Hitler, the War, and the Pope

by Ronald J. Rychlak

Book Overview

Perhaps no modern-day leader of the Church has sparked as much controversy as Pope Pius XII, the Bishop of Rome during World War II.Some claim that he was indifferent to Nazi atrocities and even accuse him of being an anti-Semite Nazi sympathizer.Others call him a lonely voice of sanity in an insane world and consider him one of the true saints of the modern world.Discover the truth in Hitler, the War, and the Pope.In this convincing refutation of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879732172
• ISBN13: 9780879732172
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 1.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

New book corrects injustice done to Pope Pius XII

Every once in awhile an extraordinary book appears and this is one of them. Rychlak, who is associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, has written a definitive popular history of the papacy of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era. His work is an honest portrait of a decent man who vehemently opposed Adolf Hitler and his minions with courage and heroism.Rychlak agrees that a great injustice has been done in our time to Pius XII by recent books which have attacked his character and his actions. It is significant that many of these books are authored by Catholics or by former Catholics-none by Jews. Rychlak, as an expert trial lawyer, has skillfully collected a massive body of evidence to vindicate the memory of Pius XII, leaving the reader free to make final judgment upon his character and integrety.Rychlak points out that the real quarrel of "disaffected Catholics" is with the "Catholic theological principle of papal authority in matters of faith and morals." In the epilogue, he critiques a book written by a former Catholic, John Cornwell, who gave it the vile title of "Hitler's Pope," a book which spreads half-truths and insinuations that tarnish Pius XII's name and record.Cornwell uses dubious material, like a play called "The Deputy" (1963), to portray the pope as "silent" in the face of the Holocaust; as an anti-Semite, and as a Nazi sympathizer. In effect,Cornwell's anti-Catholic bigotry becomes part of a larger effort to weaken the moral and cultural influence of the Catholic Church by undermining the credibility of the papacy. In the afterward, professor Robert P. George explains that the Catholic Church with its papacy is "the single most potent force on the side of traditional morality in cultural conflicts with Communism, Nazism, radical individualism and other major secular ideologies." Rychlak buries the lies, the half-truths, and the insinuations against Pius XII with an avalanche of facts. He demonstrates that Pius XII's reputation deserves to be restored as it was during the war when The New York Times -more than once- praised him as "a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent"; as it was after the war when the Grand Rabbi of Jerusalem, Isaac Herzog, sent the pope a special blessing for "his life-saving efforts on behalf of the Jews"; and as it was at his death in 1958 when Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel,observed that "during the 10 years of Nazi terror, when the Jewish people went through the horrors of martyrdom, the pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims."Rychlak's book should be read by all--most especially by Catholics and Jews--for the wealth of information that is presented so well. He points out, for example, how a photograph on the jacket cover of "Hitler's Pope" leads people to believe that Pope Pius XII was being saluted by Nazi soldiers while leaving a building. Actually, the photograph was ta

Brilliant case

The author-lawyer provides a superb case that illustrates the heroic work of Pius XII to save Jews. The documentation, research, and commentary are flawless. But even more impressive is the framework the author develops to explain the limits within which Pius XII and his diplomatic allies had to wage their campaign to oppose Nazism and to rescue the victims of this horror. The book also provides a magnificent rebuttal to John Cornwell's assault on Pius XII. He shows the distortions, malicious editing, and grave omissions which make the Cornwell book an embarrassment.