In the Spring of 1938 with Europe on the brink of war, John LaFarge, an unassuming American Jesuit priest, was drawn into the centre of a dispute within the Roman Catholic Church, when he found an envelope emblazoned with the seal of a crown and the crossed keys of St. Peter that summoned him for a private audience with Pope Pius XI.
The Pope had read LaFarge's recent book, INTERRACIAL JUSTICE, which argued that "racialism and nationalism were fundamentally the same." This thesis resonated with Pope Pius XI's beliefs against Nazism and anti-Semitism. Thus, on June 22, 1938, Pope Pius XI enlisted LaFarge to write a declaration condemning Nazism and anti-Semitism in the form of a papal encyclical -- one of the highest public statements employed by the Holy See -- in a final attempt to rally world leaders to stop Hitler, Mussolini, and the Nazi onslaught before the impending start of a European War.
THE POPE'S LAST CRUSADE is the story behind Pope Pius XI's campaign until it collapsed when he died in 1939 and Cardinal Pacelli was ordained Pope Pius XII. For 70 years, only parts of this story have been known. With exclusive interviews and materials never before published in the English language, Peter Eisner reveals the truth: Pius XI intended to declare the Vatican's rejection of Nazism, but a group of conservative churchmen, including his successor, Cardinal Pacelli, purposively stopped that from happening. Willing to appease Hitler, they plotted in the background to block and delay one of the most significant and progressive pronouncements ever issued by the Vatican.
Filled with intrigue and suspense inside the Vatican, THE POPE'S LAST CRUSADE will captivate readers.
