A look into the person who became Pius XII...

...Praise for Hitler’s Pope “A devastating indictment of Pius as guilty of moral treachery so grave that it defames his papacy and should deny his elevation to sainthood. . . . Cornwell, a Cambridge University scholar and prominent British journalist, gives us an account that is unsparing, though temperate and largely dispassionate. He has fresh sources, including the records of Archbishop Pacelli during his long tenure from 1917 to 1929 as Pope Pius XI’s ambassador to Germany; correspondence from the British envoy to the Vatican; and key Jesuit archives.”

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“As Cornwell brilliantly demonstrates, Pius XII brought the authoritarianism and the centralization of his predecessors to their most extreme stage . . . Nowadays we may not know what a saint should be, but we do know what a saint should not be—a man of narrow spirit and heart, a man who could not find at the very least a ‘candid word’ when millions of human beings from all corners of Europe, some of them from under his own windows, were led to their systematic extermination.”

—Saul Friedlander, Los Angeles Times

“Scathing . . . It illuminates the previously neglected episodes in the life of this prospective saint, and it alerts us to flaws in the received version.”

—Time

“A groundbreaking narrative . . . it is hard to imagine a more timely book, in light of Pope John Paul II’s reaching out to the Jewish community . . . The author exposes a moral myopia in Pacelli that permeated his blundering diplomacy with Hitler . . . The chapter on the roundup and deportation of the Jews of Rome is particularly heart-rending.”

—Jason Berry, Chicago Tribune

“Hitler’s Pope reads like a thriller as it takes us through the high-powered negotiations and international crises from an unusual perspective . . . Given the campaign to beatify Pius XII, this meticulous, persuasive and impassioned book is disturbing in its presentation of a profoundly flawed man obsessed with absolute papal authority no matter what the consequences for others.”

—Detroit Free Press

“[Writing] with academic excellence and literary clarity, Cornwell does more than provide evidence of how Pius cooperated with Hitler. He reveals the internal political machinations of one of the most powerful religious organizations on the planet, as well as depicting Hitler’s ‘brilliance’ in understanding the dynamics of power.”

—Jewish Herald Voice

“A devastating refutation of the claim that this Pope’s diplomacy can in any way be characterized as wisdom. Instead of a portrait of a man worthy of sainthood, Cornwell lays out the story of a narcissistic, power-hungry manipulator who was prepared to lie, to appease, and to collaborate in order to accomplish his ecclesiastical purpose—which was not to save lives or even to protect the Catholic Church but, more narrowly, to protect and advance the power of the papacy.”

—James Carroll, Atlantic Monthly

“A brilliant and serious work of major historical weight. It is certain to cause shock and outrage, rationalization and denial.”

—New York Post

“Scathing . . . Is the indictment persuasive? Sadly, it is, coming not in the form of a court record but rather as a skilled biography. . . . The book’s middle chapters are a superb lesson in Catholic Church politics . . . Pacelli’s subsequent election as pope and the disastrous aftermath for European Jews are thoroughly documented and smoothly written. As Catholic and Jewish leaders work to build better understanding, knowledge about how and why Pope Pius XII acted as he did may ease their dialogue.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“Hitler’s Pope accurately reflects the decline, inside and outside the Catholic Church, of the reputation of Eugenio Pacelli . . . Cornwell’s arguments, his detailed grasp of Roman Catholic history and politics and his lucid prose will persuade many readers of the merits of his indictment of Pius XII.”
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/part-1-hitlers-popethe-pacellishidden.html