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The Pope and Mussolini - The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (Hardcover)
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The Pope and Mussolini - The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (Hardcover)
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List price R666
Loot Price R542
Discovery Miles 5 420
You Save R124 (19%)
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This is the compelling story of Pope Pius XI's secret relations
with Benito Mussolini. A ground-breaking work, based on seven years
of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives by US National Book
Award-finalist David Kertzer, it will forever change our
understanding of the Vatican's role in the rise of Fascism in
Europe. Both Pope Pius XI and Mussolini came to power in Rome in
1922. One was scholarly and devout, the other a violent bully. Yet
they also had traits in common. Both had explosive tempers. Both
bristled at the charge of being the patsy of the other. Both
demanded unquestioned obedience from their subordinates, whose
knees literally quaked in fear of provoking their wrath. Both came
to be disillusioned by the other, yet dreaded what would happen if
their alliance were to end. The book unravels for the first time
the key role played between pope and dictator by the shadowy Jesuit
go-between, dubbed Mussolini's Rasputin. It also reveals the
details of the secret agreement worked out by Mussolini with the
pope's personal envoy, offering Vatican support for Italy's
notorious, anti-Semitic 'racial laws'. And dramatic new light is
shed on the controversial figure of Eugenio Pacelli, who (as Pope
Pius XII) would later come to be idolized by some and reviled by
others for his silence during the Holocaust. In his role as Vatican
Secretary of State, Pacelli had to struggle to keep the pope's
explosive temper from leading to a break with both Mussolini and
Nazi Germany, as the Italian dictator increasingly embraced the
German Fuehrer, whom Pius detested. With the recent opening of the
Vatican archives covering Pius XI's papacy, the full story of the
two men's relationship can now be told for the first time. It is an
account that destroys the widely accepted myth of a heroic Church
doing battle with the Fascist regime. On the contrary, as David
Kertzer shows, Mussolini would not have been able to impose his
dictatorship on Italy without the pope's support. In exchange, the
pope expected Mussolini to use his repressive reach to enforce
Catholic morality - and return the Church to a position of power in
Italy.
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