In exchange, the pope expected Mussolini to use his repressive reach to enforce Catholic morality. Contrary to the widely accepted account of this time, in which a heroic Church does battle with the Fascist regime, David Kertzer shows that Mussolini would not have been able to impose his dictatorship on Italy without the pope's support. The two men - one scholarly and devout, the other an anti-clerical rabble-rouser-came to power in Rome in the same year, 1922.
With the recent opening of the Vatican archives covering Pius XI's papacy, the full story of his dealings with the Italian dictator can be told for the first time in The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe ($32.00).
From National Book Award-finalist David Kertzer, an explosive book that exposes the fractious, co-dependent relationship between Pope Pius XI and Mussolini.
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