"Hitler's Pope"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Cornwall's research that discovered how the actions of specific men in the Vatican, most notably Pope Pius XII, actually enabled the tragedy of the Holocaust to occur. The paper emphasizes the assertion that Pope Pius XII was blinded from the moral duties of the Church he was sworn to defend. The paper is of the opinion that this book is an important reminder of how the Pope and so many other moral and political leaders remained impassive in the face of the horror that was the Holocaust.

From the Paper:

"John Cornwall's book entitled Hitler's Pope has a deliberately inflammatory title. Cornwall attempts to expose what he sees as the truth of the Vatican's role in Hitler's Final Solution. He does not believe that the doctrine of the Catholic Church itself supported Hitler's actions in the sense that anything about the true Christian or Catholic spirit could conceivably support the Nazi party's coming to power. He also acknowledges that many individual Catholics worked to thwart Hitler's rise. But Cornwall was moved to research the role of Pope Pious XII, troubled by long-standing allegations that through the Church's institutionalized silence during the war it was complacent in the horror that occurred--and he was horrified by what he discovered."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cornwall, John. Hitler's Pope. New York: Viking, 1999.

More papers on "Hitler's Pope":

• Research Paper # 49273 : "Pope Pius XII: A Man of Peace?"
• Research Paper # 13797 : "The Vatican & Hitler"
• Comparison Essay # 91730 : "Religion and the Holocaust"

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