Holy War: The Untold Story of Catholic Italy’s Crusade Against the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Hardcover – February 1, 2022 by Ian Campbell

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Author: Campbell Ian

Package Dimensions: 39x221x760

Release Date: 01-02-2022

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In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded the sovereign state of Ethiopia–a war of conquest that triggered a chain of events culminating in the Second World War. In this stunning and highly original tale of two Churches, historian Ian Campbell brings a whole new perspective to the story, revealing that
bishops of the Italian Catholic Church facilitated the invasion by sanctifying it as a crusade against the world’s second-oldest national Church. Cardinals and archbishops rallied the support of Catholic Italy for Il Duce’s invading armies by denouncing Ethiopian Christians as heretics and
schismatics and announcing that the onslaught was an assignment from God.
Campbell marshals evidence from three decades of research to expose the martyrdom of thousands of clergy of the venerable Ethiopian Church, the burning and looting of hundreds of Ethiopia’s ancient monasteries and churches, and the instigation and arming of a jihad against Ethiopian Christendom, the
likes of which had not been seen since the Middle Ages.

Finally,
Holy War traces how, after Italy’s surrender to the Allies, the horrors of this pogrom were swept under the carpet of history, and the leading culprits put on the road to sainthood.

Review
“A devastating, persuasive read. Campbell’s book exposes the Catholic Papacy’s complicity in Fascist forces’ unrestrained assault on Ethiopia, and its switch from cordial relations with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to attempting to destroy it.”– Mia Fuller, Gladyce Arata Terrill Distinguished
Professor of Italian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

“This is an immaculately researched book on the composite history of Ethio-Vatican relations in the 1930s. It will hopefully open doors to a desperately needed rapprochement between these two former antagonists!'” — Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate, PhD, author of
King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy

of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia

“This book shines a revealing light on the ecclesiastical thinking of the 1935-41 period, the murky compromises it encouraged, and the savagery it condoned. Original and ambitious, it will have a significant audience in Ethiopia, Italy and beyond.” — Paul Gifford, Emeritus Professor of Religion,
SOAS University of London, and author of
Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa

“Exhaustively researched and eloquently written, Campbell’s Holy War is a hugely important contribution to our understanding of the violence involved in the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s. It is moving, shocking and scholarly in equal measure.”– Richard Reid, Professor of
African History, University of Oxford, and author of
Shallow Graves: A Memoir of the Ethiopia-Eritrea War

About the Author
Ian Campbell is an independent scholar and international consultant. He has written several books on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, including
The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy’s National Shame, also available from Oxford University Press. It was a
Financial Times History Book of the Year (2017),
and has been published in Italian translation.