Church of Spies, Mark Riebling
Church of Spies, Mark Riebling
3 Rating(s)
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Church of Spies
The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler

Author: Mark Riebling

Narrator: Fred Sanders

Unabridged: 9 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2015


Synopsis

The Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope.” But a key part of the story has remained untold.

Pius ran the world’s largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler—while secretly plotting to kill him.

Church of Spies documents this cloak and dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler’s homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler’s bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing.

The plotters made history in ways they hardly expected. They inspired European unification, forged a U.S.-Vatican alliance that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews. Yet Pius’ secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the “fiery words” he wanted.

Told with heart-pounding suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican’s doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented audiobook that will change perceptions of how the world’s greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Maria

O Guerreiro Do Silêncio Muitos padres ergueram a sua voz contra a loucura belicista de Hitler. O Führer temia-os! Receava-os como instigadores ideológicos. Armados de palavras que arvoravam nobres sentimentos, revelavam-se uma perigosa ameaça: “O maior perigo viria, isso sim, de «assassinos acicatados......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

Riebling describes in detail Pope Pius XII's personal involvement in a variety of plots to resist or assassinate Hitler. These conspiracies are detailed beyond what is available in other books, and for that, Riebling is to be lauded. However, Riebling occasionally enters into the contentious field of......more

Goodreads review by Julie

When the pope arose the next morning, he had made up his mind. He would engage the German military resistance and encourage a conservative counterrevolution. He would serve as secret foreign agent for the resistance—presenting and guaranteeing its plans to the British. He would partner with the gene......more

An absorbing read highlighting little known details of the Vatican’s own intelligence service during World War 2. Mark Riebling has put together a compelling argument that attempts to prove that Pope Pius XII’s relative silence on Nazi atrocities was a ploy to support the German resistance and specif......more

Goodreads review by Carlos

No, this book did not convince me , the author didn't show his research or said where he had found these "new never seen documents" in which this book is based , no you can't go from a passive almost pathetic approach to a human crisis happening rigth next to you (as it was the case of Pius the 12th......more