The Vatican and Mussolini's Italy / / by Lucia Ceci.

• Author: Ceci, Lucia, 1967-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2017]
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English; Italian
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (351 pages)
• Notes: Translantion of: L'interesse superiore : il Vaticano e l'Italia di Mussolini. Roma : Laterza, 2013.

Lucia Ceci reconstructs the relationship between the Catholic Church and Fascism. New sources from the Vatican Archives throw fresh light on individual aspects of this complex relationship: the accession of Mussolini to power, the war in Ethiopia, the racial laws, the comparison between Pius XI and Pius XII. This book offers a comprehensive reconstruction of this encounter, explaining the criteria that led Catholics to support a dictatorial, warmongering and racist regime. In contrast to the traditional periodization, the history begins with the childhood of Mussolini in the final years of the nineteenth century, and ends with the sudden collapse of his puppet regime, in 1945. This means to some extent placing in a different light the exceptional nature of the ventennio. The Italian original L’interesse superiore, Il Vaticano e l’Italia di Mussolini has won the “Friuli Storia” Prize for Studies of Contemporary History.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Religion, War, Nation -- Transitions -- The Holiest of Nations -- The Most Roman of Empires -- Public Cheers, Confidential Showdown -- Punishment and Purification -- Atonement -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects.