Rating: 
Summary: Historical Revisionism
Review: John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope" is a convincingly written story of the papacy of Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII) during WWII, a period when the Vatican was completely surrounded by the capital of Mussolini's fascist Rome. Unfortunately the word "story" has profound meaning here, and no matter how convincing a historical statement is, it has no meaning if untrue, and the lies in this book are plentiful and outrageous. The very title (an unbelievable insult), and the accompanying cover photo of Pacelli walking past a German guard at attention (a lie of visual implication) give a glimpse of the literary chicanery lurking between the covers of this book. The offensiveness of the title speaks for itself - and contrary to what the author would have you believe, the photo was taken when Pacelli was the papal nuncio in Germany, BEFORE Hitler came to power. The soldier in the familiar "Nazi-style" helmet would stand at attention for the entrance and exit of all dignitaries. The author states in no uncertain terms that Pacelli was a villainous scoundrel, who not only didn't do or say anything to help the Jews, but actually collaborated with the Nazis. Nowhere does he tell of this Pope's heroic, behind-the-scenes rescue of thousands of Jews from the nazis. And nowhere does he answer the two definitive questions begging for an answer, "What SHOULD the Pope have done?" and "What GOOD would it have done?" The author seems to imply that he could have called out the Swiss Guard, defeated both Mussolini and Hitler, and saved all the Jews, while publicly denouncing evil in the world. If you, good reader, are interested in fiction, by all means read this book. But if you think this is factual, you're being fooled by a very successful revisionist of history and the truth.
Rating:
Summary: How not to write history!
Review: Ever since the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth published his play "Der Stellvertreter", pope Pius XII has been criticised because of his alleged silence over the Holocaust. However, historical enquiry time and again showed there is no evidence at all for this accusation. Pius XII repeatedly condemned national socialism in principle, as well as the genocide of the jewish people, be it that he, admittedly, used the not very outspoken language of international diplomacy; moreover, he was instrumental in the help catholics all over Europe tried to give to persecuted jews. - To avoid misunderstandings: of course, alas, there were catholics involved in persecution of the jewish people. On the other hand, there were catholics who tried to rescue jews, and they were the ones who got full support from the pope.-
In his book, Cornwell repeats all kinds of accusations against the pope that were made before, and most of them were already proven wrong before Cornwell published his book. Apparently, he does not know the relevant historical literature on the subject. He goes even further, and accuses Pius XII of anti-semitism; no one ever did this before, most likely because there is no evidence to support such an accusation. Cornwell does not provide this evidence either. Moreover, he choses to ignore vital evidence when he discusses other aspects of the policy of the Vatican during the Second World War; the evidence he does use is quoted very selectively - only if it confirms his own prejudices. In short, this book is a fine example of how not to write history.
In his last chapter, Cornwell gives away the reasons for this approach. Apparently, he disagrees with the policy of the current pope, and he tries to use the history of the church in his attack on John Paul II. However, if Cornwell disagrees with the current pope, he should adress the policy of this pope directly, and not through a dishonest distortion of history.
Rating: 
Summary: Catholics Receive Vindication
Review: This book is very dry reading even for a son of two Holocaust survivors.
However, two things need to be mentioned: First, this book doesn't draw a clear line between helping Hitler and not trying hard enough to oppose Hitler. The author didn't prove that Pius intended to further the annihilation of Jews.
Second, the book absolutly proves a large number of Catholic clergy in high positions within Germany tried very hard to prevent Hitler's rise to power.
Rating:
Summary: Was Pius XII Influenced by His Anti-Semitic Surroundings?
Review: John Cornwell, a practicing Roman Catholic, has performed a noble service by refocusing attention upon Pope Pius XII. Cornwell realizes that his Catholic faith does not rise or fall upon the alleged misdeeds of any single Church leader. Catholicism claims to be a refuge for sinners, and it has had many good and bad popes in the past two centuries. The existence of sinful Catholic individuals does not in anyway challenge the validity of the Catholic Faith. Cornwell firmly establishes that Pope Pius XII was a racial bigot. Even Pius' fervent supporter, the Jesuit priest, Peter Gumpel conceded this fact to journalist, Ed Bradley, on the TV program, 60 Minutes. Fr. Gumpel acknowledged that at the very end of World War II, the Pope requested that the American military authorities not permit Afro-American soldiers to enter Rome. Pope Pius XII was concerned that Italian women might be raped by these non-white ground troops. Since this outrageous event is undisputedly true, why is it so difficult to believe that Pope Pius XII also at least subconsciously harbored deep seated indignation towards the Jews? After all, in traditional Catholic teaching, the Jews were perceived as Christ killers. Also, incessantly conspiracy theories abounded claiming that Jews plotted the French Revolution, and killed Gentile children during their religious ceremonies. The consensus view point during Pius XII's early school years was that these "hard-hearted people" supposedly blinded to the obvious truths of Catholicism, deserved every punishment visited upon their heads. The concept that personal salvation outside of the Catholic Church was impossible dominated the theology of the time. This dogmatic precept was held true for Muslims, non-Catholic Christians, and especially the progeny of those charged with crucifying the Son of God, the Jews. The racist act concerning the American black soldiers is apparently the only recorded incident of the Pope's outright bigotry. The evidence even suggests that Pius XII was never overtly anti-Semitic. There are indeed hints, but admittedly no absolute proof. The question, however, legitimately remains: would Pius XII have risked more against the Nazis if he truly valued the lives of Jews equally with that of members of his own faith? I adamantly agree with the quoted historian, J.P. Stern, that had the churches "opposed the killing and the persecution of the Jews, as they opposed the (earlier) killing of the congenitally insane and the sick, there would have been no Final Solution." John Cornwell has written a book that is too close to the time period of the Nazi horror. Many of the participants of this tragedy are still alive. It will probably take another fifty years for many Catholics to concede that pervasive deep seated anti-Semitism inhibited many of its leaders from challenging the Nazi regime during that awful time.
Rating: 
Summary: Devastating account of the evils of pro-Nazism
Review: This remarkable and deeply researched book studies the career of Eugenio Pacelli who, as Pius XII, was Pope from 1939 to 1958. Cornwell shows how Pius always took a dogmatic approach to matters spiritual, an autocratic approach to matters ecclesiastical and a reactionary approach to matters temporal. In 1924, Pius XI (1922-39) forbade the Catholic Popular Party to work with the Socialist Party against Mussolini, saying it would be cooperating with evil. Later Pius dissolved the Catholic Popular Party and encouraged priests to support the Fascists. In 1930 he pressed Germany's Catholic Centre Party to shun the Social Democratic Party and to court Hitler. Pacelli was Cardinal Secretary of State in the Vatican from 1930 to 1934, second only to the Pope. He signed a concordat with Hitler in 1933, protecting the Catholic Church's power in exchange for its 'non-intervention' in politics. Hitler said, "The concordat gave Germany an opportunity and created a sense of trust that was particularly significant in the developing struggle against international Jewry." It "imposed a moral duty on Catholics to obey the Nazi rulers." Cornwell writes, "the perception of Papal endorsement of Nazism, in Germany and abroad, helped seal the fate of Europe." (Compare the Church's "antagonistic confrontation with Communism both in Italy and beyond the Iron Curtain.") The concordat led the Catholic Centre Party, the last remaining democratic party in Germany, to back the 1933 Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial powers, and to disband itself voluntarily in 1938. During the war, the Pope muttered only the most vague and ambiguous remarks about the Nazis' atrocities, the killing of millions of Soviet prisoners of war, the killing of six million Jews. He also kept discreetly silent about the Croat atrocities under Ante Pavelic. On 3 October 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified Archbishop Stepinac who had called on the faithful to collaborate with Pavelic. This Pope also seeks to make a saint of Pius XII. He follows Pius' traditions of dogmatism, autocracy and reaction. He imposes reactionary bishops wherever he can: three quarters of the Catholic bishops in Britain and the USA are his appointees.
Rating:
Summary: This book does not let facts interfere with a good story!
Review: If you like to read books that spread lies then this one is for you. The author is not concerned with facts and just wants to make a buck by spreading lies. I wish I could give this book negative stars! Oh well, Mr. Cornwell will have to face Jesus and account for his lies. In this book the statements by the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church are constantly taken out of context. Based on this as a guidline for Mr. Cornwell's bias - and he is bias in all his books - he could easily write a book proving that Hitler was saving the Jews from the Americans and the other Allies who sought to exterminate them in WWII. It is rare to see an author who can manipulate facts and misquote whith such ease. For the truth just read other books on the subject or look up the information from the sources he listed and 'see' the truth he overlooked on purpose. I hope you pray for Mr. Cornwell, I will.
Rating:
Summary: How not to write history!
Review: Ever since the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth published his play "Der Stellvertreter", pope Pius XII has been criticised because of his alleged silence over the Holocaust. However, historical enquiry time and again showed there is no evidence at all for this accusation. Pius XII repeatedly condemned national socialism in principle, as well as the genocide of the jewish people, be it that he, admittedly, used the not very outspoken language of international diplomacy; moreover, he was instrumental in the help catholics all over Europe tried to give to persecuted jews. - To avoid misunderstandings: of course, alas, there were catholics involved in persecution of the jewish people. On the other hand, there were catholics who tried to rescue jews, and they were the ones who got full support from the pope.-
In his book, Cornwell repeats all kinds of accusations against the pope that were made before, and most of them were already proven wrong before Cornwell published his book. Apparently, he does not know the relevant historical literature on the subject. He goes even further, and accuses Pius XII of anti-semitism; no one ever did this before, most likely because there is no evidence to support such an accusation. Cornwell does not provide this evidence either. Moreover, he choses to ignore vital evidence when he discusses other aspects of the policy of the Vatican during the Second World War; the evidence he does use is quoted very selectively - only if it confirms his own prejudices. In short, this book is a fine example of how not to write history.
In his last chapter, Cornwell gives away the reasons for this approach. Apparently, he disagrees with the policy of the current pope, and he tries to use the history of the church in his attack on John Paul II. However, if Cornwell disagrees with the current pope, he should adress the policy of this pope directly, and not through a dishonest distortion of history.
Rating:
Summary: For those who like history.
Review: This book is quite clear on the real history of Pius XII, I believe the name in english is not quite fair, the translation to spanish ends up meaning "the true history of Pius XII" which would do more justice to the book. The book has nothing of a prejudice, in fact the author begins explaining that his belief was that he would redeem the historical paper of Pius XII, yet he found that the church itself had been infected by some of the moral relativism that was profetized by Nietzsche, initiated by Einstein's theory, and gave rise to the despotic regimes of the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Against papal authoritarianism, but not anti-Catholic
Review: This is damning indictment of Pacelli (Pius XII), and the authoritarian aspects of the Papacy, but do not think this is book is anti-Catholic. Cornwell's thesis is that the Catholic laity and some Catholic bishops could have, and in some cases did, prevented Nazi crimes. Unfortunately, the Papacy, specifically Pacelli, deliberately traded away the social and political influence lay Catholicism had in return for being allowed to have absolute religuous control. The problem was they were dealing with Hitler, who then had absolute control over the fates of all Germans, and later much of Europe. Cornwell places Pacelli's life and actions in context of the last 150 years or so of Papal history, i.e. increasing Papal control over the Catholic church, disdain and distrust of secularism and democracy. I would like to read Sanchez's book (referred to in another of the reviews), but I can not see how it can redeem Pacelli. Cornwell's work is convincing because it shows Pacelli/Pius XII's deals with the Nazis as being typical of all the deals he struck with foreign governments over his entire career - all aimed at increasing Papal power over the Church, while oblivious and uncaring about the negative local social and political implications he was warned of. He shows that the documentation demonstrating Pius's unwillingness to speak out on behalf of the Jews is too extensive, too widespread, to be dismissed. A Pope who is unwilling to condemn atrocities by the Nazis and the Croatians, but is quick to condemn Communists and who suggests that the Jews brought persecution on themselves. Perhaps the most important aspect of Cornwell's book is to demolish the claim that (a) the Pope speaking out against the Nazis would have weakened Church efforts to save Jews, or lead to direct persecution of Catholics, or (b) the Pope was indecisive. I was suprised to see that many of the claimed acts owhere the Church did save Jews from the concentration camps where not due to Pius XII (he ignored all such pleas) but were individual actions by priests principled enough to act on their conscience. Cornwell does not make Pius XII into a monster, although it does show him to be a deeply flawed, self-absorbed, product of his times and a direct successor in attitude to the Popes of the late 19th and early 20th century. Furthermore, I would say this book actually is actually pro-Catholic - Cornwell strongly believes Catholics, if not ham-strung by Pacelli, could have stood up to Hitler in those crucial pre-war years. Many of the reviewers on Amazon are automatically reacting to an attack on one ex-leader of the Church as an attack on the entire Church, which is absurd. This book is real current importance, given renewed awareness of Priest child abuse cases, and the fact that the Church hierarchy (ultimately controlled directly by Papal appointment, thanks to Pacelli/Pius XII's work on Canon law and strengthening Vatican control over the Church) routinely covered up for the abusers. Increased local lay control over the Church, and over who appointment Bishops, looks like an increasingly important issue. The gross moral failures of absolutist Papal authoritarianism, as exemplified by Pius XII, are a warning to Catholics everywhere to become more involved in their Church or to lose it to career bureaucrats.
Rating:
Summary: Why are no favorable books or articles considered?
Review: Cornwell's book is a slick effort to defame a Pope who risked everything to hide Jews in Roman monasteries and actually saved thousands.
As a guest of the trappist monastary Tre Fontane (Easter 1955)I noticed an obilisk in one of the courtyards. It was covered with Jewish names. The monk in charge of the guests explained to me that the stucture was a gift sent by Jews who had been hidden in the monastary during W.W.II and so escaped deportation to concentration camps.
Sr. M. Marchione's books present similar evidence in favor of Pius XII. Why do the "negative" writers never consider it?
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