Phayer's thesis is that Pius XII refused to resist and at times even enabled the Nazi regime because he considered Communism the greater threat, one that he believed only Nazism could effectively counter.
[4] Charles Gallagher in his article for peer reviewed The Heythrop Journal described the work as "perhaps the single most comprehensively important book to appear on the topic of Pius XII's and church-state relations in recent years".
He further notes the book's "exceptional primary resourcing" and that Phayer is "one of the first historians of the Cold War papacy to use Record Group 84, the diplomatic post files of the President's Personal Envoy to the pope.
"[5] David Kertzer wrote in The American Historical Review "The new material that Phayer has brought to light from the National Archives offers a useful contribution to our understanding of the controversial relationship between the Vatican and the perpetrators of the Holocaust, especially in the postwar period.
Using documents released during the Clinton Administration, the author stresses how much the decision-making of Pope Pius XII was devoid of moral considerations because he was preoccupied with saving Western civilization from communism.