The Policies and Politics of Pope Pius XII delves into the diplomacy of the most controversial
pope of the twentieth century: Pius XII (pontificate 1939-1958) «Advocate of Appeasement» to
some and «Apostle of Peace» to others. Disagreement prevails on his quest for peace recourse
to impartiality during the Second World War and relative public silence during the Holocaust.
His abandonment of impartiality to play a prominent role in the Cold War has contributed to the
charges and counter-charges leading to what has been deemed the «Pius War.» Unfortunately a
good deal of the literature published by the defenders and denigrators of this papal diplomacy
has shed more heat than light. In this book Frank J. Coppa who has written on numerous
controversial figures including Pius IX (pontificate 1846-1878) seeks to objectively explore
the origins and rationale of Pius XII's diplomacy during the war the Nazi genocide and its
aftermath.
