The publisher's description of
Hitler's Pope,  The Secret History
of Pius XII,  by John Cornwell :
        "In Hitler's Pope, award-winning journalist John Cornwell shows that Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, was instrumental in negotiating an accord that helped the Nazis' rise to unhindered power -- and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.
        Drawing upon secret Vatican and Jesuit archives to which he had unprecedented access, Cornwell tells the full, tragic story of how narcissistic, long-standing personal antipathy for the Jews, and personal and spiritual ambition combined to make Pius XII the most dangerous churchman in history.   Not just a firm and final indictment of Pius XII's papacy, Hitler's Pope is also a searing exploration of its lingering consequences for the Catholic Church today."

-- Washington Post :
        "The shocking untold the story of Pope Pius XII that redefines the entire history of the 20th century." .  . .  .
        The title tells the tale. And a chilling tale it is: Eugenio Paceli, then the Vatican's all-powerful secretary of state, made it possible for Adolf Hitler to achieve total power in Germany and, as Pope Pius XII, went on to appease him, maintaining inexplicable public silence as the Nazis destroyed and massacred millions of European Jews before and during World War II. In other words, the pro-Germany and "anti-Judaic" Pacelli-who had spent 13 years in Munich and Berlin as papal nuncio-bears, according to this most important book, awesome personal responsibility for the evil of Hitler ... and the Holocaust. Had Pius XII publicly condemned Hitler's acts-and even top Germany military commanders in Italy secretly urged him to do so toward the end of the war-many millions of lives might have been saved. The conclusions and revelations presented by John Cornwell in his meticulously researched Hitler's Pope, many of them based on materials from heretofore closed Vatican, Italians, German, British, and French archives and other unimpeachable sources, leave not doubt that Eugenio Pacelli was the Fuëhrer's best imaginable ally."

-- The Wall Street Journal :
        "John Cornwell, a meticulous Catholic historian and journalist, has had access to previously unpublished Vatican documents.  .  .   [he makes] a sophisticated and surprising argument, but one that does help make sense of some of Pius XII's behavior."

-- Rev. John F. Morley, Commonweal (Catholic Commentary) :
        "A book that cannot, and should not, be ignored.   Every point that Cornwell raises -- whether it is Pacelli's early career, his concordat negotiations, his spirituality and approach to the world, his refusal to ever explicitly criticize Nazi Germany, and his reaction to the Holocaust -- is a matter of crucial concern to Catholics.  .  .   Cornwell's final words are judgmental but also challenging and inviting.   His frankness may antagonize the some, but I detect in this book an honesty and an angst that should not be overlooked."

-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution :
        "This fascinating book would be a lightning rod at any time [but] this bid for Pius the 12's sainthood is creating outrage in the Jewish community and among a large number of Catholics as well.   Cornwell's meticulous and principled scholarship is a significant contribution to a painful debate."

-- Michael Parkenham, The Baltimore Sun :
        "If anything, given the hideous consequences of the Holocaust and the culpability of millions of people who did not fight against it, Cornwell is circumscribed and methodical .  .  .   His tracing of the late 19th -- and early 20th -- century political, ethnic, and ecclesiastical history in Europe and Rome is detailed, intricate, and fascinating .  .  .   There is an argument for not caring; what's done is done and finished.  Since history cannot be amended, it does not matter.  That argument is unacceptable .  .  .   Ignorance by choice is culpability with malice aforethought.  Read hideous book"

        -- The Philadelphia Inquirer :
"A devastating indictment of Pius as guilty of moral treachery so great that it defames his papacy and should deny his elevation to sainthood .  .  .   Cornwell, a Cambridge University scholar and prominent British journalist, gives us an account that is unsparing, though temperate and largely dispassionate.  He has fresh sources, including the records of Archbishop Pacelli during his long tenure from 1917 to 1929 as Pope Pius XI's ambassador to Germany: correspondence from the British envoy to the Vatican; and key Jesuit archives."

-- Saul Friedlander, Lot Angeles Times :
        "As Cornwell brilliantly demonstrates, Pius XII brought the authoritarianism and the centralization all his predecessors to their most extreme stage .  .  .   Nowadays we may not know what as saint should be, but we do know what as saint should not be -- a man of narrow spirit and heart, a man who could not find at the very least 'a candid word' when millions of human beings from all corners of Europe, some of them from under his own windows, or lead to their systematic extermination."

-- Time (magazine):
        "Scathing .  .  .   It illuminates the previously neglected episodes in the life of this prospective saint, it alerts us to flaws in the received version."

-- Jason Berry, Chicago Tribune:
        "A groundbreaking narrative .  .  .   It is hard to imagine a more timely book, in light of Pope John Paul II's reaching out to the Jewish community .  .  .   The author exposes of moral myopia in Pacelli that permeated his blundering diplomacy with Hitler .  .  .   The chapter on the roundup and deportation of the Jews overall is particularly heart-rending."

-- Detroit Free Press:
        "Hitler's Pope reads like a thriller as it takes us through the high-powered negotiations and international crises from an unusual prospective .  .  .   Given the campaign to beatify Pius XII, this meticulous, persuasive and impassioned book is disturbing in its presentation of a profoundly flawed man obsessed with absolute papal authority no matter what the consequences for others."

-- Jewish Herald Voice:
        " [writing] with academic excellence and literary clarity, Cornwell does more than provide evidence of how Pius cooperated with Hitler.  He reveals the internal political machinations of one of the most powerful religious organizations on the planet, as well as depicting Hitler's 'brilliance' in understanding the dynamics of power."

-- James Carroll, Atlantic Monthly:
        "A devastating refutation of the claim that this Pope's diplomacy can in any way be characterized as wisdom.  Instead of a portrait of a man worthy of sainthood, Cornwell lays out the story of a narcissistic, power-hungry manipulator who was prepared to lie, to appease and to collaborate in order to accomplish his ecclesiastical purpose -- which was not to save lives or even to protect the Catholic Church ut, more narrowly, to protect and advance the power of the papacy."

-- New York Post
        "A brilliant and serious work of major historical weight.  It is certain to cause shock and outrage, rationalization and denial."

-- San Francisco Chronicle:
        "Scathing .  .  .   Is the indictment persuasive? Sadly, it is, coming not in the form of a court record but rather as a skilled biography .  .  .   The books middle chapters are a superb lesson in Catholic Church politics .  .  .   Pacelli's subsequent election as pope and the disastrous aftermath for European Jews are thoroughly documented and smoothly written.  As Catholic and Jewish leaders work to build better understanding, knowledge about how and why Pope Pius XII acted as he did make ease the and in the their dialogue."

-- Houston Chronicle :
        "Hitler is Pope accurately reflects the decline , inside and outside the Catholic Church, of the reputation of Eugenio Pacelli .  .  .   Cornwell's arguments, his detailed grasp of Roman Catholic history and politics and his lucid prose will persuade many readers of the merits of his indictment of Pius XII."