The Pope and Mussolini: the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe

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Kertzer, David I., 1948-

Kertzer, David I.

Southeast Regional

Adult Non-Fiction

Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction

Analyzes the relationship between Pius XI and the notorious Italian dictator, tracing how after coming into power in the same year they forged covert ties to one another to consolidate power and pursue political goals. "The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922 and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pius XI and 'Il Duce' had many things in common. They shared a distrust of democracy and a visceral hatred of Communism. Both were prone to sudden fits of temper and were fiercely protective of the prerogatives of their office. ('We have many interests to protect,' the Pope declared, soon after Mussolini seized control of the government in 1922.) Each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals. In a challenge to the conventional history of this period, in which a heroic Church does battle with the Fascist regime, Kertzer shows how Pius XI played a crucial role in making Mussolini's dictatorship possible and keeping him in power. In exchange for Vatican support, Mussolini restored many of the privileges the Church had lost and gave in to the pope's demands that the police enforce Catholic morality. Yet in the last years of his life--as the Italian dictator grew ever closer to Hitler--the pontiff's faith in this treacherous bargain started to waver. With his health failing, he began to lash out at the Duce and threatened to denounce Mussolini's anti-Semitic racial laws before it was too late. Horrified by the threat to the Church-Fascist alliance, the Vatican's inner circle, including the future Pope Pius XII, struggled to restrain the headstrong pope from destroying a partnership that had served both the Church and the dictator for many years. The Pope and Mussolini brims with memorable portraits of the men who helped enable the reign of Fascism in Italy: Father Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Pius's personal emissary to the dictator, a wily anti-Semite known as Mussolini's Rasputin; Victor Emmanuel III, the king of Italy, an object of widespread derision who lacked the stature--literally and figuratively--to stand up to the domineering Duce; and Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, whose political skills and ambition made him Mussolini's most powerful ally inside the Vatican, and positioned him to succeed the pontiff as the controversial Pius XII, whose actions during World War II would be subject for debate for decades to come."--book jacket.

Book

Books

c969b003-737f-5b75-80e9-bfa516d0d1a5

9780679645535
9780812983678
9780812993462

2025-07-05T09:12:41.324Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

282 KERTZ

Wake County Public Libraries

Morrisville Community
Southeast Regional

9780812993462

2014

Random House

grouped_work

Fascism and the Catholic Church
Fascism and the Catholic Church -- Italy
Italy
Mussolini, Benito, -- 1883-1945
Pius -- XI, -- Papst, -- 1857-1939
Pius -- XI, -- Pope, -- 1857-1939

The Pope and Mussolini : the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe

The Pope and Mussolini : the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe / David I. Kertzer

The Pope and Mussolini

the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe

Fascism and the Catholic Church
Mussolini, Benito
Pius