The Pope's Last Crusade

December 17, 2012
Eisner (The Freedom Line) resorts to dramatization and speculation (“The pope woke up... feeling as well rested as he had in recent days”), undercutting his efforts to persuade readers of the accuracy of his account in this less-than-thrilling tale of the little-known efforts by the Vatican to counter the Nazis before WWII. Pope Pius XI has been all but eclipsed in historical memory by the contentious reputation of his successor, Pius XII, who is regarded as having done far less than he could have to counter Hitler and to rescue the Jews of Europe from concentration camps. According to Eisner, the Vatican’s track record might have been different if Pius XI had lived to deliver a speech in 1939 condemning the German regime—that speech would have been based on the thinking of the Rev. John LaFarge, an American, who, two years earlier, had written a book (Interracial Justice) calling for church action against racism, and whom Pius XI had commissioned to write a papal encyclical on the same subject. Putting aside the author’s what-ifs, Eisner has done history and the Vatican a service by retrieving from obscurity a significant episode in Catholic-Jewish relations. Agent: Flip Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic.

October 15, 2012

A deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post, award-winning author Eisner brings up important history here, backing up his account with what appears to be substantive documentation. He tells the story of Pope Pius XI's efforts to challenge Hitler's rise by drafting American Jesuit priest John LaFarge to write a papal encyclical condemning Nazism and anti-Semitism. Alas, conservative churchmen wanting to appease Hitler blocked these efforts, and the Pope died shortly thereafter. Sobering to think what could have been.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013

Much has been written about Pope Pius XII and his actions during World War II, most famously by John Cornwell in his provocatively titled Hitler's Pope. Speculation continues among historians about how differently things might have turned out for Europe had that pope taken a stronger stance against Nazism and Italian fascism. This book focuses on his predecessor, Pius XI. It has now become known that, with the help of American priest John LaFarge, he was ready to take that stronger stance in the days before his death in 1939. Pius XI specifically asked LaFarge, whose writings on American racism the pope had read, to draft a strongly worded encyclical against racism and anti-Semitism. Unfortunately it never saw the light of day. Using LaFarge's journals and recent releases from the Vatican archives, Eisner (The Freedom Line) tells the story of LaFarge's clandestine recruitment for the task and the intrigue surrounding the encyclical's ultimate suppression. VERDICT This engrossing look behind the scenes of the Vatican at a pivotal moment in world history will appeal to history buffs. It would make a great book club read as well, where a lively discussion over one of the great "what ifs" of history could be had. [See Prepub Alert, 9/20/12.]--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2012
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.

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March 1, 2013
Justified or not, the Vatican has recently been subjected to numerous attacks for its relationship with the Nazis and its role in the Holocaust. The criticism centers on the activities (or inactivity) of Pope Pius XII. But his predecessor, Pius XI, was cut from different cloth. Before and after his ascension to the Papacy, Pius XI had been an ardent spokesman for social justice and opposition to various forms of racism. As pope, he well understood the dangers posed by fascism and the Nazis and didn't hesitate to criticize Western democracies for their passivity. Before his untimely death, in 1939, Pius was influenced strongly by an American prelate, John La Farge, who had campaigned against racial injustice in the U.S. Eisner, a historian and journalist, suggests that the survival of Pius XI beyond 1939 could have put a much different focus on Catholic-Jewish relations and perhaps ameliorated some aspects of the Holocaust. That is certainly debatable, but this is an interesting work that usefully poses a what-if question while attempting to provide a more balanced view of Vatican policies in the 1930s.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)