Catholic Law Professor Marshall J. Breger announced the release of his new book, The Vatican and Permanent Neutrality. Breger, along with Herbert R. Reginbogin, edited a book of essays that covers 150 years of Vatican diplomacy — from the fall of the Papal States in 1870 to the present day. In particular, the book details the Holy See’s use of “permanent neutrality” as a principal tool of statecraft in its diplomatic portmanteau. It touches as well on the theological basis for Vatican neutrality. The essays consider in detail the Vatican’s history with “permanent neutrality” and its application in diplomacy toward delicate situations, and also consider the tension between pastoral teachings and realpolitik, as the church faces a reckoning with its history. Breger also provided the book’s introduction.

Contributors include professors from The Catholic University of America History and Political Science Departments, and the Canon Law School. Other contributors include John F. Pollard (fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge); Marcia d’Arienzo (professor of ecclesiastical law, canon law, and confessional rights, University of Naples); Lucia Ceci (professor of modern history, University of Rome); Luke Cahill (lecturer, University of Bath, UK); Massimo Faggioli (professor, Villanova University, Philadelphia); Piotr Kosicki (University of Maryland); Pascal Lottaz (Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Tokyo); Soho Matsumoto (Nihon University, Japan); Suzanne Brown-Fleming (US Holocaust Museum); Margit Balogh (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest).