The Pope Who Urged a Dictator To ”Keep the Protestants In Check”

Pope Pius XI met with Benito Mussolini in an historic meeting in 1932. At that meeting Mr Mussolini was a bit surprised by the Pope's insistence that he do something about the Protestants who were proselytizing in Italy. Here are some of the quotes regarding the Pope's feelings about Protestants evangelizing in Italy. The quotes are taken from the Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Pope and Mussolini" by David I Kertzer. “ . . keep the Protestants in check” “ . . . Protestant cults, which are parasites that live by damaging the true religion, was not only entirely unjust but offensive to us.” “ . . . Protestant propaganda, he told Mussolini, posed the greatest danger the country faced.” “ . . . Protestantism, the pope insisted, was anti-Italian, a foreign force that posed as much a danger to Mussolini as it did to the Church.” “ . . . Italy’s Protestants were “the greatest cross” he had to bear.”