The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism

...but unlike "old soldiers", they seldom fade away. Instead they are refurbished, recycled and reapplied. It's the similarities that I note, between the rise of pre-Shoah anti-Semitism and the new anti-Semitism of Mark Steyn and his ilk - remembering that Arabs are Semitic also - which has led me to re-read this book from 2001 with a new perspective. Before Steyn's "Eurabia", there was the Jewropa of anti-Semitic Catholics... Read Full Review

Books on what Pius XII did or did not do for the Jews during World War II seem to be a dime a dozen these days. We have books by John Cornwell, Susan Zucotti, Ronald Rychlak, Margaret Marchione, and many others trying to prove either that Pius was silent in the face of genocide, or that he did more to help the Jews than anyone else at the time. According to Kertzer, this attention is misplaced, since it ignores how the Vatican... Read Full Review

I was not surprised by the facts exposed in this much needed bood. Unbelievably, the Catholic Church's anti-semitism is still alive and flourishing. My daughter,a Catholic, was asked to be godmother to her cousin's child. She needed a letter from her parish priest, who said "he would not allow her to be a godmother to a child...you're married to a Jew". My only point of contention is that the author often refers to Catholicism... Read Full Review

David Kertzer's book deserves and needs to be read by Christian and Jew alike. The history of the Catholic Church's racial anti-Semitism is a sordid tale- of accusations of ritual murder, torture, inhuman repression, and slander, taking place in the twentieth century! Raised as a catholic, I am sickened and saddened by what took place, but until the Church faces up to its past, and not some fabricated history of its own... Read Full Review