The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler

by Peter Eisner Narrated by Rick Adamson

Overview

Drawing on untapped resources, exclusive interviews, and new archival research, The Pope's Last Crusade by Peter Eisner is a thrilling narrative that sheds new light on Pope Pius XI's valiant effort to condemn Nazism and the policies of the Third Reich-a crusade that might have changed the course of World War II.

A shocking tale of intrigue and suspense, illustrated with sixteen pages of archival photos, The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler illuminates this religious leader's daring yet little-known campaign, 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 plotted to prevent it.

For 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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“Like the cinema classic “Casablanca,” this is a gripping saga of undercover resistance, dangerous intrigue and inspiring courage in Nazi-occupied territory in World War II. . . . Eisner has given us an exhilarating account of harrowing danger, betrayal and heroism, one with a hint of romance and with the ultimate triumph of freedom and justice. It is a fine book, and it could be a great movie.” - Washington Post
“The French resistance—intimate, edgy, hour-by-hour and in the room with them. Peter Eisner’s The Freedom Line is the real thing—because he lets these people, who did this extraordinary thing, tell their own story.” - Alan Furst
“This is a story that can lift your heart or plunge it into woe—an amazing human tale that was never told before.” - Richard Ben Cramer, author of How Israel Lost and DiMaggio
“A prizewinning reporter has discovered the dramatic experiences of men who save the lives of downed Allied airmen and related them here in a compelling fashion. This is a badly needed fresh addition to the literature of World War II.” - David Kahn, author of Codebreakers and Hitler’s Spies
“Turn a crack investigative reporter like Peter Eisner loose on one of the Second World War’s most thrilling but little know operations and the result is a book that you cannot put down. The story of the Comet Line, an organization of resistance fighters in occupied Europe, and the way they risked their lives to rescue Allied airmen, mostly Americans, who had been shot down, is not only history at its best but also at its most inspiring.” - Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty and The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby
“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

Kirkus Reviews

The story of the race to compose a last top-secret encyclical against Nazi racism before the death of Pope Pius XI. Notwithstanding the spate of current works on the tragic shortcomings of Pius XII during World War II, journalist and producer Eisner (The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II, 2004, etc.) refocuses the spotlight in this relevant study on his predecessor, who did speak out against anti-Semitism and the threat of Nazism--though he was silenced by an untimely death in 1939. Pius XI, an activist pope since 1922 under whom the Vatican ultimately became an independent city-state achieving political and financial stability, had been deeply moved by an American Jesuit priest's 1937 book Interracial Justice, about his work among poor Maryland blacks, and summoned the author, Rev. John LaFarge, to the Vatican in 1938. In his 80s, Pius XI had a serious heart condition, yet the growing Nazi menace demanded action: The year before, Pius had issued an important encyclical, With Deep Anxiety, slamming the Nazis for racist policies and oppression of Catholics; now, aware he was on death's door, Pius was determined to go further in a new message he urged LaFarge to write swiftly and in secret. Eisner traces LaFarge's work in Paris over the summer of 1938 and his missteps in confiding in the pope's Superior General Ledochowski as a go-between, a shadowy figure who allowed the document to languish while the pope grew more ill. Ledochowski, like the pope's secretary of state Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pius XII), believed that the pope was imbalanced and that communism (and Jews) was the menace, not Nazism. Eisner closes with excerpts from LaFarge's powerful encyclical and the chilling suggestion of what might have been the outcome had it been published. An exciting reminder of how Vatican machinations continue to haunt history.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170238637
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/19/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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