the Enabling Act in 1933.

To summarize ... Pacelli was fixated on reaching a Concordat with Hitler that would implement the 1917 Code of Canon Law he had been instrumental in drafting ... He was totally unconcerned with Hitler's destruction of human rights, social ethics and Jews ... He was determined to destroy the power of the Catholic Center Party and the German bishops, who had vehemently opposed Hitler ... His primary objective seems to have been to establish conditions under which he could rule imperiously from Rome without opposition ... and to have Hitler in power in Germany as a bulwark against Communist expansion

Hitler knew exactly what he was gaining from Pacelli's ambition *** nearing completion of the Concordat, Hitler wrote: the treaty shows the whole world that the assertion the NS is hostile to religion is a lie *** and then Hitler reported to his cabinet: a sphere of confidence has been created that will be especially significant in the urgent struggle against international Jewry

This is Pacelli's record until 1933. Then, of course, there was his reprehensible silence during the Holocaust.

Here are a few more of the many points Cornwell makes to support his conclusions ...

*** Hitler was wary of Catholic resistance to National Socialism … in Mein Kampf he wrote that a confrontation with the Catholic Church in Germany would be disastrous

*** Catholic criticism of National Socialism was vehement and sustained … open warfare … a parish priest at Kirschhausen gave guidance to his parishioners: no Catholic may be a Nazi, no Nazi may participate in parish activities, no Nazi may receive sacraments ... promptly confirmed by the vicar-general of Mainz that the priest was speaking in accordance with diocesan thinking

*** the Bavarian bishops (Faulhaber) directed their clergy to warn against National Socialism … incompatible with Catholicism

*** a Catholic Reichstag representative - Karl Trossman … published "Hitler and Rome" … described Nazis as a "brutal party that would do away with the rights of the people" … would drag Germany into a new war which would end even more disastrously than the last

*** Catholic author Alfons Wild: Hitler's view of the world is not Christianity but a message of race that proclaims violence and hate ... Catholic journalists: NS means hatred, fratricide and unbounded misery ... Hitler preaches the law of lies

*** Pacelli was not inclined to take the least notice of advice from German Catholic leaders … maintained that satisfactory relations between Germany and the Church (by which he meant the Vatican) could only be achieved with a new concordat

*** as 1932 proceeded … decisions about the fate of the Catholic Church in Germany were being made entirely by Pacelli in the Vatican

*** in order to achieve the Reich Concordat … Pacelli needed the German bishops to reverse their denunciations of NS … and have the Center Party give legal force to the passage of the Enabling Act to grant Hitler dictatorial powers

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beatification process has begun to make Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) a saint. Aside from whatever we might think about how saints are created by the church as an institution, I suspect everyone would agree that any saint should have a reasonably spotless reputation.

John Henry Newman, a famous British convert to Catholicism in the eighteenth century, once wrote that “It is not good for a Pope to live twenty years. It is an anomaly and bears no good fruit; he becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, and does cruel things without meaning it.” The papacy alters a man’s consciousness. He becomes a solitary individual. Paul VI recognized this solitude and penned a note to himself that described this loneliness and power, “assume every responsibility for guiding others, even when it seems illogical and perhaps absurd. And to suffer alone. . . Me and God.”

Cornwell, aware of the rumors surrounding Pius’s actions during WWII with regard to the Jewish problem in Germany, decided to do the definitive research into these accusations. He was given unprecedented access to Vatican files. He was sure that Pius would be vindicated. What he discovered surprised and saddened him. The secret files revealed a man obsessed with power who maneuvered with Hitler and the German Catholic Church in such a way that helped to bring Hitler to power. It’s important to remember that the papacy as we know it today is very different from that which preceded the nineteenth century. It is an invention. Prior to the rise of almost instant world-wide communication, power was distributed through great councils and a hierarchy that left much discretion to local control. It was “more a final court of appeal than a uniquely initiating autocracy.”

Pacelli played a key role in strengthening the central authority of the papacy. This was in part a reaction to the oppression the Catholic Church had suffered at the hands of the state in the early nineteenth century. There was also a struggle between those who urged more central authority for the pope and those who were anxious to decentralize and distribute more authority to the bishops. The centralists won at the First Vatican Council of 1870 when the pope was declared “infallible” in matters of faith and morals and the undisputed leader of the church. Pacelli, as a Vatican lawyer, played a substantial role in redrafting the Church’s laws in such a way as to grant future popes “unchallenged domination.” The Code of Canon Law was initiated in 1917 and distributed to Catholic clergy. Pacelli received special dispensation to study at home for his seminary training. Ostensibly, this was because of his nervous stomach’s inability to handle seminary food. Whatever the case, the influence of his mother remained very strong.

Following his ordination, he began work on his doctorate, studying with the Jesuits. This was at the time of the Dreyfus trials in France, and— despite his subsequent pardon and evidence of innocence—Jesuit publications continued to warn of the dangers of Jews: “wherever Jews had been granted citizenship the outcome had been the ruination of Christians.” Anti-Semitism had a long history in the Catholic Church, and it was the sixteenth century pope Paul IV who instituted the ghetto and required Jews to wear a distinctive yellow badge.

In the 1920s, Germany had one of the largest — and best-educated — Catholic populations in the world. As papal nuncio, it was Pacelli’s role to create a pact between the German state and the Church, a pact resisted by Protestants and many Catholics who believed his vision was too authoritarian. Pacelli remained pro-German all his life. He failed to publicly condemn any of the mass killings the Germans had begun. Even the slaughter of Catholic priests in Poland and the handicapped under the euthanasia program were never condemned. Cornwell shows that Pacelli was Hitler’s best ally. Despite appeals from many, including some top German commanders in Italy, he refused to condemn Hitler’s acts, self-righteously concluding that Hitler was preferable to Stalin since Hitler was willing to pay lip service to Christianity. In return, Pius XII received full control of the Church in Germany. Cornwell documents how Pacelli had been fully informed of the “persecution unleashed against the Jews at the very point when he was to enter into substantive negotiations for a concordat with its perpetrators.” Hitler even justified the concordat by suggesting that it would be “especially significant in the urgent struggle against international Jewry.”

It is unclear whether Pacelli understood the wider implications of his diplomatic maneuvers that led to Hitler’s supremacy, but he supported Hitler to the very end, sending Hitler his personal congratulations following the unsuccessful bomb assassination attempt in 1939. His failure to condemn the persecution of the Jews rendered Hitler invaluable aid. Cornwell’s ultimate judgment of Pacelli is that his life was a “fatal combination of high spiritual aspirations in conflict with soaring ambitions for power and control. . . not a portrait of evil but of fatal moral dislocation – a separation of authority from Christian love. The consequences of that rupture were collusion with tyranny and ultimately violence.”

Anti-Semitism alone does not explain Pacelli’s silence, although clearly he regarded the Jews as a contemporary as well as ancient enemy of his church. He placed papal power and the accumulation of even more power to the papacy as the highest value. Cornwell answers in the affirmative to the question he poses, “Was there something in the modern ideology of papal power that encouraged the Holy See to acquiesce in the face of Hitler’s evil, rather than oppose it?”

The move to beatify Pius XII should come to a screeching halt. The sanctification of someone whose moral authority has been documented to be considerably less than holy would render the entire concept of sainthood as meaningless if not foolish – if it isn’t already. If Pius were to be beatified, his policies would be confirmed, “endorsing the modern ideology of papal power and justifying Pacelli’s wartime record.”

[Clif Brittain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've cried twice this year when I read a book. This was one of them. The scene was that rubber-necking German soldiers were driving past the Vatican, their trucks filled with Italian Jewish deportees on their way to certain death. This was happening with the full knowledge of people within the Vatican, including the pope.

Not once during the whole war did Pope Pius XII mention Nazis or Jews, much less condemn Hitler's regime.

At first I thought the title of this book was a bit strong. But if Hitler had wanted greater compliance, he could not have had it.

If anyone knows of a book of similar quality that tells a contrary side of the story, please let me know.

[Stefan Mitev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Еудженио Пачели е светското име на папа Пий XII. Неговият понтификат продължава от началото на 1939 г. до смъртта му през 1958 г. Пий ХII е спорна историческа личност, често обвинявана за своята пасивност по време на Втора световна война и скритите му симпатии към нацистка Германия.

Еудженио Пачели е талантлив юрист, който бързо се изкачва в църковната йерархия. Преди войната е назначен за нунций във Ваймарска Германия, където създава контакти с водещи политици. Играе основна роля в създаването и подписването на два договора с огромно историческо значение. Първият е Латерански конкордат (от 1929 г., подписан с Мусолини), чрез който Ватиканът придобива статут на независима територия и католицизмът се признава за единствена държавна религия в Италия. Вторият е Райхсконкордат (от юли 1933 г., подписан с Xитлep), чрез който се гарантират правата на католическата църква в Германия, но тя е задължена да не участва в политическите процеси, което премахва и последната пречка пред установяването на абсолютна тоталитарна власт.

Католическата църква не осъжда и не се противопоставя на ключови събития като инвазията на Италия в Абисиния (Етиопия), Испанската гражданска война, нападението над Полша, което дава началото на Втората световна война. През 1942 г. Ватиканът разполага с убедителни доказателства за целите и мащабите на Холокоста, но отново папата и висшият клир остават безмълвни. Пий ХII вижда най-голяма заплаха в марксистките режими, които са атеистични и смята нацистите, поне първоначално, за по-малкото зло. Папата поддържа близки отношения с хърватския диктатор ("поглавник") Анте Павелич, а католически свещеници участват в избиването на православни сърби и налагането на католическата вяра в превзетите територии. След обрата във войната пред папата стои една основна цел - да не допусне бомбардирането на Рим. Той остава сляп и глух за всичко останало, случващо се по света.

Историята на Пий ХII ясно илюстрира лицемерието на съвременната организирана религия. Папата се вълнува повече от разпространението и налагането на католическата вяра, отколкото от смъртта на милиони. Личните интереси отново се оказват водещи, дори у човека, който би трябвало да е представителят на Бог на Земята.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 1 out of 5]

John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (Viking, 1999)

I feel guilty abandoning this book. The subject matter is tailor made to suit my tastes, and so many reviews of the book have focused, incorrectly, on Cornwell's seeming obsession with attacking the Roman Catholic Church and his methods of research, that I couldn't imagine not liking it when I picked it up. But quite simply, Hitler's Pope is an unmitigated disaster.

This is not to say that many of its critics are not still incorrect in their assessment of Cornwell's work. A number of reviewers have stated that the book has already been refuted by "scholarly" sources (without providing any references or other evidence of same), saying that Cornwell's previously-unused
sources are, in fact, not secret at all (despite Cornwell's exhaustive list of sources, in which he repeatedly states that many of them were previously public-- another straw man built by Catholics with axes to grind), pointing out that Pius XII was honored by the Jews for his work in World War II (which, as should be obvious to anyone with half an ounce of logic in their bodies, has nothing to do with what he actually did during WW2, nor does it have anything to do with what Hitler did with his actions before WW2, etc.), or combinations of the above and other similar easily-dismissed attacks on Cornwall. All of them serve the purpose of drumming up more interest in the book and making people wonder what all the fuss is about, thus increasing the book's authorship. These critics, who I suspect mindlessly bash anything containing any anti-Catholic sentiment whatsoever, miss using the most effective arrow in their quivers. Putting aside all the sectarian nonsense that's been written about the book and its research methods, Cornwell's writing simply isn't all that good. Many assertions are made throughout that should have been footnoted that weren't, and conclusions are drawn that
aren't labelled as conclusions, so we've no idea whether they're conclusions drawn by Cornwell himself or drawn in his sources. Worse, the prose is dry as the paper upon which the book is printed.

Don't avoid Cornwell because he has an axe to grind against the Roman Catholic Church (assuming some fragment of that statement is actually true), avoid him because he's not a good writer. (zero)

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

On p. 310 of Hitler's Pope, John Cornwell, after numbering the deported Roman Jews at 1,060, notes that "an unspecified number of Jews" were sheltered from deportation by the Vatican. This number is freely available, Cornwell must have known it well: about 5,000. As this would have undercut his thesis (that the diplomacy of Pius XII clearly was only self-serving and did not save lives), he assiduously keeps it from the reader. The book is rife with these sorts of distortions: Kenneth L. Woodward stated in his review in Newsweek that "errors of fact and ignorance of context appear on almost every page."

First, contrary to Cornwell's assertions, there is precious little new material, and he did not enjoy "unprecendented" access to Vatican archives. Second, his assertion that he started the project with the intention of clearing the name Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII) is highly suspect, since by his own admission, his main point is that the papacy is itself an evil institution; it's unlikely that the reign of one man would have changed his mind on this, especially given the REALLY bad popes of history. If he really felt the papacy was an unreformable evil, what would be his motivation to clear the name of a pope who exercised such clear authority? Third, nothing is mentioned of Pacelli's support of Christian Democrat parties after the war, as this would undercut Cornwell image of a pope who distrusted democratic movements.

Structurally, the book is a mess. Is it a biography of Pacelli? Not really. Is it a story of the wartime behavior of Pius XII? About one-third of it is, but that is better covered by authors who focused on original sources, e.g., Pierre Blet, and not secondary and tertiary sources as Cornwell does. He takes the opportunity to tell us what he thinks about John Paul II (against, natch) and contraception (for, natch), all the while showing that, his claim to be a "devout Catholic" notwithstanding, he's clearly out of touch with both Catholic theology and Catholic life as practiced today. He's hilariously uninformed about NFP (no, I have no idea what this has to do with the Nazis or Pius, either), and only someone who's never read or understood John Paul II's philosophical work could call his work "a narrow reading of neo-Thomist philosophy," unless neo-Thomist philosophy somehow now includes 20th century phenomenology.

The book is also filled with fun, irrelevant, "zany" tidbits like what Orson Welles and Alec Guinness recalled of their meetings with the pontiff. Oh, and in case you missed it (most historians have), the Vatican was also responsible for World War I (p. 48-58)! This is just looney stuff.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the enduring controversies of the Catholic Church has been its role, or perhaps more appropriately its lack of role, in speaking out against the Holocaust. Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli, has been accused of cowardice, anti-Semitism, a lack of concern for worldly affairs, a bias towards Germany, an inclination towards dictatorialism that made him partial to Fascist societies like Franco's Spain and Hitler's Germany.

This book attempts to stip away a lot of the myths surrounding the issue, most importantly concerning Pacelli's negotiating of the Reich Concordat in the 1920s, an issue which led directly to the dissolution of the Catholic Centre Party, one of the major obstacles in Hitler's path to power. Pacelli firmly believed that the Church had no business getting embroiled in political issues, that the Church should be above all such worldly affairs. As a result of this attitude he pursued a strictly neutral stance throughout the war, refusing to condone or condemn one side or the other, even when the evidence of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews of Europe was becoming impossible to ignore.

Pacelli pursued a very authoritarian church, with all power stemming from the Pontiff, unlike the more collegiate course that was occasionally offered as an alternative. Bishops, archbishops, cardinals, all had very little power to act indendepently of their Pope - and their Pope insisted that all representatives of the Church remain above politics. As a result of this attitude, Pacelli was far more sympathetic to the authoritarian states than the democracies - his attitude towards Mussolini, Franco and Hitler is telling.

I'm sure this is not the final word on this issue - the author himself has actually distanced himself from some of his conclusions here, admitting that it is difficult to see, even with the benefit of history, what good could have come from Pacelli speaking out; that his scope for action was limited; that the Pope himself was in a difficult position, in the middle of the capital of Italy, a country at war, an ally of Hitler, that Hitler even contemplated invading the Vatican and abducting the Pope.

But the inevitable damning fact is that the Church could have spoken up and damned the consequences. It did so in Hungary and Poland, where direct action and influence from the Catholic Church had enormous impacts. The Catholic Church was in an unrivalled position to influence the hearts and minds of millions upon millions of people within Europe, within Germany and Italy and all the Axis countries, and it failed to draw upon that currency, even when Jews were being taken from the very heart of Rome, right beneath the Pope's gaze.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written biography of one of history's footnotes: Pope Pius XII.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't all that enthusiastic about reading this book when a friend loaned it to me. I'm not Catholic nor Jewish, nor German nor Italian (Pius XII was Italian). I knew there was controversy over whether Pius had helped shelter Jews in Rome, or had helped the Nazis round them up, or something, but I didn't know any details and figured it was one of those things that would never be resolved.

I was wrong about all that. Recent scholarship and newly released documents--official as well as personal correspondences--reveal pretty definitively that Pope Pius XII was willing to let the Jews of Europe go to whatever fate the Nzais had for them, as long as the power of the Church was not eroded. It's not that Pius was antisemitic per se, although he was a little; it's more that he had a very narrow view of what the Church's role in the lives of believers should be, and that he was the single autocrat at its head and was therefore the chief protector. All other events in Europe--the rise of the Nazis and Fascists, the war, the Shoah--were important to him only in how they related to keeping the power of the Catholic clergy intact.

This book is an amazing piece of scholarship, written by a devout Catholic who originally set out to exonerate Pius once and for all, but who ended up being convinced by the weight of evidence that what he had always believed about the European Church during the war was wrong. It's a very dense book and packed with personalities and events of which I knew little (and having easy access to Wikipedia, where could look them all up, didn't help me get through the book any faster!), but it is all so engagingly presented and well written that despite my initial indifference I found myself thoroughly engrossed. Almost as an aside, but actually as a way of presenting evidence of Pius' outlook on the world and attitude toward the Church's prerogatives, this book also serves as an excellent narration of German politics from 1918 to 1939, and also of the impact that Vatican II and other postwar ecclesiastic events had on the church well into today. Written in 1999, it ends with a perhaps inevitable comparison between Pius XII and John Paul II...and the comparison doesn't always go the way you might think.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cornwall's book is a tremendous research effort and highly readable. He started out trying to disprove accusations that Pope Pius XII had stopped his church from protesting Nazi atrocities. But the research leads to a far more painful truth. For any who promote the separation of government from religious values, this book poses hard questions. The Church's agreements with fascist rulers involved a trade: government support for religious institutions, in exchange for church silence on political affairs. As the 1933 Concordat with Nazi Germany said,

"In consideration of the guarantees afforded by the conditions of this treaty, and of legislation protecting the rights and freedom of the Catholic Church in the Reich ..., the Holy See will ensure a ban on all clergy and members of religious congregations from political party activity."

Cornwall explores the unfolding implications of this split between loyalties. As Hitler later said, "When they attempt by any other means -- writings, encyclicals, etc. -- to assume rights which belong only to the state, we will push them back into their proper spiritual activity." And as Pope Pius XII would later explain, the Church must avoid "being compromised in defense of Christian principles and humanity by being drawn into purely man-made politics ... the Church is only interested in upholding her legacy of Truth. ... The purely worldly problems, in which the Jewish people may see themselves involved, are of no interest to her."

Cornwall is the best kind of scholar, driven by a personal and spiritual need to understand the truth. The questions he pursues are directly relevant today, for Christians, Muslims, or anyone. To what extent has the goal of protecting religion from the world served to protect governments from moral opposition? What have we learned about the role and aim of religion in the world?

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eugenio Pacelli, aka Pius XII, engineered further strengthening of the autocratic governing structure of the Roman Catholic Church. That was his be all and end all. A 'Vicar of Christ' on earth in name only, he, in essence, backed the Fascist regime in Italy and the NAZI regime in Italy in order to strengthen his control over the local churches. Though knowing of atrocities committed by the NAZIs throughout Europe and by Catholic priests in Croatia, among other places, he did not condemn the perpetrators. In fact, he used veiled language that might, if one stretches their imagination, allude to some sort of un-Christ-like behavior by some people. Reading this book also made me aware that some 'dogmas' of the Catholic church are relatively recent, the Immaculate Conception dates from 1854 and papal infallibility from 1870. Using Vatican sources as well as material from other archives, Cornwell paints a picture of the wartime pope that leads one to believe that the 'esteemed' head of the Church was guilty of the mortal sin of pride and, because of his silence in the face of evidence of 'the final solution' and other atrocities, other sins as well.

[Laurence O'Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of Pius XII. My eyes have truly been opened to a shameful episode in the history of the Catholic Church.

On reading this I was struck by how little is generally known about Pius's attitude to the Jews, his personal reasons for these attitudes and his support for a fascism based on a twisted reading of the tenets of the Catholic Church.

If anything, after reading other histories of the era, John Cornwell was even handed in his take on Pius XII.

The facts of Pius XII dealings with the Jews and his un-Christian, self centered and un-Christ like support for fascism will stain the church he led for a very long time.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Racial hatred against the Jews was the hallmark of Germany in the Second World War. It disenfranchised, evicted and deported them to concentration camps to finish them off at leisure. After the German homeland, the Nazis continued the practice in those places which they conquered in the first years of the War when the tide was decidedly in their favour. Germany, as we know, is predominantly Christian, but the Protestants enjoyed a majority in numbers with the Catholics constituting a sizeable and powerful minority. This book analyses the relations between Eugenio Pacelli – later Pope Pius XII – with the Nazis before and after he ascended the papal throne. This book argues that Pacelli enabled the Nazi onslaught by his silence and failure to organize efforts to check Hitler so that he is known as Hitler’s Pope. This was neither because he favoured Hitler nor he was anti-Semitic but because he was an ideal church leader for Hitler’s purposes. He openly colluded with the Nazis before the war and this appeasement dignified the Nazi regime in the eyes of the world. John Cornwell is an award-winning journalist and author with a lifelong interest in Catholic and Vatican affairs. He has profiled Pope John Paul II and has written on Catholic issues for many publications.

The book opens with the concerted effort of the papacy to become the absolute ruler of Catholicism in the near term, of Christianity in the medium term and of the entire world in the long term. Modern means of communication has facilitated a single man to rule the church in a vastly unequal power relationship. This replaced those old times when Catholic Church’s authority was widely distributed through many councils and local discretion. The Pope was declared infallible in the First Vatican Council of 1869 and the curia prepared a code of law applicable to the church to solidify papal prominence. This Code of Canon Law was enacted in 1917 under the supervision of 2000 scholars and 700 bishops. Eugenio Pacelli, who was a church lawyer, was the main architect. Canon 218 in the document assured supreme authority to the Pope over the church. Till that time he had to consult local European governments in the nomination of bishops. It was Pacelli’s principal task to reach an agreement – a concordat – with those governments in implementing the code. Being the largest and most powerful Catholic population in Europe, Germany proved a formidable obstacle. Compared to this, it was easier to reach a consensus with Mussolini who ruled Italy. In the Lateran Treaty of 1929, he permitted imposition of Canon law over the church in Italy. The Pope was granted sovereignty over the tiny territory of Vatican. In compensation, Vatican paid the equivalent of $85 million. Also, the Catholic Popular Party was disbanded and the Fascists thrived in the political vacuum. Pope Pius XI, Pacelli’s predecessor, spoke of Mussolini as ‘a man sent by Providence’!

Pacelli had a special relationship to Germany as he worked there as Papal Nuncio for many years. After his elevation as the Cardinal Secretary of State, he entered into protracted negotiations with short-lived regimes of the Weimar period. These instable administrations were not prepared to concede total control of their churches to the Pope. Germany also had a powerful Catholic presence in internal politics. Bolstered by the strength of the Catholic Centre Party during the post-1919 period, there was an unprecedented growth of German Catholic life and activity. There had been a proliferation of Catholic associations like workers’ unions, religious vocations and public fervor. Hitler took control of a favourable situation in diplomacy. In 1933, Pacelli negotiated with Hitler to form a treaty which authorized the papacy to impose the new church law on German Catholics and granted generous privileges to Catholic schools and clergy. In return, Catholic political and social associations withdrew from activity and gave the Nazis a walkover. Hitler wanted a two-thirds majority for an Enabling Act to bring in dictatorship. The Catholic Centre Party supported his coalition and voted in favour due to Vatican’s pressure. This Act enabled Hitler to pass laws without consulting the Reichstag and to make treaties with foreign governments. When the Concordat was ratified, the church organisations were authorized only to indulge in social and religious activities. The nature of the social work was subject to bureaucratic interpretation and the organisations and their workers were targeted for intimidation and harassment by Nazi workers and Gestapo.

Cornwell attempts to find the reason why the church tried appeasing totalitarian ideologues even though what they practiced was diametrically opposite to what the church preached. The church was mortally opposed to atheism and communism which had strong roots and pockets of influence in west European nations. With the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the ingress of communism under various guises were intensely resented and resisted. The church fathers found the Nazis and Fascists as wary of the Communists as they themselves were. This aversion extended to centre-left political parties as well. From the 1870s, Vatican encouraged a distrust of social democracy as a precursor of socialism and thus of communism. Since Nazis had declared open war on socialism and communism alike, they became a natural ally of the ecclesiastical authority.

Even with this mitigating factor, the book contains sufficient references to prove the church’s anti-Semitic stand beyond a trace of doubt. Here, the church merely echoed the sentiments of the community at large. Even Pacelli was not above partisan mistrust of the Jews. Speaking at the 1938 Eucharistic Congress in Hungary, Pacelli declared, “As opposed to the foes of Jesus who cried out to his face, ‘crucify him!’, we sing him hymns of our loyalty and love. We act in this fashion, not out of bitterness, not out of a sense of superiority, not out of arrogance toward those whose lips curse him and whose hearts reject him even today” (p.185-6). Taking a cue from their pontiff, thousands of German priests took part in the anti-Semitic attestation process, supplying the Nazi regime with details of blood purity through marriages and baptism registries. The author also presents a racially prejudiced face of Pacelli. After the Second World War ended, when the Allies were about to enter Rome, Pius XII asked the British ambassador that no Allied coloured troops should be among the soldiers garrisoned in Rome.

The Catholic Church’s silence on the Nazi war crimes did not end with the Jews, but extended to Orthodox Serbs too. The combined forces of Hitler and Mussolini overran Croatia and they appointed Ante Pavlic as the dictator. Ethnic cleansing and forced conversion of the Orthodox Serbs followed. Pius XII recognised the new state of Croatia without demur. Direct involvement of the clergy in sectarian violence was shocking. Priests, invariably Franciscans, took a leading part in the massacres. Many went around routinely armed and performed their murderous acts with zeal. A father Bozidar Bralow was accused of performing a dance around the bodies of 180 massacred Serbs at Alipasin-Most (p.254). In Sep 1941 in Germany, Hitler decreed that all Jews must wear the Yellow Star which naturally had a devastating, stigmatizing and demoralizing effect on those forced to wear it. Catholic bishops lodged a complaint against this in which they asked for the stars to be removed, not from all Jews, but only from those Jews who had converted to Christianity!

The Second World War got into motion with the German invasion of Poland. Their Soviet allies invaded Eastern Europe. Pius XII failed to denounce the attack. At last, Rome itself fell to the Germans after Mussolini’s ouster by nationalist forces. Nazis rounded up hundreds of Jews from the Roman ghetto, right under the nose of Vatican, but what Pacelli offered was a feeble protest in vague language presented half-heartedly. At the same time, he tried to forestall Allied bombing of Rome to capture the city. The author surmises that apart from the likely loss of his own life, Pacelli was also worried at the probable damage to priceless art stored in the churches and cathedrals of Rome. However, irrespective of the subtle anti-papal stance of the author, it also tells about numerous priests and bishops venturing to help the victims in their personal capacity. Pacelli himself organized an impressive charity work that brought solace to the oppressed Jews.

The book presents an absorbing style of diction that is bold, sharp and lucid. What makes it stand out from the rest is its handling of both the dark and bright sides of the protagonist. The first edition of the book was subjected to seething criticism from the faithful as the beatification proceedings of Pius XII were well under way. Cornwell gives fitting replies to many allegations in a special foreword to the second edition. What is also evident unbroken throughout the narrative is the assumption of unchallenged supremacy of the Pope over all spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, starting from Pope Pius IX to John Paul II. The book came out in 1999, so we don’t know how the two recent popes fared on this issue.

The book is highly recommended.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cornwell presents a rather one-sided view of the wartime papacy, and seems to be obsessed with the theme of anti-Semitism, to the detriment of his argument. From the start, he appears determined to condemn Pius' response to the Holocaust. The author himself has admitted since publication that he considers this work to be too damning of Pius. While there is much to be criticised of the papal response, Cornwell leaves little room for consideration of the Pope's other concerns and motivations; his responsibilities to Catholics & the threat posed to the Church by Nazism, possible repercussions of a vocal protest for Holocaust victims, his anti-Communist views, amongst others. [return][return]The views expressed in 'Hitler's Pope' have not met with much support from within the academic community; it's an interesting read, but verges on polemic in places and shouldn't be read if you're looking for a good overview of this explosively contentious debate.

[Barbara Marincel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, I'm not finding this book to be a biased slam at Pius XII, although I am only halfway finished so I may need to revise that statement later. What I like about the book thus far is that it really delves into the diplomatic background behind the Vatican's Concordat with Hitler and Pacelli's reasons for for desiring it--along with Hitler's underlying motives.
The author also explains the title of the book, which is somewhat misleading. It is not meant to imply that Pius was Hitler's puppet, but that he was the ideal pope (in large part because of his emphasis on diplomacy, fear of Communism, and fear of Nazi retaliation against Catholics within the Reich) for Hitler's plans for the Final Solution. I'm anxious to see how the author develops this idea.
Had to quit reading because I just couldn't take the boredom. Bogged down in a minutiae of details--will try finishing some other time.

[JC · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gotta admit: I made a valiant effort but this book was mind-numbingly, eye-gougingly(word?)boring. It presents many controversial "facts" which, sadly, even though I am Catholic, I do not care enough to research. Because the Church operates in such a clandestine manner and because religion (like politics) is impossible to talk about without bias, I gave up trying to glean the truth from the opinion.

I don't know who's side the author leans toward and really I was so more interested in the issue of Motorcycle Trader that was also on my nightstand at the time, I really don't care.

God is good. Organized religion is bad(and sometimes evil). That is what I believe right now regardless of what the other 200+ pages of this book have to say.

[Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many view Cornwell's bias against the Catholic Church as making him too subjective to be a good historian. However, this book is meticulously researched. It makes me want to vomit to think that this slimeball, Eugenio Pacelli, is a candidate for canonization. "Sono limacce."

Excommunicate me already!

[Lynn Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covering up child abuse, and apparently moving ever closer to canonization for Pius XII too.

[Lourens · Rating 4 out of 5]

"..we spraken daarna alleen nog maar over de laatste Hollywood-schandalen." - Orson Welles over zijn audiëntie met Pius XII

Eind 2021 sta ik aan het begin van mijn tweede schooljaar aan de kunstacademie in Breda. We krijgen een vleugel toegewezen in het voormalig seminarium, waar verschillende vrije ruimtes, hokken en hoeken te kiezen zijn om als atelier gebruikt te worden in het wachtende schooljaar. Samen met een drietal go-to klasgenoten duik ik de eerste de beste ruimte in die groter is dan een bezemkast. Het hok is zo'n 20m2 maar biedt meer dan genoeg ruimte voor ons vieren. Al gauw wordt het hok, op basis van een niet-uit-te-leggen inside joke, omgedoopt tot 'de Ketaloods'. De ruimte is op dat moment weinig meer dan een leeg hol met 4 tafels, een archiefkast en een drietal ietwat kleine dakramen. Daar moet wat ziel in. Ergens die week sjeezen we naar de lokale Intratuin om elk een plant aan te schaffen en maken we een rondje langs de kringloopwinkel waar we een afbeelding van een ons onbekende paus aantreffen. Die gaat vanzelfsprekend mee. In de auto terug naar de academie ontcijfer ik dat het om Paus Pius XII moet gaan en tover ik wat anekdotes van de wikipediapagina.
Terug in 'de Ketaloods' hangen we Pius boven de deur en bombarderen we hem tot beschermheilige van ons atelier.

We zijn een paar jaar later en ik heb ondertussen een drietal verschillende afbeeldingen van Pius XII in mijn bezit als ik besluit wat dieper te graven naar het leven van de beste man. Daar ontdek ik wat hem onder andere allemaal kwalijk genomen wordt. Nog eens een paar maanden later loop ik per toeval in een tweedehands winkel tegen dit boek aan;

Hoewel razend interessant op z'n tijd, hangt er vanaf het eerste hoofdstuk al een degelijke zweem van vooroordelen over het geheel. De schrijver is duidelijk overtuigd van Pius' zonden en gaat er de komende 375 pagina's even flink de tijd voor nemen om dat te onderbouwen.
Het bronnenwerk is breed en gedetailleerd, maar zorgt (wellicht onvermijdelijk) daarmee ook voor stapels beschreven details die mijns inziens soms iets te ver van de rode draad afweken. Hier en daar gooit Cornwell er ook wel eens een stevige aanname in die vervolgens niet- of niet goed onderbouwd wordt. Maargoed.
Dat gezegd hebbende, als je er eenmaal in zit leest het geheel lekker weg. Pius was een mens, geen engel, geen magiër, gewoon mens. Met zijn diplomatieke bloed en onuitputtelijke streven naar grote hoogten had hij op z'n tijd last van grootheidswaanzin en angsten om alles dat hij -ofwel de katholieke kerk als geheel- had opgebouwd in gevaar te brengen. Vandaar het rijksconcordaat met Duitsland, de drang om neutraal te blijven en daardoor als tussenpersoon te kunnen fungeren en de weigering om zich met grote woorden uit te spreken tegen de jodenvervolging, al dan niet gerelateerd aan elkaar.

Als totaal ontkerkte ziel is het makkelijker om te zeggen dat Pius gewoon een hoge pief in een poppenkast was, het product van zijn opvoeding, omgeving en ambities, en dat het daarmee weinig verbazend is dat hij de dingen deed die hij deed. Dat maakt ze niet minder kwalijk, maar wel minder onbegrijpelijk.
Maar als je Pius ziet als de 262e (en daarmee Pastor Angelicus, blijkbaar) in een lange lijst van opvolgers van dé Petrus, stadhouder van God op aarde, dan is zijn handelen- of juist het uitblijven van zijn handelen, laat staan uitspréken, totaal onverenigbaar met enige heiligheid.

Iets te langdradig op z'n tijd, iets te veel, maar wel heel interessant voor de liefhebber.

[Brian Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking, and I can see why this book was so controversial. The title and cover picture are more provocative than is his thesis (although his thesis is certainly provocative), and I recommend the 2008 edition which includes an updated author's preface.

In this new preface, Cornwell denies that he is saying that Pius XII was pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic, as apparently many of his critics claim. He argues instead that, due to his upbringing, personality, beliefs, and especially his agenda for centralizing and strengthening Papal control of the Church, Pius XII was the ideal foil as Pope to enable part of Hitler's agenda: in particular, Hitler's rise to power (by neutralizing local Catholic political opposition) and the Final Solution (by not vehemently standing up against it).

I read his case as a comparison of his behavior (commissions and omissions) - and critically the outcomes -- against a presumed standard of morality for the Papacy and whether Pius XII met that test. He reviews Pacelli's entire career - not just as war-time Pope - to build his case and put it into context.

A fascinating read, although the vocabulary sent me to the dictionary a few times!
This is a book that would make a great source for discussion, regardless of your religious affiliation, if any.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

While several of the reviews for this book suggest that this is a damning account of Pius xii, I found it to be measured in it's writing and in it's claims. There is ample evidence to support the 'claim' that Pius had negative feelings towards Jews, however this narrative manages to explain this bias largely as a result of the times and society which produced Pius, all without excusing the negativity itself. Obviously this does not explain the shameful manner in which the Vatican handled knowledge of the Holocaust, however again this book does provide the sympathetic arguments of fear, and an unwillingness to provoke reprisals, alongside the suggestion that Pius simply did not care. Reading this it does become clear that Pius was sympathetic towards anything that could halt the spread of communism, although I felt that this was put into context too. The overall impression was of a series of very human fears and biases which were very much of their time, and yet which did not excuse the shameful silence from the most powerful religous figure in Europe. I would suggest reading this and judging for yourself.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well researched and tells the story of a deeply hypocritical and power hungry pontiff who was so conceited he required priests to be on their knees while talking to him on the phone and made a propaganda film about himself while the ovens of the concentration camps were burning. He disbanded the catholic resistance organizations in Germany while they were protesting against Hitler's rise to power and commanded Catholics not to stand up to Hitler. Had he not done this, the Final Solution may never have happened. He was not willing to stand up against the murder of Jews in Rome even when the cattle cars went by his door. But he beatified a girl for fighting her rapist and dying to save her virginity. He was famous for telling women that they should sacrifice their lives for chastity, but never took the slightest risk to help the Jewish people.

Disgusting and shameful.

[Christopher Cerone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched and well written (if not dense on occasion) book chronicling the decisions or non-decisions of the Pius XII papacy leading up to and during WWII. The author meticulously and convincingly makes the point that the Pope essentially aided and abetted Hitler in Germany and other countries by seeking to protect papal primacy and Vatican sovereignty. The pope, according to the author, was motivated by fear of communism and, at least, subtle anti-semitism. This is a gripping story not fully told until this book, thanks, in large part, to the author’s access to a treasure trove of archived material long kept from public view.

[ExtremeBibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly readable and at the same time infuriating, the author (a practicing Catholic) exposes the not-so-secret alliance between Pope Pius XII and Hitler and the institutional antisemitism that led to that horrific bond. Much of the book recounts Eugenio Pacelli's boyhood and early church career and the various circumstances that led to his ascent to the Papacy. A lot of unpalatable truths are presented in these pages and I'm certain there will be those who will renounce any involvement with the Catholic Church as a result of reading this.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between this book and the recent "In the Closet of the Vatican", the judgement of a rotten, prideful, hypocritical, hubris-filled Roman Catholic Church is made with succinct clarity. At its heart is a man who believed himself to be a saint, and stood by as one of the greatest crimes in human history passed him by without any word spoken against it. After reading this book, the idea that Pius XII could be declared a saint should be sealed in a lead coffin and shot into the depths of space.

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This the 3rd book I have read about the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. And all are consistent in it's moral failings throughout history. This books speaks to one pope's in particular, Pachelli. And his may go down in history as one of the most egregious, if true. The case the author makes is strong and raises serious questions about Pachelli's sainthood. Questions that cannot be ignored.

[Denise DeRocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and enlightening WWII history of a little-known relationship between the Nazis and the head of the Catholic church at that time - explains a lot about Catholic-based anti-Semitism.

[Adam Gossman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these reviews on this of this book are completely stupid and written by people who evidently did not read the book.

This book is worth your time.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 2 out of 5]

OMG very thankful that's over. This book is a detailed history and sticks (mainly) to its topic... so (WTF) went wrong... here's what... the author loves writing about the most obscure people You've never heard of and will never care about and may have had an important influence on world politics But the author never truly makes this case. And while the author does make clear that religions are political organizations and they interact with the other political groups of any type... he doesn't make it clear how (beyond opinion of people) the Church had power over what the Nazis did in the world with or without help from a Pope.

I didn't like this book But I picked it knowing that might happen. You might get a lot out of it. It's up to you to read this or not But don't base your decision on me reading it.

[Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII” by John Cornwell is a fascinating but disturbing book about Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), who reigned from 1939 to 1958 and was the pope during the first nine years of my life. This 1999 book was well-researched (using recently released Vatican documents from that period), and informative. It was a good followup for me to “The Pope and Mussolini” by David Kertzer about Pope Pius XI, his immediate predecessor, which I read in seven months earlier.
What prompted me to read these two books was my longtime interest in World War II and the silence from many (but not all) Protestant and Catholic church leaders in Germany and Italy, and particularly the silence of Pius XII when confronted with Nazi and fascist violence and the widespread killing of Jews.
Cornwell rightly focuses not only on Pacelli’s pontificate but his stint as a Vatican diplomat and Cardinal Secretary of State 1930-1939, where he wielded tremendous power in the foreign affairs of the Vatican.
The Lateran Treaty of 1929 between Pius XI and Mussolini was mainly negotiated by Pius XI, Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, and Pacelli’s brother Francesco. The papacy was allowed to rule over 108.7 acres of land in Rome, Vatican City. But the treaty forced the Catholic Church out of Italian politics and was a de facto recognition and partnership between the Vatican and Mussolini’s fascist government.
Eugenio Pacelli negotiated the Vatican-Nazi Concordat of July 1933, signed just months after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The treaty was much to the advantage of the Third Reich. It mandated the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from political affairs (the Catholic’s large Center Party – the sole remaining democratic party in Germany – dissolved) and forbade the Vatican, German Catholic hierarchy, and church members from criticizing the Nazi government on any issue the Nazis deemed political, and that of course included the extermination of Jews.
To be fair, Protestant churches in Germany also formally accepted Hitler’s regime in March 1933.
Cornwell notes that the Catholic Church in Germany had been strongly opposed to Hitler and the Nazis until the concordat, which muzzled it. “Right up until March 1933, then, German Catholicism, with its 23 million faithful, still comprised an impressive, independent democratic constituency that, together with the Catholic hierarchy, remained steadfast in its condemnation of National Socialism.”
Before and during World War II, the Vatican did not condemn Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 or Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. There was no condemnation of the Holocaust or other repression in Germany, Italy, and across Europe. What public statements the pope made were vague and wishy-washy.
Timidity and fear by Pope Pius XII could perhaps be justified after the German occupation of Rome in 1943 after Mussolini was deposed, when the pope feared a German army takeover of Vatican City. But the damage had already been done years earlier with accommodation by the Catholic Church with fascist governments.
Cornwell’s book has received some criticism, but I don’t think one can argue about his main arguments and his 70 pages of notes and bibliography. Yes, the title is misleading; Pope Pius XII wasn’t under the control of Hitler. I think, however, that Cornwell is correct about the moral lapses of Eugenio Pacelli as Secretary of State and as pope – and the moral lapses of the Catholic Church in general during this period.
The problem was more than Pius XI and Pius XII. Cornwell points out that almost every right-wing dictator of 1920-1970 was raised a Catholic: Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Horthy, Petain, Pavelic, and Tiso. One could add Salazar in Portugal and most of the South American and Central American dictators of the post-World War II era.
Pope Pius XI, Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler were all right-wing reactionaries and were all driven by blind and ferocious anticommunism. They were all autocratic. None of them had sympathy for freedoms of speech, press, and religion, parliamentary democracy, or the welfare of Jews. The two popes certainly held different views overall than Hitler and Mussolini did, but the four shared certain core beliefs that allowed for accommodation among them.
In his preface, Cornwell writes, “Eugenio Pacceli was no monster; his case is far more complex, more tragic than that. The interest in his story depends on a fatal combination of high spiritual aspirations in conflict with soaring ambition for power and control. His is not a portrait of evil but of fatal moral dislocation – a separation of authority from Christian love.”
Cornwell's last sentence in the book said of Pius XII, of whom efforts have been made by the Catholic Church to canonize him, “I am convinced that the cumulative verdict of history shows him to not be a saintly exemplar for future generations, but a deeply flawed human being from whom Catholics, and our relations with other churches, can best profit by expressing sincere regret.”
I highly recommend this book, not only for its portrait of Eugenio Pacelli but the description of the battle within the Catholic Church – not just in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s but later in the 20th century into the 21st century – between those who want in effect an absolute infallible monarch leading the church and those who want power more widely distributed, less authoritarianism, and more freedom of thought.