A Cross Too Heavy - Palgrave edition to be published

In the middle of 2010 I signed a contract with Palgrave-Macmillan for the publication of a revised edition of "A Cross Too Heavy".   Publication is expected around March-April.

The Australian edition was published by the Sydney publishing house, Rosenburg in 2008.

Since then there have been a number of significant events related to Pius XII that warranted a revised edition.  The general thrust of the book has not changed, but I included more comment on the Vatican's reluctance to view critical material on Pius and its equal reluctance to face up to some of the serious questions historians have been, and continue to ask, about Pacelli.  I have also included comments on the neo-conservative groups (Catholics and Jews) who are hell-bent on seeing Pius XII canonised with no concern for historical process.

The volume of documentary material, both primary and secondary, continues to grow, as does the war against myth, rumour and untruths.  To date there has not been one piece of evidence, read within its appropriate context/s, that has called for a drastic revision of what mainstream historians hold; points that I set out in the first post on this blog in May 2010.

When the 1939-1958 archives are opened in 2013 or 2014, I hope that I can look at another edition that will take me through to the end of the war years.

For the meantime I continue to work on my reading and translation of Actes et Documents.  It is a slow task.  So far I have re-read my way through 8 of the 11 volumes.  At present I am half way through Volume 11 - the "general" war from January 1944 to May 1945.

Ironically, if Pius XII's more vocal defenders had bothered to read the entire collection, they would be forced to blunt some of their more strident claims.  But I don't see a change until Rome adopts a more mature attitude towards history and historians.

Pius XII

by Catherine Harry 2010

Used for the cover of the new edition.