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FEBRUARY 10 | DAVID KERTZER, THE POPE AND MUSSOLINI
February 10 at 6 pm. Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, 24 West 12 Street
Free and open to the public. No reservation is required.
Presentation of David Kertzer's The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (Random House 2014). Panelists: David Kertzer (Brown University), Ruth Ben-Ghiat (New York University), Robert Maryks (Journal of Jesuit Studies & Series of Jesuit Studies, Editor-in-Chief), Mark Weitzman (Simon Wiesenthal Center)
From National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XI's secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This groundbreaking work, based on seven years of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives, including reports from Mussolini's spies inside the highest levels of the Church, will forever change our understanding of the Vatican's role in the rise of Fascism in Europe.
The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922, and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pius XI and "Il Duce" had many things in common. They shared a distrust of democracy and a visceral hatred of Communism. Both were prone to sudden fits of temper and were fiercely protective of the prerogatives of their office. ("We have many interests to protect," the Pope declared, soon after Mussolini seized control of the government in 1922.) Each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals. Read
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FEBRUARY 13 I GENDER AND ANTI-SEMITISM
February 13 at 5 pm, The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue
Gender and Anti-Semitism: Women's Rights Yesterday and Today
Victoria De Grazia, Columbia University, Fascist Men and Jewish Women, Yasmine Ergas, Columbia University, Women's Rights and Women's Freedoms: A View from the Present
Moderator, Elissa Bemporad, Queens College of the City University of New York. Read
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NPR | 'POPE AND MUSSOLINI' TELLS THE 'SECRET HISTORY' OF FASCISM AND THE CHURCH
It's commonly thought that the Catholic Church fought heroically against the fascists when Benito Mussolini's party ruled over Italy in the 1920s and '30s. But in The Pope and Mussolini, David Kertzer says the historical record and a trove of recently released archives tell a very different story.
It's fascinating, Kertzer tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies, "how in a very brief period of time, Mussolini came to realize the importance of enlisting the pope's support."
In 1933, fascist rallies typically began with a morning mass celebrated by a priest, and churches and cathedrals were important props in the pageantry. Kertzer says Pope Pius XI cooperated closely with Mussolini for more than a decade, lending his regime organizational strength and moral legitimacy. It was a particularly curious alliance he notes, since Mussolini himself was a committed anti-cleric. But both sides benefited from the bargain. As World War II approached and Mussolini began to persecute Italy's Jewish population, Pius came to regret his bargain and considered a public break with the regime. The story of why that never happened makes for a dramatic ending to Kertzer's book.
"Later on," Kertzer says, "the pope would in fact say that the one true totalitarian organization is not the fascist state or the fascist party, it's the Roman Catholic Church." Listen
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PRINTED MATTER | "I NOSTRI COMPAGNI D'AMERICA". THE JEWISH LABOR COMMITTEE AND ITALIAN ANTIFASCISTS. 1934-1941
Catherine Collomp, Université Paris VII (courtesy Altre Italie)
It was Luigi Antonini who directed Dubinsky's and other JLC leaders' attention to the plight of Italian antifascists. Head of the ILGWU Local 89 of New York dressmakers whose membership was exclusively Italian-American, Antonini pointed out at the ILGWU 1934 convention
that although «Italians had been the first to feel the fascist blow» they were omitted in the JLC and ILGWU calls for a fund for labor and socialist German and Austrian refugees or underground movements.
To correct this oversight, Antonini, in advance of a larger collection,
sent a first check to Pietro Nenni, secretary general of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI ) in exile in Paris. Read
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THANKS
Centro Primo Levi thanks its readers, audience, contributors and main supporters: Cahnman Foundation, Viterbi Family Foundation, Peter S. Kalikow, Dr. Claude Ghez, David Berg Foundation, John Elkann, Exor, Fairholme Foundation, Charles Hallac & Sarah Keil Wolf, Jeffrey Keil & Danielle Pinet, Marian and Jacob K. Javits Foundation, Andrew Sabin, Lily Safra, Joseph S. & Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust, Ezra Zilka
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