Robert Ventresca’s Soldier for Christ: The Life of Pius XII (Cambridge MA: Belknap Press) has been awarded the 2014 Harry C. Koenig prize for Catholic biography. In making their selection, the Koenig Prize Committee noted that “here is a scholar who has produced a well written, fair account that gives the best insight into one of the longest pontificates in the 20th century. The writing is scholarly yet effortless and engaging, presenting different views on Pacelli with as much objectivity as possible. Readers will appreciate the emotional intelligence that Ventresca brings to reading Pius’s personality.” Robert Ventresca is Associate Professor of History at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. This is the inaugural awarding of the Koenig prize.
