The Pope and Mussolini by David I. Kertzer

In exchange for Vatican support, Mussolini restored many of the privileges the Church had lost and gave in to the pope’s demands that the police enforce Catholic morality. In a challenge to the conventional history of this period, in which a heroic Church does battle with the Fascist regime, Kertzer shows how Pius XI played a crucial role in making Mussolini’s dictatorship possible and keeping him in power. (“We have many interests to protect,” the Pope declared, soon after Mussolini seized control of the government in 1922.) Each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals. Both were prone to sudden fits of temper and were fiercely protective of the prerogatives of their office. They shared a distrust of democracy and a visceral hatred of Communism. Yet Pius XI and “Il Duce” had many things in common. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. In most respects, they could not have been more different.

The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922, and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. This groundbreaking work, based on seven years of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives, including reports from Mussolini’s spies inside the highest levels of the Church, will forever change our understanding of the Vatican’s role in the rise of Fascism in Europe. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XI’s secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLEįrom National Book Award finalist David I.

The Pope and Mussolini by David I. Kertzer