Remember That Time the Pope Tried to Kill Hitler?

A new book says that Pope Pius XII wasn't a Nazi sympathizer and in fact tried to kill Hitler.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

A new book out this week from author Mark Riebling tells the story of Pope Pius XII during World War II, and his efforts to organize the assassination of Adolph Hitler, beginning even before the war started.

Riebling's new book Church of Spies isn't the first to defend Pius XII, who was labeled Hitler's Pope in the title of author John Cornwell's 1999 book, but it is the latest, most detailed explanation of why the pope appeared to be standing silent to Nazi atrocities during the war.

While the Vatican was officially neutral during WWII, Riebling writes that Piux XII was actually maintaining the appearance of neutrality by not speaking out against the Nazis so he could quietly help organize a coup against the Führer. 

From The Daily Mail: 

In his book, Riebling tells how the Pope - supposedly neutral throughout the war - toned down his early criticisms of Nazism to focus on aiding a covert network of church spies urging Hitler's death.

Pius XII, who apparently went by the code name "the chief," communicated with German spies and contacts in the German resistance who would secretly fly to Rome. One of those contacts was even close friends with the head of Hitler's bodyguard, the book says. 

As we know from history class, Hitler survived the many attempts to assassinate him, but ended up shooting himself in his underground bunker in 1945 as the Allies closed in.

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