The Pope's Last Crusade
- Author: Peter Eisner
- Narrator: Rick Adamson
- Publisher: HarperCollins USA
- Duration: 7:47:11
Synopsis
A conspiracy within the Vatican—to stop an outspoken Pope
In 1938, Pope Pius XI was the world's most prominent critic of Hitler and his rhetoric of ethnic "purity." To make his voice heard, Pius called upon a relatively unknown American Jesuit whose writing about racism in America had caught the Pope's attention. Pius enlisted John LaFarge to write a papal encyclical—the Vatican's strongest decree—publicly condemning Hitler, Mussolini, and their murderous Nazi campaign against the Jews.
At the same time conservative members of the Vatican's innermost circle were working in secret to suppress the document. Chief among them was Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, whose appeasement of the Germans underlay a deep-running web of conspiracy. Pacelli, who would become Pope Pius XII, was joined by Wlodimir Ledóchowski, leader of the Jesuit order, to keep the finished encyclical from reaching the increasingly ill Pope.
Peter Eisner, award-winning reporter and author of the critically acclaimed The Freedom Line, combines shocking new evidence (released only recently from Vatican archives) and eyewitness testimony to create a compelling journey into the heart of the Vatican and a little-known story of an American's partnership with the head of the Catholic Church. A truly essential work, it brings staggering new light to one of the most critical junctures in modern history.
Chapters
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ThePopesLastCrusade_01_Open
Duration: 16s -
ThePopesLastCrusade_02_Prologue
Duration: 08min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_03_Chapter1
Duration: 24min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_04_Chapter2
Duration: 33min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_05_Chapter3
Duration: 28min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_06_Chapter4
Duration: 36min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_07_Chapter5
Duration: 33min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_08_Chapter6
Duration: 34min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_09_Chapter7
Duration: 38min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_10_Chapter8
Duration: 44min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_11_Chapter9
Duration: 31min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_12_Chapter10
Duration: 22min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_13_Chapter11
Duration: 31min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_14_Chapter12
Duration: 39min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_15_Chapter13
Duration: 32min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_16_Epilogue
Duration: 24min -
ThePopesLastCrusade_17_Credits
Duration: 35s -
sample
Duration: 01min