Frank J. Coppa is Professor of History and Director of the university's doctoral program in Modern World History at St. John's University. He is an Associate Editor of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. An expert in Modern European, Modern Italian, and Papal history he has published widely in all three areas. He is the recipient of numerous grants including Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities as well as University grants. He has served as general editor and contributor to The Dictionary of Modern Italian History (1985), The Encyclopedia of the Vatican and Papacy (1999), The Great Popes through History (2002), and The Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators (2006) among others. Most recently he has published The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust (2006).