Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII by John Cornwell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
Book Review: He who sups with the devil
Summary: 5 Stars
Pope Pius XII believed that he was the "Pastor Angelicus" (Angelical Shepherd) from the 'prophecy of Malachy' (an Irish monk who supposedly composed a prophetic list of all future popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143 A.D, and ending with the pope who will succeed Benedict XVI). In fact, Pius XII commissioned a documentary (with himself in the starring role) called "Pastor Angelicus" right around the time that he began to receive reliable information about Hitler's 'Final Solution' in 1942.
Was this pope a saint-in-the-making, or was he a narcissistic, authoritarian protector of papal privilege who believed "that there could only be one faith: the faith that is in communion with Rome"?
Even though this book was published in 1999, it is still relevant, still controversial; because it seems very likely that Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) is on the fast track to beatification, and ultimately, canonization. According to the website "insidethevatican.com/newsflash-feb13-05" Pope John Paul II was quoted as saying, "I will not die before I canonize Pope Pius XII."
Of course, John Paul II did die before he could keep his promise (if indeed, the above quotation is accurate), but according to the last chapter in "Hitler's Pope," the man within the Vatican who is chiefly responsible for investigating Pacelli's claim to sainthood is "combatively defensive of his subject, and has published an abrasive attack on Pacelli's critics in the pages of the international weekly 'The Tablet'."
John Cornwell draws upon previously secret Vatican archives to make the case that even well before the Holocaust, Cardinal Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) was instrumental in negotiating a concordat with Hitler that helped sweep the Nazis into power. In effect, the concordat neutralized the political clout of Germany's 23 million Catholics.
Pacelli was not so much enamored of the Nazis as he was opposed to the atheistic Communists. Not once during the war did he denounce the Nazis by name, or specifically condemn their slaughter of the Jews. He also remained silent while the Catholic Croatians were exterminating their Serbian Orthodox Christian neighbors in 1941 and 1942.
This silence is in stark contrast to his support of the Catholic Church's "unrelenting noncooperation in the face of Soviet Communism." When the Soviets invaded Hungary, Pacelli openly encouraged resistance unto death. When he made the Hungarian primate, Mindszenty a cardinal, Pacelli told him, "Among the thirty-two [new cardinals] you will be the first to suffer the martyrdom whose symbol this red color [of the cardinal's hat] is."
Pope Pius XII was an intensely private man whose version of the doctrine of the Mystical Body "deepened his convictions about the papal ideology of power and confirmed his prejudice that non-Catholics were alien to the people of God."
Perhaps 'Pastor Angelicus' was the wrong Pope for the stark decades when Hitler rose to power and ultimately plunged the world into war and the Jews and other minorities into the 'Final Solution.' Pacelli's aspirations to holiness, his serene silence in the face of evil struck this author as ungodly rather than godly. And of course there are those who violently disagree with Cornwell's conclusions.
Sister Margherita Marchione, also known as 'the fighting nun' is an expert on Pius XII, and states that "most historians and fair-minded people now regard "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII" as biased..."
I suggest you read this fascinating book and decide for yourself. I found the author's thesis very learned, powerful, and disturbing.
P.S. Be sure to read the commentary attached to this review, as new documents are emerging that show Pope Pius XII and the Vatican were responsible for saving the lives of many Jews that the Germans would otherwise have deported to labor and extermination camps.
Book Review: The Holy See as skewed by Cornwell
Summary: 1 Stars
After watching the burial of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II I decided to look back upon his distinguished Papacy. I became involved in researching many of his Apostolic Exhortations, Constitutions and Letters. One of particular interest was, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah originating in 1998. In this piece the holy father speaks of the tragedy of the Holocaust and in essence demands all of our remembrance. He wrote that the Church should recall "all those times in history when they departed from the spirit of Christ and His Gospel and, instead of offering the world the witness of a life inspired by the values of faith, indulged in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter witness and scandal." While I agree that there were many of the Catholic faith with an iniquitously close relationship to the Nazi's. However, The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church are by nature institutions unable to command all parishioners or followers. Even the most stirring evocation might reach thousands, but leave some precariously dangling on the fringe, unmoved or unmotivated. In the book The Church Did Not Keep Silent by Jewish Historian, Jeno Levai, he states that Pius PP. XII admitted that everyone including himself could have done more. "If we condemn Pius, then justice would demand condemning everyone else."
Pius PP. XII (Eugenio Pacelli) has been brutally labeled by John Cornwell as "Hitler's Pope." This blanket execratation of a man without the exegetical assistance of facts, is abhorrent regardless of religious affiliation. This is simply the work of those interested in coercing the Catholic Church into following polls rather than steadfastly adhering to doctrinal criterions. David Limbaugh describes this event and other attempts similar to it, as an "anti-Christian Phenomenon." Media outlets, secularists and others have this vested interest in imputing the role of the Catholic Church during this horrendous time in our history. Whatever its origins, these pronouncements do not justify the systematic distortion of historical reality. Peggy Obrecht of the United States Holocaust Museum states in a letter: "...it was the actions of the Protestant Church which yielded up the greater villains ... " To be consistent in my condemnation of nescient finger pointing I find it imperative to disregard some specifics. Ms. Obrecht went on to list examples of particular atrocities committed. While I am not in a position to dispute the validity of such atrocities, I do believe that all religions had coteries guilty of innumerable barbarousness. My contention is these acts are not germane to Catholics or Christians for that matter, simply human nature. The internecine question of responsibility serves only to promote rancor and impel blame. I am quite sure that the great majority of the Protestant faithful acted heroically to preserve human life.
The Israeli consul, Pinchas E. Lapide, in his book, Three Popes and the Jews examines Pius PP. XII and his role during this tenuous time. According to Lapide's research, the Catholic Church, under the direction of Pius PP. XII was instrumental in saving 860,000 Jews from Nazi death camps. According to Lapide, the contention that the Pope could have saved additional lives by speaking out more forcefully is inaccurate. In reality, the camp prisoners discouraged the Pontiff of speaking out on their behalf. A fact corroborated by a passage in the book Pius XII and the Holocaust, where one author, Jonathan Gorsky, interviewed Sister Pasqualina, who supervised the Pope's household during the war years. She claimed that "the Pope had intended to write about Jewish suffering in 1942, but stopped short when he heard about the savage response to the Dutch bishops' endeavors in Holland." As one jurist from the Nuremberg Trials stated on WNBC in New York, February 28, 1964, "Any words of Pius XII, directed against a madman like Hitler, would have brought on an even worse catastrophe... {and} accelerated the massacre of Jews and priests."
One must remember that the Holocaust was also incontestably anti-Christian. It begs to be noted that six million Jews as well as five million others (three million Catholics) died at the hands of the Nazis'. The latter fact conspicuous in its absence from quite a few historical records. In the December 23, 1940 (p. 38) issue of TIME magazine, Albert Einstein expressed, "Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what once I despised I now praise unreservedly."
As early as 1935, as Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli addressed 250,000 pilgrims at Lourdes: "These [Nazi] ideologues are in fact only miserable plagiarizes who dress up ancient error in new tinsel." During this era, Jewish people had been banned from learned professions. As newly elected Pope, Pius PP. XII invited many of these Jewish citizens, literati and working class alike, back into the Vatican and offered emigration assistance. Pius PP. XII then intervened with diplomats from other countries arranging the necessary documentation for this process to come to fruition.
During lent in 1937 Pius PP. XI issued the encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge" (With burning sorrow) with the assistance of German bishops and Cardinal Pacelli (who later became Pius PP. XII). It was smuggled into Germany and was disseminated throughout all Catholic Churches at the same hour during Palm Sunday 1937. Through this, Pius PP. XI told all German followers that no Christian could take part in anti-Semitism.
Early in 1940, Adolf Hitler attempted to prevent the new Pope from maintaining the anti-Nazi posture and condemnation of their Jacobinical furies he had demonstrated before his election. He sent an underling, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to try to convince Pius PP. XII to alter his sentiment. According to author Joseph Lichten,"Von Ribbentrop, granted a formal audience on March 11, 1940, went into a lengthy harangue on the invincibility of the Third Reich, the inevitability of a Nazi victory, and the futility of papal alignment with the enemies of the Führer. Pius XII heard von Ribbentrop out politely and impassively. Then he opened an enormous ledger on his desk and, in his perfect German, began to recite a catalogue of the persecutions inflicted by the Third Reich in Poland, listing the date, place, and precise details of each crime. The audience was terminated; the Pope's position was clearly unshakable."
Pius PP. XII was a diplomat and not a radical ecclesiastic as he has been painted by some others. Preserving the illusion of Vatican neutrality enabled Vatican City to become a refuge for all people. According to Lapide "He also realized how powerless he truly was against Adolf Hitler. Benito Mussolini could easily cut power to Vatican Radio during any of his broadcasts. "According to the 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (v8.01) Pius PP. XII "Wishing to preserve Vatican neutrality, fearing reprisals, and realizing his impotence to stop the Holocaust, Pius nonetheless acted on an individual basis to save many Jews and others with Church ransoms, documents, and asylum." Both the international Red Cross and the World Council of Churches were in consensus that relief efforts for the Jewish people would be more effective if the agencies remained relatively quiet and operated unencumbered by promotion or accolade. In reference to the war years Pinchas Lapide quotes Leon Poliakov in conclusion: "[T]he Church's tireless humanitarian efforts in the face of the Hitler terror with the approval and under the stimulus of the Vatican, can never be forgotten. We do not know what were the exact instructions sent by the Holy See to the churches in the different countries, but the coincidence of effort at the time of the deportations is proof that such steps were taken."
At the time of Pius PP. XII's death in 1958, Israel's Golda Meir, who later became prime minister, telegraphed Rome: "...When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict."
William Rubinstein, author of the book, The Myth of Rescue, similarly maintains that the Church could not realistically have done more to save Jews during the war. To those who say that the Church could have done more, it is time to say, 'had others done as much, more Jews would have been saved." He continued, "Hitler, the Nazis, and their accomplices--and only they--bear full and total responsibility for the Holocaust."
Traitors and sympathizers existed within the Church, and for this we all should feel ashamed. Many others were guilty of the sin of omission and indifference. However, Pius PP. XII did not remain silent and did extend the reach of La Santa Sede, assisting innumerous people living under the tyranny of the Nazi regime and its attempted genocide. The Vatican mobilized for all the oppressed and as a result was successful in hundreds of thousands of lives saved. The World Jewish Congress made a large cash gift to the Vatican in 1945; in the same year, Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem sent a "special blessing" to the Pope "for his lifesaving efforts on behalf of the Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy." Could 860,000 Jewish lives have been saved through impassivity? When Pius PP. XII died, open letters appeared in the Israeli press suggesting that 860,000 trees be planted in a Pope Pius XII Memorial forest in the hills of Judea. A fitting tribute to a man who planted the seeds of tolerance, compassion, and strength.
Book Review: How can anyone give this book 5 stars?
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm shocked to see a review of this book, dated April 21, 2005, which gives this book five stars. This book has been pretty thoroughly refuted by the genuine scholarship which followed its publication -- so much so that even the author, Mr. Cornwell, has realized his allegations are unfounded. In an interview in The Economist in December 2004, Mr. Cornwell acknowlegded that his work lacked balance. "I would now argue," Cornwell said, "in the light of the debates and evidence following `Hitler's Pope', that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by the Germans."
If the author of this work now questions its validity, how in good conscience can anyone tell you this book makes a convincing case?
Book Review: A brutally honest at a pope who should not be made a saint
Summary: 5 Stars
John Cornwell is a one-man industry in church-criticism. And God bless him. Love him or hate him, he makes the strongest case for the weakness of a centralized church hierarchical of anyone I have ever read.
In "Hitler's Pope," Cornwell lays out the case that Eugenio Pacelli, later to become Pope Pius XII, was instrumental in both the rise of Italian fascism and the coddling of Nazi Germany both before and during World War II. Cornwell describes Pacelli as a rather delicate youth, pious, devoted to a life of prayer, and a bit of a cosseted mama's boy. Rising through church ranks, enamored of the perquisites of church office, he became the Vatican Secretary of State for Pope Pius X. In that position, he busied himself brokering concordats with various European governments. What's damning about this activity is that Pacelli, as representative of a centralized head of state, preferred to deal with other strong centralized heads of state. That some of these - Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Salazar- were autocratic or totalitarian, was of little issue. Strong leaders could be counted on to enforce concordats in ways that democrats and pluralists could not. But Cornwell goes further to detail Pacelli's gutting of the Italian People's Party and the German Central Party, both of which were the only credible obstacles to Fascist and Nazi rule. By stripping moderate groups of papal support, Pacelli paved the way for a war that ravaged Europe in the 1940s.
Cornwell's case for Pius XII's "silence" in the face of Nazi terror was easily made. Despite his dislike of Nazism, Pius XII said nothing as Rome's Jews were deported from under the very gaze of St. Peter's. This silence was deafening in comparison to his continued vociferousness toward Communism - even toard those who had liberated Italy during the war. Pacelli was as blind to terror and tyranny from the right as he was hypersensitive to the same style of government from the left. Yet both right and left (the Nazi in particular) were antagonistic to the Church. Even church-friendly governments that left the churches open entangled the Church in secular rule that was murderous and antithetical to the tenets of Christianity.
I criticize Cornwell only for his unrelievedly negative tone and judgements. There is practically nothing that Pacelli said or did that Cornwell can't see as sinister. On the other hand, his book is a welcome anodyne to the glowing and fallacious encomiums generated by Pacelli's supporters, which downplay or deny Pacelli's unintended assistance to the Nazi cause.
Take this book with a grain of salt, if you must, but take it seriously. It is a straightforward and right-headed exposition of the double weaknesses in Roman Catholicism leaders - their love affair with autocrats (i.e., their distrust of people's movements) and their determined attempts to lie about it to others and to themselves. These weaknesses may yet bring the Church to ruin.
Book Review: Insidious
Summary: 1 Stars
An insidious book with an insidious title. Pius XII could do no more to stop the Holocaust than John Paul II could do to stop terrorism. Now, what was Pius XII to do, take a band of bishops and cardinals armed with staffs to the doors of Nazi Germany in protest? Here is an idea; lets lay the blame on Hitler and the Nazis. However, it would not have served the purpose of this book, which is to bash Catholicism. I certainly don't think Pius XII is perfect, but aligning him with Hitler and the Nazis is pure evil on the part of Cornwell. A useful apologetic against this drivel would be Mit Brennender Sorge given by Pius XI, and written with the assistance of Pius XII, in 1937. Another useful apologetic would be Summi Pontificatus given by Pius XII in 1939. Dear God, Hitler wouldn't listen. Could you believe that? Hitler being the psychopath that he was may very well have gone out and murdered more Jews and Christians and others if Pius XII had spoken more forcefully. Considering the circumstances, Pius XII did about as much as he could without endangering others, and he certainly did more than almost anyone else. Others that did significant good had to fight against the Nazis with weapons. Pius XII didn't have an army.
Other useful and factual exhibits refuting Cromwell's slanderous lies:
Exhibit - NY Times editorial from December 25, 1941 (along with several other NY Times editorials from WWII): "The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas...In calling for a 'real new order' based on 'liberty, justice and love,' to be attained only by a 'return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power, the pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement between belligerents 'whose reciprocal war aims and programs seem to be irreconcilable,' he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace."
Exhibit - From Albrecht von Kessel (1963), German Embassy official to the Holy See: "We were convinced that a fiery protest by Pius XII against the persecution of the Jews ... would certainly not have saved the life of a single Jew. Hitler, like a trapped beast, would react to any menace that he felt directed at him, with cruel violence."
Exhibit - From Das Reich (on Pius XI's death): "Pius XI was a half-Jew, for his mother was a Dutch Jewess; but Cardinal Pacelli is a full Jew."
Exhibit - Albert Einstein from Time, December 23, 1940: "Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the case of truth; but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess, that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."
Exhibit - From the book Three Popes and the Jews (1967), by Israeli diplomat Pinchas E. Lapide: Pope Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands."
Exhibit - Rabbi Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, from 1945: "The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion, which form the foundation of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world."
The cold harsh reality is that the only thing that could stop Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust was cold hard steel.
As far as polemics go, Cornwell owes an apology.