Overview

In June 1938, John LaFarge, an unassuming American Jesuit priest and scholar, was summoned to a private audience with Pope Pius XI. Inspired by LaFarge’s book, Interracial Justice, which argued that “racialism and nationalism were fundamentally the same,” the pope enlisted the priest to pen a papal encyclical—a declaration of the Catholic Church’s official view—condemning Nazism and anti-Semitism. A profoundly moral and devout man, Pius XI hoped that this official decree, the highest public statement expressed by the Holy See, would raise public opposition to the Third Reich and compel world leaders to challenge Adolf Hitler and his allies before it was too late.   A shocking tale of intrigue and suspense, illustrated with sixteen pages of photos, The Pope’s Last Crusade illuminates this religious leader’s daring yet little known campaign to fight Hitler, a spiritual and political battle that would be derailed by Pius’s XIs death just a few months later. Peter Eisner reveals how Pius XI intended to unequivocally reject Nazism in one of the most unprecedented and progressive pronouncements ever issued by the Vatican, and how a group of conservative churchmen eager to appease Hitler, including his successor, Cardinal Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, plotted to prevent it.   For seventy years, only parts of this story have been known. Eisner offers a new interpretation of this historic event and the powerful figures at its center in an essential work that provides thoughtful insight and raises controversial questions impacting our own time.

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9780062222978

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""Engrossing. ... Lively."" -- Library Journal ""An exciting reminder of how Vatican machinations continue to haunt history."" -- Kirkus Reviews ""Gripping. ... Finally, the story of a lost opportunity that could have affected the course of history can now be told."" -- Voice of Reason

Engrossing. ... Lively. --Library Journal Gripping. ... Finally, the story of a lost opportunity that could have affected the course of history can now be told. --Voice of Reason An exciting reminder of how Vatican machinations continue to haunt history. --Kirkus Reviews

Gripping. ... Finally, the story of a lost opportunity that could have affected the course of history can now be told. --Voice of Reason

An exciting reminder of how Vatican machinations continue to haunt history. --Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Peter Eisner is a deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post. He served as a foreign editor at Newsday from 1985 through 1989 and as the paper''s Latin America correspondent from 1989 through 1994. He was also a reporter, editor and bureau chief with the Associated Press. Eisner won the InterAmerican Press Association Award in 1991 for his investigations of drug trafficking in the Americas. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

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