The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

by David I. Kertzer

At the heart of the pope’s strategy was a decision to allow wide latitude to each country’s church hierarchy in supporting its nation’s rulers and policies, including making war. In this way, the church could enjoy good relations with governments anywhere in the world, regardless of their political nature, as long as they in turn supported the church’s institutional interests. But as events would soon show, this approach had its drawbacks, putting the pope in an awkward position as he tried to cast himself as a moral leader and not simply the head of a huge international organization. His approach was particularly uncomfortable in dealing with Italy, for there it was the pope himself who was not only supreme pontiff of all the world’s faithful but head of the nation’s episcopate.