UNITED STATES
The Brown Daily Herald
By JOSEPH ZAPPA
UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 secured a Pulitzer Prize Monday for his biography of Pope Pius XI and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Kertzer, who served as provost from 2006 to 2011, said his book, “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe,” illuminated previously undisclosed details about the Catholic Church’s insidious influence on the fascist dictator Mussolini, including how the Pope may have pushed him toward persecuting Italian Jews.
Pope John Paul II’s decision to divulge the contents of papal documents from the time period between the World Wars proved an auspicious opportunity for Kertzer, who has spent much of his career exploring the history of the papacy and its influence on Italian politics. Kertzer said the archives’ availability spurred him to embark on writing a biography of Pius XI and Mussolini, calling it “too tantalizing a topic not to write about.”
Kertzer also capitalized on the accessibility of fascist documents, noting that the espionage Mussolini conducted on the Vatican exposed what was going on “behind the scenes” in the Catholic enclave of Rome.
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