The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI - Softcover

Passelecq, Georges; Suchecky, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156006316 ISBN 13: 9780156006316

Publisher: HarperOne, 1998

Synopsis

Drafted by american Jesuit Father John LaFarge and buried in the Vatican’s archives since 1938, this engrossing narrative sheds new light on the Church’s failure in the 1930s to alert the world to the nature of fascism and its inherent racism and anti-Semitism. Introduction by Garry Wills. Translated by Stephen Rendall.

About this title

Review:

The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI by Georges Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky is about "a bungled effort at compassion"--one of the most important Catholic documents of the 20th century, which was intended to denounce Hitler's anti-Semitism but was never completed. The reasons for this document's commission and suppression, as described by Passelecq and Suchecky, compose a scandalous indictment of Italian church-and-state relations. When Pius XI accepted a stark separation of church and state in the 1930s, he effectively undermined Catholic political groups, an act which eased the rise of European dictators and led to World War II. The Hidden Encyclical is suitably critical of Pius without lapsing into Vatican bashing. It's a sober, rueful, and straightforward story about the tragic cost of exalting Truth over love. --Michael Joseph Gross

About the Author:

Georges Passelecq, a Benedictine monk, was a member of the Belgian Resistance in World War II.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0156006316
• ISBN 13: 9780156006316
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336