Pio XI nella crisi europea // Pius XI. im Kontext der europäischen Krise. Atti del Colloquio di Villa Vigoni, 4–6 maggio 2015 // Beiträge zum Villa Vigoni—Gespräch, 4–6. Mai 2015 ed. by Raffaella Perin (review)

A conference at the Italo-German Center at Villa Vigoni (Lake Como) yielded the collection of essays in this volume. Some are written in German and some in Italian but all begin with English summaries. Raffaella Perin, who edited the collection, begins with an introduction that asks "why another conference on Pius XI?" One can locate, she states, much of the answer in the recent flurry of information released with the Vatican's opening of Pius' archives a few years ago. The current thinking, however, has not resolved the controversies related to Pius, the Holy See, and antisemitism, and the first three of the volume's contributions reflect this: Dominik Burkard's on the Holy See's condemnation of Alfred Rosenberg's racist-tinged manifesto, The Myth of the Twentieth Century, which, incidentally, contains much information on the infamous Alois Hudal, Perin's on the development of Pius' thinking regarding antisemitism, and Paolo Zanini's on the Palestinian question. Toward the end, the collection returns to the question with an interesting piece from Giovanni Vian that focuses on the end of Pius' life and his renewed emphasis on Catholicism's incompatibility with German racism. During that final half-year, Benito Mussolini added salt to Pius' wound (and anger) with his adoption of a watered down but still ugly Italian program against the Jews. Citing Emma Fattorini's research, Vian quotes the pontiff who, on hearing that Italian papers would not refer to the Osservatore Romano's criticisms of Fascist racism, said "I'm ashamed of myself . . . ashamed of being an Italian."

As the book's German title reminds us, context is one of its aims, and a number of essays go beyond the Pius/antisemitism question. Marie Levant on Pius and continuity in facing the Nazi revolution and Florian Heinritzi on the Bavarian concordat, for instance, add to the context a bit. The discussion broadens to the Soviet Union in essays from Sascha Hinkel and Laura Pettinaroli, who writes how Communism's treatment of women, children, and the family informed the Holy See's judgment of the regime. Paolo Valvo's fascinating discussion of Rome and the Cristero wars in Mexico extends the book's coverage to the New World. Along with Perin's introduction, the assortment boasts eighteen essays, some more complicated and demanding than others. Finally, two pieces merit particular attention, one by Gianmaria Zamagni concerning Pius' differences with the more aggressive Spanish bishops during the Civil War. Just War theory is central to her study, which forms part of the University of Münster's "D9 project" on religion and violence. Another piece, "Pius XI's pontificate and political violence" by Lucia Ceci, raises similar issues. One can locate, she claims, Catholic "oscillation" regarding violence, such as a point in early Fascism, August of 1922, when in the highly charged era before Mussolini took office as prime minister, the Civiltà Cattolica explicitly condemned outrages committed by his blackshirts. Exactly two years later, however, in August, 1924, writing about the murder of the Socialist Giacomo Matteotti by the Fascists, the same review spread the blame—that the Socialists and the Regime shared the guilt because of a culture of violence that they both fostered. Rejection of violence, Ceci disturbingly concludes, "did not figure among the Holy See's non-negotiable values."