John Cornwell (writer)
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John Cornwell (1940-) is an English journalist and historian, known particularly for his science writing and books on the Papacy. He is Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is an ex-seminarian, whose writings are often critical of the Catholic hierarchy. His works include Hitler's Pope (1999) and The Pontiff in Winter (2002).
He conducted research in the Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII's actions during World War II. Cornwell's work was the first to have access to testimonies from Pius's beatification process as well as to many documents from Pacelli's nunciature which had just been opened under the seventy-five year rule by the Vatican State Secretary archives.[1] Cornwell stated in the preface to Hitler's Pope that his original objective was to vindicate Pius XII. His research resulted in a controversial indictment of the pope.
Five years after the publication of Hitler's Pope, Cornwell has somewhat modified his views: "I would now argue, in the light of the debates and evidence following ‘Hitler's Pope', that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by the Germany."[2]
