A settling of accounts -- Nostalgia confronts reality -- A "crooked cross" -- The imposition of the Reich -- The Pope's battle plan -- The flying cardinal -- A democratic response -- In the heat of the summer -- The Pope's discontent -- Shame and despair -- A new year and an end to appeasement -- Will there be time? -- Change overnight -- The new regime -- Excerpts from LaFarge's encyclical.
Draws on new archival research to examine Pope Pius XI's effort to reject Nazism, discussing how he enlisted the assistance of John La Farge, a virtually unknown American Jesuit, to craft a papal encyclical (Humani generis unitas, which was never promulgated) condemning Hitler's campaign against the Jews.