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Summary: A Great Synthesis of Substantial Documentation
Review: This book does a wonderful job in presenting what was going on in the Vatican at the time of Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII. He mentions that Pius wanted to "serve souls," however we then see that he gets caught up in the political diplomacy of the Vatican, as the Vatican begins to look more and more like a political war room with high-placed officials making visits to the Pope. There is substantial documentation to prove Cornwell's thesis that Pope Pius XII was the perfect Pope for Hitler during World War II. Pius was far from a supporter of Hitler, but we see how Pius felt himself in a position that he could not speak out against the Nazis. We also see his stubborn attitude in not speaking out and possibly anti-Jewish feelings--presented from Pius' own letters.This book just makes you wonder about what would have happened if the Vatican had spoken out and denounced Nazism. It was frustrating to read about instances where the Pope had every reason to speak out and yet held his silence. For instance, when the Nazis took the Roman Jews out of the Roman Ghetto, you just wanted to yell and ask "Why not speak out?". And as we see all the chances to strongly speak out pass by without any papal action, we then see what the real legacy of Pope Pius XII will be--SILENCE. I certainly hope that we have learned from past errors and that such silence would never be the case in today's world and in today's Church.
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Summary: HORRIBLE BOOK
Review: This is the worse book ever written and full of lies.
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Summary: Anti-Catholic Propaganda
Review: What was John Cornwell after when he wrote this book? Teaching us history? Pleading a case? Unveiling a conspiracy? Or was he simply trying to get us to resent the Catholic Church as he does? Obviously, the subject of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII and WWII wasn't properly researched, and bred forth from nothing but a life-long resentment of the Roman Catholic faith. Bah, I'm surprised this piece of junk is even still on the shelves.
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Summary: Worse Book Of The Year
Review: This book is terrible, his research is so fabricated that it is almost unreal. It is amazing that a person like this author who apparently has a giant resentment going against the Catholic Church can even get published.
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Summary: Disturbing Book about an Important Subject
Review: Cornwell's book deserved to be written and read by all. It is a well documented and very readable book about a very controversial subject. While it is easy to look at the book as anti-Catholic, it is not. It is a history of individuals, who happenend to be the leaders of a church, who believed that the health and strength of the church was more important than the lives of nonbelievers. While this can be understandable conduct for most, it is difficult to understand for those who are supposed to be the Vicar of Christ on Earth. If the book was limited to this subject, it would have been worthy enough. However, the strident position of the church that it had done nothing wrong is perhaps of more interest. That the church defended the treaty with the Third Reich that prohibited the Catholic Center party from continuing in the political field is undefendable. It removed the last political barrier to Hitler's rise to power and facilitated the Nazi siezure of power. Cormwell chronicles the above and deals deftly with the subject. An important read for those who wish to learn the history of the rise of Hitler and the limitation of established religions response to evil.
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Summary: Religion & Hitler---Maximum Discussion Value
Review: John Cornwell is an award-winning journalist and author with a lifelong interest in Vatican affairs. From 1990 to 1996 he was a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he now directs the Science and Human Dimension Project. He is a regular contributor to the Sunday Times of London, and to many religious affairs publications around the world. He is a practicing Roman Catholic and author of five non-fiction books. In this scathing view by Cornwell , the author draws upon the very conclusions reasoning why, Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, has long been the subject of controversy over his failure to speak out against Hitler's Final Solution. In Hitler's Pope, John Cornwell shows that, even well before the Holocaust, Pope Pius XII was instrumental in negotiating an accord that helped the Nazis rise to unhindered power--and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe. Drawing upon secret Vatican and Jesuit archives to which he had exclusive access, Cornwell tells the full, tragic story of how narcissism, longstanding personal antipathy for the Jews, and political and spiritual ambition combined to make Pius the most dangerous churchman in history. A firm and final indictment of Pius XII's papacy, (according to the author) Hitler's Pope is also a searing exploration of its lingering consequences for the Catholic church today. A valued read for needed, sometimes heated discussions.
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Summary: Fascinating information, but not really a good book
Review: I frequently read books on historical matters to educate and entertain myself simultaneously. While this book is incredibly well researched, it's poorly organized. It completely fails as an historical narrative. There are frequent long digressions on characters of minor importance, the author jumps forward and backward in time for no apparent reason, and there is much repetition. The whole thing needs to be rewritten from start to finish. If you are hoping to be diverted as well as educated, you may be very disappointed.
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Summary: Hitler's Pope: a review
Review: This is an absorping book that was difficult to put down. I'm looking forward to the sequel,
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Summary: Stick to the subject.
Review: Although I've been a Catholic all my life, I learned a great deal from this book, especially about the World War II years. Basically, I believe the information to be true. Having said this, there is no way any person can possibly know for a fact exactly what is going on in another person's mind. The author loses some of his credibility towards the end of the book when he veers from the main subject. He brings up many liberal "Catholics", such as Danial Berrigan, Father Hans Kung, and Charles Curran, as well as single-agenda groups within the church whose goals are in direct contrast to the tenets of the Catholic Church. If these people didn't agree with Church teachings, they should have joined another church.
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Summary: An eye opener
Review: Read it and judge for yourself because many reviewers are prejudiced on account of their church affiliation and love for the current pope. Papacy has filled many of the darkest pages in the history of humanity. This, dark as it is, isn't even one of them. In the era of political correctness, when even mass extermination of people committed by Dominican friars under the auspicies of the Church's inquisition are conveniently omitted or justified by many historians, J. Cornwell should be commended for his courage.
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