(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)May 29, 2014

Prof. Erick Castellanos

(MAHWAH, NJ) – On April 23, noted anthropologist and historian David Kertzer examined the complicated, often secret, relations between the dictator of Fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, and Pope Pius XI. Co-sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Italian Club, Professor Kertzer’s talk was based on his new book, The Pope and Mussolini, published in January by Random House. The Morton and Clara Richmond Endowment supported the program. Professor Erick Castellanos, who wrote his Ph. D. dissertation under David Kertzer, introduced his mentor.

Using an unmatched wealth of newly available archival materials from the Vatican, Professor Kertzer told the dramatic story of thealliance between a weakened Vatican and an ambitious Mussolini who looked to the Church for legitimacy. It shows how the Pope’s blessing played a key role in legitimizing fascist rule in Italy. For its part, a weakened and paranoid Church received much needed support in its struggle against Communism and modernity.

Prof. David I. Kertzer

Relying heavily on the archives of the Vatican itself, Kertzer painted a highly nuanced picture of the Papacy of Pius XI that would have happily turned back the clock to before the dawn of modernity. While he was far from being pleased about the growing relationship between Mussolini and Hitler, it was only in the last days of his life that Pope Pius XI came close to speaking out on the matter. Having the Fascist state’s help in confronting Bolshevism, secularization and mostly imagined incursions of Protestantism took precedence over speaking out not only against the increasing influence of Nazism that Pius XI viewed as an almost pagan-like cult, but also against Mussolini’s imperialist and brutal incursions in Africa. With respect to Germany’s treatment of Jews, as Kertzer pointed out during Q&A, while finding Nazi racism antithetical to traditional Church teaching, the Vatican under Pius XI was not averse to curtailing Jewish participation in society because it saw Jews as agents of modernity and socialism who were undeserving of equality because of their historic refusal to accept Christianity.

David Kertzer joined Brown University in 1992 as the Paul Dupee, Jr., University Professor of Social Science. A Professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies, he was appointed Provost in 2006, serving in that role until 2011. A Brown alumnus (A.B., 1969), Kertzer received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University in 1974. He was William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at Bowdoin College from 1989 to 1992.

His book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997, and it will soon be made into a film by Stephen Spielberg. His 2001 book, The Popes Against the Jews, has been published in nine languages. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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