The Pope's Dilemma: Pius XII Faces Atrocities and Genocide in the Second World War
Pope Pius XII presided over the Catholic Church during one of the most challenging moments in its history. Elected in early 1939, Pius XII spoke out against war and destruction, but his refusal to condemn Nazi Germany and its allies for mass atrocities and genocide remains controversial almost seventy years after the end of the Second World War.
Scholars have blamed Pius's inaction on anti-communism, antisemitism, a special emotional bond with Germany, or a preference for fascist authoritarianism. Delving deep into Catholic theology and ecclesiology, Jacques Kornberg argues instead that what drove Pius XII was the belief that his highest priority must be to preserve the authority of the Church and the access to salvation that it provided.
In The Pope's Dilemma, Kornberg uses the examples of Pius XII's immediate predecessors Benedict XV and the Armenian genocide and Pius XI and Fascist Italy, as well as case studies of Pius XII's wartime policies towards five Catholic countries (Croatia, France, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), to demonstrate the consistency with which Pius XII and the Vatican avoided confronting the perpetrators of atrocities and strove to keep Catholics within the Church. By this measure, Pius XII did not betray, but fulfilled his papal role.
A meticulous and careful analysis of the career of the twentieth century's most controversial pope, The Pope's Dilemma is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the Catholic Church's wartime legacy.
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"Kornberg, professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto, has given us an original and balanced analysis of Pius XII's moral leadership that is as compelling as a novel. It will inspire much thought about dilemmas of church-state conflicts that we face in our increasingly war-struck world."
- Nancy L. Roberts - Catholic News Service, October 12, 2015'This is a well-researched, meticulously argued scholarly treatment of Pius XII's wartime legacy.'
- J.P. Blosser - Choice Magazine vol 53:03:2015'Kornberg's work represents a monumental compilation of materials, both primary and secondary sources, reflecting a lifetime of study on the role that organized religion plays in our world.'
- Beth A. Griech-Polelle - Contemporary Church History Quarterly vol 21:04:2015'Upon reading Kornberg's record of Pius XII's response to German genocidal acts, one understands Francis's logic in terms clear and astonishing.'
- Norman Ravvin - The Canadian Jewish News, January 4, 2016'In this study, Kornberg offers a refreshingly different perspective on the motivation of Pius XII, which has not been explained satisfactorily by other historians.'
- Peter C. Kent - The Catholic Historical Review vol 102:04:2016'The volume reflects the author's singular mastery of five decades of literature, exploiting the published documentary collections as well as recent scholarship that presents archival material available only for the last fifteen years.'
- Mark Edward Ruff - Holocaust and Genocide Studies vol 30:03:2016'Jacques Kornberg has crafted a masterfully researched, carefully argued, highly readable scholarly monograph that adds greatly to the historical literature concerning Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust.'
- Richard Gribble - Canadian Journal of History vol 52:01:2017'A meticulous and careful study of the career of the twentieth century's most controversial pope and a significant contribution to the debate over the Catholic Church's wartime attitude and legacy.'
- Andrea Di Stefano - Journal of Church and State vol 59:02:2017"Pope Pius XII occupies the center of one of the great historical (and historiographical) controversies of our time. His relationship to the fascist regimes and his conduct during the holocaust remain the subjects of ongoing, well-reasoned, and often painful arguments. In The Pope's Dilemma: PiusXII Faces Atrocities and Genocide in the Second World War, Jacques Kornberg carefully and with an admirably even hand traces many of the polemics surrounding the pontiff. "
- Roy Domenico - The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 1, 1 February 2018
