The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI

The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI by Georges Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky is about "a bungled effort at compassion"--one of the most important Catholic documents of the 20th century, which was intended to denounce Hitler's anti-Semitism but was never completed. The reasons for this document's commission and suppression, as described by Passelecq and Suchecky, compose a scandalous indictment of Italian church-and-state relations. When Pius XI accepted a stark separation of church and state in the 1930s, he effectively undermined Catholic political groups, an act which eased the rise of European dictators and led to World War II. The Hidden Encyclical is suitably critical of Pius without lapsing into Vatican bashing. It's a sober, rueful, and straightforward story about the tragic cost of exalting Truth over love. --Michael Joseph Gross