Church of Spies: Review

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So, we're going to do something a little different, we are going to review the book “Church of Spies”, by Mark Riebling. I'm not sure where I put it, so, the information will be from memory.
So, what I don't like about this book, conflating “Russian” with “Soviet”. All the republics were supposed to be equal during the days of the USSR, but, because of the west's inability to understand that the Soviet Union wasn't just Russia (Heck, the N64 game “Goldeneye, at least has a level set in Kyrgyzstan, if you're curious, it's Silo, good level, HARD level, even on agent)! Anyway, this is why you get nonsense from Emperor Vatnik in Moscow saying that “Ukraine is an artificial country” (it isn't, Russia is more artificial than Ukraine, the Muscovites didn't start annexing territory until about the 1600s, and the Kyiv Rus were from Ukraine, anyway).
Now, I could understand if this was simply soldiers or other people quite (incorrectly) referring to the Soviet soldiers as “Russian”, but it isn't, it's Riebling himself.
Now, to be fair, a lot of the Soviets, and even some of the Germans and Italians involved, referred to the Brits as “English” (Anglo-Saxon is a stock insult for the UK and former British colonies by Russia). Yeah, so, Riebling, while he did a good job documenting the events of World War II, still fell into a colonial trap.
So, why is this such a sticking point to me? Because he referred to one of the soldiers as a “Ukrainian Uniate Catholic”. Uniate can be an insult (it's another term for Eastern Catholics), in the same paragraph that he referred to “Russian” soldiers. The book was published in 2015, during The war in the Donbas, and after Russia stole Crimea.
I also think Riebling gave socialists a pass, and was not anywhere near as harsh on the communists as he needed to be.
To be fair, he did mention some issues with Stalin, and briefly mentioned The Warsaw Pact, which was after the fact and offered as a counter balance to NATO (and NO, there was NO agreement that the United States or NATO or any other western country made with Russia that NATO wouldn't expand eastward, that's a LIE).
So, you may wonder why I'm talking about modern geopolitical things when discussing a book about World War II. Because, today, Russia uses that very war to BULLY Ukraine (and Americans are gullible enough to think Ukraine is run by Nazis. NO)
Now, what do I think about the book? I think it's good, even with the flaws. It's very well sourced, and not something a lot of people know about.
Now. I was aware of the fact that Pius XII was covertly fighting Nazis. The reason that a lot of people label him as “Hitler's Pope”, as more to do with “The Deputy” (also, the article is bizarre, there are in fact, married Catholic priests, Riebling mentions clerical celibacy in his book, but, this seems to be a misunderstanding from some of the people in the book, so, I can't fault Riebling on that one, Play Accuses Pope Pius XII of Complicity in the Holocaust).
But, what's amazing, is that not only did the Catholic Church try to take out Hitler, they tried to do it in secret.
Like, I knew Bonhoeffer (a German Protestant and Lutheran clergyman) was involved with this, but, I didn't know that he was DIRECTLY working with the Catholic Church and Catholic authorities and laity. Taking out Hitler, that's the kind of ecumenism I support!
And we must understand, contrary to what Nick Fuentes says (who is inexplicably on Rumble, even though their terms of service, explicitly prohibit anti-semitism), Christians should be doing things like, preventing genocide. While Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants have very real differences, most of us should be able to say “murdering someone because of their religion or ethnicity of wrong”. Of course, murdering anyone is wrong.
So, you may ask why I'm not going into more detail about the book. Because, if I do that, it might dissuade you from reading it.
The book isn't perfect, it has its fair share of flaws (such as not mentioning the Romani a single time, although, to be fair, it does mention the amount of Polish Catholics killed by the Nazis, and that is more than a lot of books do).
But, with all of that, I think it's a good book, and I do recommend it. It's very well sourced, in spite of Riebling. And, if he's reading this (ha)! I want to make a recommendation, when you do an update, don't conflate “Soviet” with “Russian”, mention the “Holodomor”, which took place before World War II (which might make it seem like there were more Russians than one would naturally expect in the Soviet military during World War II), and, for the love of goodness, mention the Romani.
Anyway, y'all, in spite of its flaws, it is a good book. Mine was a Christmas present, and my mom said it was hard to find, I guess you can get it here; Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
This is the first book review I've done on here, so, forgive the awkwardness.

Adam Charles Hovey is the founder of the Catholicism, news, and whatever community on Locals, and if you would like to help him out, go Here