Review: Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler

Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My focus on reading Europe this year and finishing my checklist sent me looking for a specific read for Vatican City, and what could be better than a deep look into (many) archives to examine what the Catholic church and Pope Pius XII were really up to regarding Hitler. The author clearly did a lot of research - his list of citations is 100 pages - and the perspective is very much in defense of what appeared outwardly to be not enough of a response. I know even more Vatican archives have been opened to the public since this book came out, so it would be interesting to know how many of those details align.

I was interested in reading the historical views of the Church on espionage and tyrannicide, to learn more about how it functions inside wider communities of diplomacy, and why it can be useful to separate the Vatican from the Pope.

This also will fit the Western Europe focus for this month's #Readtheworld21 - not just the location of Vatican City geographically but the countries over which it has significant influence.

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