Church of spies : the Pope's secret war against Hitler / Mark Riebling.
Publication details: Brunswick, Victoria : Scribe Publications, 2015.Description: viii, 375 pages ; 24 cmISBN:- 9781925106862
- Pope's secret war against Hitler
- Pius, Pope XII, 1876-1958
- Pius, Pope XII, 1876-1958 -- Political and social views
- Pius, Pope XII, 1876-1958
- Catholic Church -- Political activity
- Catholic Church -- Foreign relations -- Germany
- Anti-Nazi movement -- Vatican City
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church
- Espionage -- Vatican City
- Intelligence service -- Vatican City
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Vatican City
- Espionage -- Vatican City -- History
- Intelligence service -- Vatican City -- History
- Vatican City -- Strategic aspects
- Vatican City -- History
- Germany -- Foreign relations -- Catholic Church
- 940.532445634 23
- BX1378.R54
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Non-Fiction | 940.532 RIE | Available | 060067 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Born Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII is perhaps the most vilified and detested Pope in modern history. Pius XII and the Vatican are thought to have appeased Hitler and betrayed international Jewry by staying silent during the Holocaust. The accusation has fundamentally damaged the Catholic Churchs moral standing, and earned Pius XII the nickname Hitlers Pope. But this narrative of a spiritual leader who stumbled in the worlds greatest hour of need, of a man determined to look the other way is not the complete story. In Church of Spies, intelligence expert Mark Riebling uses a wealth of recently uncovered documents to redraw the conventional image of the wartime Pope, who, in his account, was not Hitlers lackey, but an active anti-Nazi spymaster. Using documents recently released by the Vatican Secret Archives and the British Foreign Office, Riebling shows that the Churchs wartime campaign against Hitler was far more extensive than ever thought and that many actions were intended to undermine the Nazi regime, and were approved by Pius XII himself. In the end, Pius XII was neither a righteous gentile nor Hitler's Pope. He was a politician, at a time when the world needed a prophet.