Random House first edition - 2014
As the blurb on the inner flap of the dust wrapper states, the book tells the story of two men (the clue is in the title!) who came to power in 1922 and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. This is the second, research-packed, book I have read by Kertzer on the Papacy - the previous one on Pope Pius IX. I must admit, I am strangely fascinated by the Roman Catholic Church - not through any subconscious desire to join it, but rather because I find so much of its history, and that of the papacy, repellant. The result of reading The Pope and Mussolini did not change my attitude, even though the other major figure was equally unattractive. Both Pius XI and Mussolini were autocrats, distrusting democracy and engaged in ruthless, often shady, behaviour to enforce their will. The Vatican played a central role both in making the Fascist regime possible and in keeping it in power. Pius remarked to a group of French union members: some argue that everything should belong to the state, making it totalitarian, But such a claim was absurd. If there is a totalitarian regime, totalitarian in fact and by right - it is the regime of the Church, because man belongs totally to the Church. Perhaps Mussolini was more historically accurate, when he mused that there was something unlucky about popes named Pius - they all brought disaster. Pius VI and Pius VII were both thrown out of Rome by Napoleon; Pius IX lost Rome and the Papal States; and Pius X saw all Europe erupt in war. "He is losing the whole world and now he risks destroying everything here as well. Ah, it's a true calamity." As a Catholic, he concluded, "I have to say that it would be hard to imagine a worse pope than this one."
Kertzer paints a compelling portrait of Mussolini. Admired, revered even, by many, both in Italy and abroad, his seventeen year sparring with Pius XI, for all its convolutions, was dictated by a simple aim. Win. Working with clerics such as the Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, Bogongini-Duca, Ledochowski (the virulent anti-Semite superior general of the Jesuits), he usually outwitted the pope. Meanwhile, using such unpleasant supporters as Buffarini, Pignatti and his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini kept a firm hand on the reins of power. Kertzer has some nice asides, such as Mussolini's 'take' on Neville Chamberlain. "I never want to see umbrellas around me. The umbrella is a bourgeois relic, it is the arm used by the pope's soldiers. A people who carry umbrellas cannot found an empire." (so there to Hiram Holliday!)
The last few years of Pius XI's pontificate were bitter for him - what made them so painful to the pope was his realisation that his dreams of turning Italy into a confessional state - one where the machinery of the authoritarian regime would be at the service of the church - had been so naïve. He was no anti-Semite: "It is impossible for Christians to participate in anti-Semitism...spiritually we are all Semites." However, singularly unpleasant and devious was the anti-Semitic pederast Father Tacchi Venturi (1861-1956), the pope's long-time trusted henchman (he was known as the pope's Rasputin), who met privately more than one hundred times with the Duce and exercised a strong influence on the pope. Flitting across the page is Victor Emmanuel III (1869-1947), the insecure, cowardly, pint-sized king who disliked the clergy but could never be trusted by either side. His vain attempts to preserve the monarchy by handing it on to his son was, rightly, doomed to failure.
Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958)
On hearing of the pope's death, Mussolini commented, "At last the obstinate old man is dead." Perhaps, worse was to come with his successor - certainly for the Jews. Kertzer argues that, despite having irrefutable evidence of the ongoing extermination of the Jews, Pacelli (now Pius XII) never denounced the Nazi atrocities, as he preferred to leave the role of moral guide, rather than put at risk the situation of the church. Moreover, Pius XII spoke with much sympathy for Fascism and with sincere admiration for the Duce...as for Germany, the new pope could not be more eager to come to an agreement. His sainthood is still being discussed; it will say much about the Roman Catholic Church if he receives it.
John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (1999)
Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners. A History of the Popes (2006)
David I. Kertzer, The Pope who would be King: The exile of Pius IX (2018)
Frédéric Martel, In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy (2019)
FOOTNOTE
Just out of interest, I thought I would look up the twelve popes who assumed the name Pius. Between the first and second was over 1,000 years; there were four between 1458 and 1572; then a 200-year gap until a flurry of another four between 1775 and 1878; finally, the three in the 20th century. The last four with the name, the IXth to XIIth, are, perhaps, the most controversial.
Pius I (c.142-c.155) - opposed the heresy of the Gnostic Marcion. - 1,300 years before the next Pius! Pius II (1458-64) - patron of the arts; canonized St. Catherine of Siena, regularly called for a crusade, guilty of nepotism. Pius III (1503) - 10 day reign, ill health, but man of culture and integrity. Pius IV (1559-65) - father of three illegitimate children, vigorous benefactor of his many relatives, reconvoked and concluded the Council of Trent. Saint Pius V (1566-72) - guilty of nepotism, strengthened Rome's fortifications, excommunicated Elizabeth, revived savage use of the Inquisition, harsh treatment of the Jews. Pius VI (1775-99) - weak, vain and worldly; revived nepotism, spent lavishly on buildings, appeared grasping; arrested by Napoleon, died in prison. Pius VII (1800-23) - crowned Napoleon; rehabilitated the Jesuits, reintroduced the Holy Office, founded the Vatican Picture Gallery. Pius VIII (1829-30) - traced breakdown of religion to activities of Protestantism, Freemasonry and secret societies. Pius IX (1846-78) - believed temporal sovereignty of the holy see indispensable to its spiritual independence; 1860 lost all his dominions save Rome; 1870 lost all but the Vatican area; centralised authority; created over 200 new bishoprics or apostolic vicariates; unprecedented number of canonisations; declared infallibility of the pope in faith and morals in their own right; against modern political and intellectual trends; pro ultramontanism. Saint Pius X (1903-14) - canonised by Pius XII. Aimed to insist unyieldingly on the church's rights; anti Modernism; (they should be beaten with fists) harassed scholars; paternalistic; reorganised the Curia. Pius XI (1922-39) - believed church and Christianity should be active in society; delegated as little as possible, dictatorial; he had not a liberal bone in his body; greatly reduced role of the sacred college. Pius XII (1939-58) - proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; inveighed against communism; canonised 33 persons and created an unprecedentedly large number of cardinals; authoritarian in style.
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