Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War [Paperback]

The British government and its envoy assisted the Allied cause in Italy despite being confined to the Vatican from 1940 to 1944. This text provides new perspectives on the papacy's predicament and the struggle to keep Italy out of the war.The British government and its envoy assisted the Allied cause in Italy despite being confined to the Vatican from 1940 to 1944. This text provides new perspectives on the papacy's predicament and the struggle to keep Italy out of the war.In this highly acclaimed inside view of the Vatican and Fascist Italy, Owen Chadwick offers a new and rare perspective into the predicament of the papacy, the struggle to keep Italy out of the war, the question of condemning atrocities, the fall of Fascism, and the German occupation of Rome.Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1. Britain and the Vatican in the last years of Pope Pius XI (193539); 2. The conclave of 1939; 3. The peace plans of Pius XII; 4. The winter war, 193940; 5. The Italian entry into the war; 6. First months in the Vatican; 7. Surveillance I; 8. Surveillance II: the bag; 9. The Jews in 1942; 10. The bombing of Rome; 11. The Italian armistice; 12. The German occupation; 13. Aftermath; Select bibliography; Index. ...Chadwick has done us all a great service by throwing so much more light on the constraints which conditioned Vatican behavior during the Second World War than any previous scholar. J.F. Pollard, The Times Higher Education Supplement The whole narrative is full of...fascinating details, and they are told with great skill...[The volume] gives us a completely new insight into the inner workings of the Vatican, and the human story of the relationship between two exceptional men is sheer delight. Denis Mack Smith, The Times Literary Supplement