God and the Fascists: The Vatican Alliance with Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and Pavelic

All that apologists for the Roman Catholic Church, like Arthur Sippo, prove by their diatribes against enlightened books such as "God and the Fascists" is how ignorant they insist on being of history. Mr. Sippo argues, for example, that the Reich Concordat is evidence of Eugenio Pacelli's greatness.In the many years that I have been studying these issues, I have found that people constantly refer to the concordats without ever showing evidence that they have READ them, even though the Reich Concordat, for example, is just a few pages long. I have not only read them, but I have published the unofficial English translation of this particular concordat at my website.IMHO the most important part of it is the following:Article 16"Before bishops take possession of their dioceses they are to take an oath of loyalty either to the Reich governor of the state concerned or to the President of the Reich respectively, according to the following formula:"Before God and on the Holy Gospels I swear and promise, as becomes a bishop, loyalty to the German Reich and to the State (Land) of . . . I swear and promise to honour the legally constituted government and to cause the clergy of my diocese to honor it. With dutiful concern for the welfare and the interests of the German state, in the performance of the ecclesiastical office entrusted to me, I will endeavor to prevent everything injurious which might threaten it."THIS is one of the reasons that Roman Catholics COOPERATED with their NAZI government: their Pope made them promise to do so, and to believe THAT was what their GOD expected of them !!!And this Concordat was never repudiated during the life-times of either Hitler or his pope !Mr. Sippo and the like, enlighten yourselves by reading books like "God and the Fascists".

There is no question but that the author is angry at the Catholic Church and that many will disregard the value of the book because of the authors perspective.This is not the whole story ,however, because Church documents themselves attest to the closeness of many clergymen to the fascist regimes. Having Te Deums sung after fascist victories showed poor insight into the malevolence of these regimes. It seems that institutional protection by the Church coupled with fears about both Communism and Modernism, mislead the Church in the early stages of the fascist regimes. Frank honesty by the Church about these times would be cleansing for the Church and the world.Dave Mulligan

An astounding report! I've done a lot of reading on this peroid of history and can confirm much of what Deshner reports. Still, it was eye opening for me since he pulled together many points I already knew but hadn't put together. I know what he reports is hard to believe but he is confirmed by other respected authors and theologians. Hans Kung thinks well of him. And, Deshner was sued in Germany by the church for what we would call libel - and he was vindicated by the court. But, I ask why is this the only work of his translated into English?!? Is our reading material being censored?

I really wanted to like and learn from this book. Unfortunately, it's clear from the first Foreword that this book is one-sided, histrionic propaganda. The author of the book claims that "real" Christianity is communism, and everything is written from that perspective. I have no reason to believe his citations or conclusions, and will be returning this book instead of reading it.

Book is the result of extensive research. I hope the translation from the German is accurate...

This book was written before the opening of the Vatican secret archives. It's based mostly on news articles and pastoral letters from the early 1930's to the end of WWII. There are some minor errors in the translation from the original German but otherwise an eye-opener and easy read.

Thought provoking account.

the book was not well edited but disclosed facts apparently not in question and unfamiliar to those connected to the Catholic church

I needed this book for something I was translating from German to English and was very happy to finally find a book by Deschner in English. He is not easy and I hope more of his books will eventually come out in English. More people should know how the Catholic Church was, and is, involved in all kinds of pro-war activities.

sehr gut lesbar, immer noch, obwohl schon so alt.Nur etwas pervers: dass man eine englische Version lesen muss, obwohl es doch ein deutsches Buch ist.Es wird Zeit, dass die Deschner-Bücher auch auf deutsch in einer kindle-version angeboten werden!!!

very interesting and informative. goes behind the scenes revealing the Vatican is both religious and political and often promotes its self interest ahead of everything.

Why took to long to be translated to english? I dont understand the waiting because this book is very good with many and many written history facts. Read this book!

Concise, well researched, rare to find the truth in print these days. If you have any doubts read this book.