The Modern Papacy, 1798-1995

by Coppa,Frank J.

• ISBN13: 9780582096301
• ISBN10: 0582096308
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1998-10-27
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This ambitious survey launches a major new five-volume series. It explores the response of the papacy, one of the world's longest-enduring institutions, to the multiplying challenges of the modern age. It runs from the French Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union, ending with the pontificate of John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1522. Frank Coppa examines the impact of major events like the Napoleonic conquests, Italian unification, two World Wars and the Cold War; he explores the attitudes of the papacy to such issues as liberalism, nationalism, fascism, communism and the modern, secular age; he examines the growing concern of the popes for the Catholic world beyond its traditional European home; and he tackles, objectively and judiciously, contentious topics like the "silence" of Pius XII. Engrossingly readable, the book offers a fresh and invigorating perspective on international relations across the past two centuries, and on the political and ideological emergence of the modern world, as well as its specifically papal concerns.

Author Biography

Frank J. Coppa is Professor of History at St. John's University, New York.

Table of Contents

List of maps	vii
Abbreviation used in notes	viii
Introduction: the papacy in an age of ideologies	1	(16)
The chair of Peter confronts the French Revolution, 1789--1799	17	(16)
The papacy and Napoleonic France: from compromise to confrontation, 1800--1814	33	(17)
Rome: from restoration to revolution, 1815--1831	50	(17)
The Holy See and the first crisis of modernization, 1831--1846	67	(17)
The Holy See in a turbulent decade: 1846--1856	84	(16)
Papal intransigence and infallibility in an age of liberalism and nationalism	100	(17)
Rome's attempt at accommodation with the modern world, 1878--1903	117	(18)
The Vatican's condemnation of Americanism and modernism	135	(19)
Papal diplomacy and the quest for peace during and after the First World War	154	(16)
The Vatican between the democracies and the dictatorships in the interwar period	170	(15)
The diplomacy and `silence' of Pope Pius XII during the Second World War	185	(13)
The Holy See and cold war in transition	198	(12)
Aggiornamento and the opening of Vatican II: reconciliation of the papacy with the modern world	210	(13)
The papacy in an age of transition: the pontificate of Paul VI	223	(11)
The year of three popes and beyond: the contemporary papacy	234	(14)
Conclusion: the modern papacy in historical perspective	248	(11)
Notes on Vatican sources	259	(4)
Select bibliography	263	(20)
Maps	283	(6)
Index	289