The Pope’s Dilemma

In opening his lecture for the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in London in April 2000, Francis J. Coppa, author of numerous studies on Pope Pius XII (1939-58), made the point that the published works on the Pacelli papacy far outnumbered those dedicated to all his predecessors. Coppa’s observation was a timely reflection on the interest aroused in historians, scholars, journalists, and casual observers of one of the most controversial and influential figures of the twentieth century. From the concluding phase of the Second World War onward, and increasingly so since the mid-1960s, the debate over Pius XII and the official acts of his papacy has been a central question in contemporary historiography. Generally speaking, the debate has focused on, and to some extent exhausted, several specific themes: the relationship between the pope and the totalitarian regimes of the last century, his stance on the Holocaust, and the need for the papacy and the Catholic Church to rethink their roles and positions in the bipolar context of the Cold War.

Context (archaeology) · Genocide · Historiography · Political science · The Holocaust · World War II · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Christian Theology and Mission · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity · Religious studies