Vatican Secret Diplomacy : Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII

by Charles R. Gallagher, S.J.

• ISBN13: 9780300121346
• ISBN10: 0300121342
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-06-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In the corridors of the Vatican on the eve of World War II, American Catholic priest Joseph Patrick Hurley found himself in the midst of secret diplomatic dealings and intense debate. Hurley's deeply felt American patriotism and fixed ideas about confronting Nazism directly led to a mighty clash with Pope Pius XII. It was 1939, the earliest days of Pius's papacy, and controversy within the Vatican over policy toward Nazi Germany was already heated. This groundbreaking book is both a biography of Joseph Hurley, the first American to achieve the rank of nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, and an insider's view of the alleged silence of the pope on the Holocaust and Nazism. Drawing on Hurley's unpublished archives, the book documents critical debates in Pope Pius's Vatican, secret U.S.-Vatican dealings, the influence of Detroit's flamboyant anti-Semitic priest Charles E. Coughlin, and the controversial case of Croatia's Cardinal Stepinac. The book also sheds light on the powerful connections between religion and politics in the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Charles R. Gallagher is currently engaged in theological studies at Heythrop College, University of London. He is the author of Cross and Crozier: A History of Catholicism in the Diocese of St. Augustine.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
A Priest in the Family	p. 8
Diplomatic Observer: India and Japan, 1927-1934	p. 29
Silencing Charlie: The Rev. Charles E. Coughlin and the Vatican	p. 49
An American Monsignor in Mussolini's Italy	p. 71
"Spies Everywhere": Hurley at Vatican City, 1940	p. 93
An American Bishop in President Roosevelt's Court	p. 109
Propagandist in Black: Hurley and the U.S. Department of State	p. 131
A Parallel Endeavor against Communism: The United States and the Vatican in Tito's Yugoslavia	p. 154
Betrayal in the Balkans: The Stepinac Case	p. 176
Standing Alone between Church and State: Hurley and American Anticommunism	p. 196
Last Years, Final Struggles	p. 213
Notes	p. 229
Index	p. 275
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