Pope Pius XII

The start of the pontificate of Pius XII occurred at the time of the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust, which saw the industrialized mass murder of millions.
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In Luigi Gedda, president of Catholic Action, fearing that the Christian Democrats might lose the municipal elections in Rome, proposed a Christian Democratic coalition with the parties of the right, an idea rejected by Alcide De Gasperi , the party leader and Italian prime minister , though apparently approved by the pope.

The frail and aloof pope remained an enigma for many in the s. Devoted to Mary , Pius in announced the dogma that she was bodily assumed into heaven, the sole infallible declaration made after the formal proclamation of the doctrine of infallibility at the First Vatican Council — For some, this posed yet another barrier to ecumenism. He also pleased conservatives but upset liberals by suppressing the French worker-priests who had been living with labourers in order to extend their ministry.

On the other hand, he pleased liberals and angered conservatives by shortening and liberalizing the rules for the period of fasting before Communion , taking steps to revise the liturgy, and making evening masses possible. There was also a mixed reaction from the left and right to his denunciation of atomic weaponry and his establishment of the Latin American Episcopal Council in There were those who wondered what changes Pius XII would have fostered if he had convoked the council, which he had contemplated. The controversy that followed Pius throughout his life did not stop with his death.

Both depictions, however, lack credible substantiation. It is impossible to know if a more forthright condemnation of the Holocaust would have proved more effective in saving lives, though it probably would have better assured his reputation. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval.

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View All Media 1 Image. If you prefer to suggest your own revision of the article, you can go to edit mode requires login. While the Vatican was officially neutral during World War II, Pius XII maintained links to the German Resistance , used diplomacy to aid the victims of the war and lobby for peace, and spoke out against race-based murders and other atrocities.

He was also a staunch opponent of Communism and of the Italian Communist Party. During his papacy, the Church issued the Decree against Communism , declaring that Catholics who profess Communist doctrine are to be excommunicated as apostates from the Christian faith.

In turn, the Church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc. He explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici corporis , the Church as the Body of Christ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform; and Humani generis on the Church's positions on theology and evolution.

He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in In the process toward sainthood, his cause for canonization was opened on 18 November by Pope Paul VI during the final session of the Second Vatican Council. Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on 2 March in Rome into a family of intense Catholic piety with a history of ties to the papacy the " Black Nobility ". Together with his brother Francesco and his two sisters, Giuseppina and Elisabetta, he grew up in the Parione district in the centre of Rome. Soon after the family had moved to Via Vetrina in he began school at the convent of the French Sisters of Divine Providence in the Piazza Fiammetta.

The family worshipped at Chiesa Nuova. Eugenio and the other children made their First Communion at this church and Eugenio served there as an altar boy from In too he was sent to the private school of Professor Giuseppe Marchi, close to the Piazza Venezia. In , aged 18, Pacelli began his theology studies at Rome's oldest seminary, the Almo Collegio Capranica , [11] and in November of the same year, registered to take a philosophy course at the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University and theology at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S.

He was also enrolled at the State University, La Sapienza where he studied modern languages and history. At the end of the first academic year however, in the summer of , he dropped out of both the Capranica and the Gregorian University. According to his sister Elisabetta, the food at the Capranica was to blame. In he completed his education in Sacred Theology with a doctoral degree awarded on the basis of a short dissertation and an oral examination in Latin. While all other candidates from the Rome diocese were ordained in the Basilica of St. Shortly after ordination he began postgraduate studies in canon law at Sant'Apollinaire.

He received his first assignment as a curate at Chiesa Nuova. Monsignor Pietro Gasparri , the recently appointed undersecretary at the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, had underscored his proposal to Pacelli to work in the "Vatican's equivalent of the Foreign office" by highlighting the "necessity of defending the Church from the onslaughts of secularism and liberalism throughout Europe".

By Pacelli received his doctorate. The theme of his thesis was the nature of concordats and the function of canon law when a concordat falls into abeyance. Promoted to the position of minutante , he prepared digests of reports that had been sent to the Secretariat from all over the world and in the same year became a papal chamberlain. In he received the title domestic prelate. Serbia 's success in the First Balkan War against Turkey in had increased the number of Catholics within greater Serbia. At this time Serbia, encouraged by Russia, was challenging Austria-Hungary 's sphere of influence throughout the Balkans.

Pius X died on 20 August His successor Benedict XV named Gasparri as secretary of state and Gasparri took Pacelli with him into the Secretariat of State, making him undersecretary. After his consecration, Eugenio Pacelli left for Bavaria. As there was no nuncio to Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the German Empire. Once in Munich , he conveyed the papal initiative to end the war to German authorities.

However, Bethmann-Hollweg was forced to resign and the German High Command, hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until 20 September.

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Sister Pascalina later recalled that the Nuncio was heartbroken that the Kaiser turned "deaf ear to all his proposals". She later wrote, "Thinking back today on that time, when we Germans still all believed that our weapons would be victorious and the Nuncio was deeply sorry that the chance had been missed to save what there was to save, it occurs to me over and over again how clearly he foresaw what was to come.

Once as he traced the course of the Rhine with his finger on a map, he said sadly, 'No doubt this will be lost as well. Monsignor Schioppa, the uditore , was left in Munich. When he returned to Munich, following Eisner's assassination by an anti-Semitic extreme nationalist, Count Anton von Arco auf Valley , he informed Gasparri-using Schioppa's eye-witness testimony of the chaotic scene at the former royal palace as the trio of Max Levien , Eugen Levine , and Towia Axelrod sought power: Pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, vulgar, repulsive Once, in a violation of international law, the Bavarian Revolutionary Government attempted to confiscate the Nunciature's car at gunpoint.

Despite their demands, however, Pacelli refused to leave his post. After the Munich Soviet Republic was defeated and toppled by Freikorps and Reichswehr troops, the Nuncio focused on, according to Lehnert, "alleviating the distress of the postwar period, consoling, supporting all in word and deed". Pacelli was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Germany on 23 June , and—after the completion of a Bavarian concordat—his nunciature was moved to Berlin in August Many of Pacelli's Munich staff stayed with him for the rest of his life, including his advisor Robert Leiber and Sister Pascalina Lehnert —housekeeper, cook, friend, and adviser for 41 years.

In Berlin, Pacelli was Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and active in diplomatic and many social activities. He was aided by the German priest Ludwig Kaas , who was known for his expertise in Church-state relations and was a full-time politician, politically active in the Catholic Centre Party , a party he led following Wilhelm Marx 's resignation in October Paul von Hindenburg , Gustav Stresemann , and other members of the Cabinet were regular guests. In post-war Germany, in the absence of a nuncio in Moscow, Pacelli worked also on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union.

He negotiated food shipments for Russia, where the Church was persecuted. He met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin , who rejected any kind of religious education, the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican. Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until Pius XI ordered them to be discontinued in Pacelli supported German diplomatic activity aimed at rejection of punitive measures from victorious former enemies.

He blocked French attempts for an ecclesiastical separation of the Saar region , supported the appointment of a papal administrator for Danzig and aided the reintegration of priests expelled from Poland. Following the Wall Street Crash of , the beginnings of a world economic slump appeared, and the days of the Weimar Republic were numbered. Pacelli was summoned back to Rome at this time—the call coming by telegram when he was resting at his favourite retreat, the Rorschach convent sanatorium.

He left Berlin on 10 December As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed concordats with a number of countries and states. Immediately on becoming Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli and Ludwig Kaas took up negotiations on a Baden Concordat which continued until the spring and summer of Austria , Germany , Yugoslavia and Portugal Catholicism had become the sole recognized religion; the powerful democratic Catholic Popular Party , in many ways similar to the Centre Party in Germany, had been disbanded, and in place of political Catholicism the Holy See encouraged Catholic Action , "an anaemic form of clerically dominated religious rally-rousing".

It was permitted only so long as it developed "its activity outside every political party and in direct dependence upon the Church hierarchy for the dissemination and implementation of Catholic principles". They also ensured that canon law would be recognized within some spheres e. As the decade began Pacelli wanted the Centre Party in Germany to turn away from the socialists.

In the summer of he clashed with Catholic chancellor Heinrich Bruning , who frankly told Pacelli he believed that he "misunderstood the political situation in Germany and the real character of the Nazis". Roosevelt , who appointed a personal envoy—who did not require Senate confirmation—to the Holy See in December , re-establishing a diplomatic tradition that had been broken since when the pope lost temporal power.

Pacelli made reference to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today". Klieforth, the American consul to Berlin, that Hitler was 'an untrustworthy scoundrel and fundamentally wicked person', to quote Klieforth, who also wrote that Pacelli 'did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, and Historian Walter Bussmann argued that Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI—who was nearing death at the time [53] —from condemning the Kristallnacht in November , [54] when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin.

Most noteworthy among the 50 speeches is his review of Church-State issues in Budapest in The Reichskonkordat was an integral part of four concordats Pacelli concluded on behalf of the Vatican with German States. The state concordats were necessary because the German federalist Weimar constitution gave the German states authority in the area of education and culture and thus diminished the authority of the churches in these areas; this diminution of church authority was a primary concern of the Vatican.

As Bavarian Nuncio, Pacelli negotiated successfully with the Bavarian authorities in He expected the concordat with Catholic Bavaria to be the model for the rest of Germany. However, Pacelli obtained less favorable conditions for the Church in the Prussian concordat of , which excluded educational issues. A concordat with the German state of Baden was completed by Pacelli in , after he had moved to Rome. There he also negotiated a concordat with Austria in The Reichskonkordat , signed on 20 July , between Germany and the Holy See, while thus a part of an overall Vatican policy, was controversial from its beginning.

It remains the most important of Pacelli's concordats. It is debated, not because of its content, which is still valid today, but because of its timing. A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state, because he had hoped to strengthen the legal position of the Church.

As nuncio during the s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between and he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but the opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim.

In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of the Church and the Catholic Centre Party. He sent his vice chancellor Franz von Papen , a Catholic nobleman and member of the Centre Party, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat.

Between and , Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the Reichskonkordat. Most notably, early in , Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat ; this was to become Pius XI's encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge. The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Catholic Church documents. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and read from every German Catholic Church pulpit on Palm Sunday , it condemned the paganism of the National Socialism ideology.

Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum on April 17, Pope Pius XI died on 10 February According to rumours, he asked for another ballot to be taken to ensure the validity of his election. After his election was indeed confirmed, he chose the name Pius XII in honour of his immediate predecessor. His coronation took place on 12 March There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis. Pacelli took the same papal name as his predecessor, a title used exclusively by Italian Popes.


  • Monstrous Kink?
  • Nirvana?
  • Pope Pius XII & the Holocaust.
  • Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life!
  • Capriccio No.30 F Major - Clarinet.

He was quoted as saying, "I call myself Pius; my whole life was under Popes with this name, but especially as a sign of gratitude towards Pius XI. It would be a much bigger tragedy, if Cardinal Pacelli dies, because there is only one. I pray every day, God may send another one into one of our seminaries, but as of today, there is only one in this world.

Cardinal Maglione, a seasoned Vatican diplomat, had reestablished diplomatic relations with Switzerland and was for many years nuncio in Paris. After the death of Maglione in , Pius left the position open and named Tardini head of its foreign section and Montini head of the internal section. He also supported the elevation of Americans such as Cardinal Francis Spellman from a minor to a major role in the Church. American appointees included Joseph P.

Hurley as regent of the nunciature in Belgrade, Gerald P.

For the first time, numerous young Europeans, Asians and "Americans were trained in various congregations and secretariats within the Vatican for eventual service throughout the world. Only twice in his pontificate did Pius XII hold a consistory to create new cardinals , in contrast to Pius XI, who had done so 17 times in as many years. The first occasion on 18 February —which has become known as the "Grand Consistory"—yielded the elevation of a record 32 new cardinals, almost 50 percent of the College of Cardinals and reaching the canonical limit of 70 cardinals.

In his second consistory on 12 January , it was expected that his closest co-workers, Msgrs. Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Montini would be elevated [99] and Pius XII informed the assembled cardinals that both of them were originally on the top of his list, [] but they had turned down the offer, and were rewarded instead with other promotions. The two consistories of and brought an end to over five hundred years of Italians constituting a majority of the College of Cardinals.

With few exceptions, Italian prelates accepted the changes positively; there was no protest movement or open opposition to the internationalization efforts. But it is His will, that the worship He instituted and practiced during His life on earth shall continue ever afterwards without intermission. For he has not left mankind an orphan. He still offers us the support of His powerful, unfailing intercession, acting as our "advocate with the Father.

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The Church has, therefore, according to Pius XII, a common aim with Christ himself, teaching all men the truth, and offering to God a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice. This way, the Church re-establishes the unity between the Creator and his creatures. The numerous reforms of Pius XII show two characteristics. Renewal and rediscovery of old liturgical traditions, such as the reintroduction of the Easter Vigil , and a more structured atmosphere within the Church buildings. These reforms and writings of Pius XII were intended to establish Eastern Orientals as equal parts of the mystical body of Christ, as explained in the encyclical Mystici corporis.

With the Apostolic constitution Sedis Sapientiae , Pius XII added social sciences , sociology , psychology and social psychology , to the pastoral training of future priests. Pius XII emphasised the need to systematically analyze the psychological condition of candidates to the priesthood to ensure that they are capable of a life of celibacy and service. He included a "pastoral year", an introduction into the practice of parish work.

Pius XII wrote in Menti Nostrae that the call to constant interior reform and Christian heroism means to be above average, to be a living example of Christian virtue. The strict norms governing their lives are meant to make them models of Christian perfection for lay people. Pius XII explained the Catholic faith in 41 encyclicals and almost messages and speeches during his long pontificate. Mediator Dei clarified membership and participation in the Church. The encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu opened the doors for biblical research. His magisterium was far larger and is difficult to summarize.

In numerous speeches Catholic teaching is related to various aspects of life, education, medicine, politics, war and peace, the life of saints, Mary , the Mother of God , things eternal and contemporary. He also gave a new freedom to engage in theological investigations. The encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu , published in , [] emphasized the role of the Bible. Pius XII freed biblical research from previous limitations. He encouraged Christian theologians to revisit original versions of the Bible in Greek and Hebrew.

Noting improvements in archaeology , the encyclical reversed Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, which had only advocated going back to the original texts to resolve ambiguity in the Latin Vulgate. The encyclical demands a much better understanding of ancient Hebrew history and traditions. It requires bishops throughout the Church to initiate biblical studies for lay people. The Pontiff also requests a reorientation of Catholic teaching and education, relying much more on sacred scriptures in sermons and religious instruction.

This theological investigative freedom does not, however, extend to all aspects of theology. According to Pius, theologians, employed by the Church, are assistants, to teach the official teachings of the Church and not their own private thoughts. They are free to engage in empirical research, which the Church generously supports, but in matters of morality and religion, they are subjected to the teaching office and authority of the Church, the Magisterium. As a young boy and in later life, Pacelli was an ardent follower of the Virgin Mary.

He consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in On 1 November , Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption of Mary , namely that she "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. On 8 September , the encyclical Fulgens corona announced a Marian year for , the centennial of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Pius XII delivered numerous speeches to medical professionals and researchers. He also took on issues like the uses of medicine in terminally ill persons, medical lies in face of grave illness, and the rights of family members to make decisions against expert medical advice. Pope Pius XII often reconsidered previously accepted truth, thus he was first to determine that the use of pain medicine in terminally ill patients is justified, even if this may shorten the life of the patient, as long as life shortening is not the objective itself.

Pope Pius XII developed an extensive theology of the family, taking issue with family roles, sharing of household duties, education of children, conflict resolution, financial dilemmas, psychological problems, illness, taking care of older generations, unemployment, marital holiness and virtue, common prayer, religious discussions and more. He accepted the rhythm method as a moral form of family planning , although only in limited circumstances, within the context of family. To Pius XII, science and religion were heavenly sisters, different manifestations of divine exactness, who could not possibly contradict each other over the long term.

He was energetic on this point and regretted that in the case of Galileo ". In , Pius XII promulgated Humani generis which acknowledged that evolution might accurately describe the biological origins of human life, but at the same time criticized those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution Catholics must believe that the human soul was created immediately by God.

Since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person. In an address given on September 14, , Pope Pius XII said that the Church does not regard the execution of criminals as a violation by the State of the universal right to life:. When it is a question of the execution of a condemned man, the State does not dispose of the individual's right to life. In this case it is reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned person of the enjoyment of life in expiation of his crime when, by his crime, he has already disposed himself of his right to live.

The Church regards criminal penalties as both "medicinal", preventing the criminal from re-offending, and "vindictive", providing retribution for the offense committed. Pius defended the authority of the State to carry out punishment, up to and including the death penalty. Pius XII issued 41 encyclicals during his pontificate—more than all his successors in the past 50 years taken together—along with many other writings and speeches. The pontificate of Pius XII was the first in Vatican history that published papal speeches and addresses in vernacular language on a systematic basis.

Until then, papal documents were issued mainly in Latin in Acta Apostolicae Sedis since Because of the novelty of it all, and a feared occupation of the Vatican by the German Wehrmacht , not all documents exist today. In , a number of papal documents were burned or "walled in", [] to avoid detection by the advancing German army.

Insisting that all publications must be reviewed by him on a prior basis to avoid any misunderstanding, several speeches by Pius XII, who did not find sufficient time, were never published or appeared only once issued in the Vatican daily, Osservatore Romano. Several encyclicals addressed the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Orientalis Ecclesiae was issued in on the 15th centenary of the death of Cyril of Alexandria , a saint common to Eastern Christianity and Latin Churches. Pius XII asks for prayer for better understanding and unification of the Churches. Orientales omnes Ecclesias , issued in on the th anniversary of the reunion, is a call to continued unity of the Ruthenian Church , threatened in its very existence by the authorities of the Soviet Union.

Sempiternus Rex was issued in on the th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. It included a call to oriental communities adhering to Miaphysite theology to return to the Catholic Church. Orientales Ecclesias was issued in and addressed to the Eastern Churches, protesting the continued Stalinist persecution of the Church.

Several Apostolic Letters were sent to the bishops in the East. Mary, the mother of God, was the subject of encyclical letters to the people of Russia in Fulgens corona , as well as a papal letter to the people of Russia. Pius XII made two substantial interventions on the media. His discourse The Ideal Movie , originally given in two parts to members of the Italian cinema industry, offered a "sophisticated analysis of the film industry and the role of cinema in modern society".

Pope Pius XII canonized numerous people, including Pope Pius X —"both were determined to stamp out, as far as possible, all traces of dangerous heterodoxy " [] —and Maria Goretti. He beatified Pope Innocent XI. The first canonizations were two women, the founder of a female order, Mary Euphrasia Pelletier , and a young housekeeper said to have stigmata , Gemma Galgani. Pelletier had a reputation for opening new ways for Catholic charities, helping people in difficulties with the law, who had been neglected by the system and the Church.

Galgani was a woman in her twenties whose virtue became model by her canonization. During World War II Pius saw his primary obligation as being to ensure the continuation the " Church visible " and its divine mission. He followed a strict public policy of Vatican neutrality for the duration of the conflict mirroring that of Pope Benedict XV during World War I, but preached against selfish nationalism and, through the use of diplomacy, sermons and radio broadcasts and the creation of the Vatican Information Service, worked to ameliorate the suffering of the victims of the war.

He permitted local churches to assess and formulate responses to the Nazis, and instructed them to provide discreet aid to Jews. In , Pius XII turned the Vatican into a centre of aid which he organized from various parts of the world. Pius XII had genuine affection for Germany, though not the criminal element into whose hands it had fallen; he feared Bolshevism, an ideology dedicated to the annihilation of the church of which he was head, but his sympathies lay with the Allies and the democracies, especially the United States, into whose war economy he had transferred and invested the Vatican's considerable assets.

Summi Pontificatus was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, in October and established some of the themes of his pontificate.

Pope Francis praises Pius XII for taking ‘risks’ to save Jews | leondumoulin.nl

The papal letter denounced antisemitism, war, totalitarianism, the attack on Poland and the Nazi persecution of the Church. Following themes addressed in Non abbiamo bisogno ; Mit brennender Sorge and Divini redemptoris , Pius wrote against "anti-Christian movements" and needing to bring back to the Church those who were following "a false standard Pius wrote of a persecuted Church [] and a time requiring "charity" for victims who had a "right" to compassion. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote: The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the "beginnings of sorrows" The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace.

With Italy not yet an ally of Hitler in the war, Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Church. Pius avoided explicit denunciations of Hitlerism or Stalinism , establishing the "impartial" public tone which would become controversial in later assessment of his pontificate: In April , the Vatican advised the US government that its efforts to provide humanitarian aid had been blocked by the Germans and that the Holy See had been forced to seek indirect channels through which to direct its aid.

This, Phayer wrote, was regarded as a "betrayal" by many Polish Catholics and clergy, who saw his appointment of Hilarius Breitinger as the apostolic administrator for the Wartheland in May , a "implicit recognition" of the breakup of Poland; the opinions of the Volksdeutsche , mostly German Catholic minorities living in occupied Poland, were more mixed. There was a well-known case of Jewish Rabbis who, seeking support against the Nazi persecution of Polish Jews in the General Government Nazi-occupied Polish zone , complained to the representatives of the Catholic Church.

The Church's attempted intervention caused the Nazis to retaliate by arresting rabbis and deporting them to the death camp. Subsequently, the Catholic Church in Poland abandoned direct intervention, instead focusing on organizing underground aid, with huge international support orchestrated by Pope Pius XII and his Holy See. Those intelligence materials were used by Pius XII on March 11, during a formal audience with Joachim von Ribbentrop Hitler's foreign affairs adviser when Pope was "listing the date, place, and precise details of each crime" as described by Joseph L. Lichten [] after others.

With Poland overrun, but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, Pius continued to hope for a negotiated peace to prevent the spread of the conflict. Roosevelt re-established American diplomatic relations with the Vatican after a seventy-year hiatus and dispatched Myron C. Taylor as his personal representative. According to Hitler biographer John Toland , following the November assassination attempt by Johann Georg Elser , Hitler said Pius would have wanted the plot to succeed: The Vatican agreed to send a letter outlining the bases for peace with England and the participation of the Pope was used to try to persuade senior German Generals Franz Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch to act against Hitler.

Pius warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in When Mussolini learned of the warnings and the telegrams of sympathy, he took them as a personal affront and had his ambassador to the Vatican file an official protest, charging that Pius XII had taken sides against Italy's ally Germany. Mussolini's foreign minister claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience". When in , the Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop led the only senior Nazi delegation permitted an audience with Pius XII and asked why the Pope had sided with the Allies, Pius replied with a list of recent Nazi atrocities and religious persecutions committed against Christians and Jews, in Germany, and in Poland, leading the New York Times to headline its report "Jews Rights Defended" and write of "burning words he spoke to Herr Ribbentrop about religious persecution".

At a special mass at St Peters for the victims of the war, held in November , soon after the commencement of the London Blitz bombing by the Luftwaffe , Pius preached in his homily: May justice and charity on one side and on the other be in perfect balance, so that all injustice be repaired, the reign of right restored".

This interpretation assuaged American Catholics who had previously opposed Lend-Lease arrangements with the Soviet Union. In March , Pius XII established diplomatic relations with the Japanese Empire and received ambassador Ken Harada , who remained in that position until the end of the war.

In June , diplomatic relations were established with the Nationalist government of China. This step was envisaged earlier, but delayed due to Japanese pressure to establish relations with the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei government. The first Chinese Minister to the Vatican , Hsieh Shou-kang, was only able to arrive at the Vatican in January , due to difficulties of travel resulting from the war.

He remained in that position until late The Pope employed the new technology of radio and a series of Christmas messages to preach against selfish nationalism and the evils of modern warfare and offer sympathy to the victims of the war. The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society; at the very end of the speech, Pius XII mentioned "the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline".

He is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews. He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals. In calling for a 'real new order' based on 'liberty, justice and love', Robert Graham each concluded such claims were an invention of British wartime propagandists.

Wartime Pope Pius XII 'more concerned about Communism than Holocaust'

As the war was approaching its end in , Pius advocated a lenient policy by the Allied leaders in an effort to prevent what he perceived to be the mistakes made at the end of World War I. At their meeting, the Pope acknowledged the justice of punishing war criminals, but expressed a hope that the people of Italy would not be punished, preferring that they be made "full allies" in the remaining war effort.

When the war was raging, Pius spoke out very often to condemn the false race theory. Cornwell asserts that the pope did little to challenge the progressing holocaust of the Jews out of fear of provoking the Nazis into invading Vatican City. In his Summi Pontificatus first papal encyclical, Pius reiterated Catholic teaching against racial persecution and antisemitism and affirmed the ethical principles of the " Revelation on Sinai ".

At Christmas , once evidence of mass executions of Jews had emerged, Pius XII voiced concern at the murder of "hundreds of thousands" of "faultless" people because of their "nationality or race" and intervened to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries. Upon his death in , Pius was praised emphatically by the Israeli Foreign Minister, and other world leaders. But his insistence on Vatican neutrality and avoidance of naming the Nazis as the evildoers of the conflict became the foundation for contemporary and later criticisms from some quarters.

His strongest public condemnation of genocide was considered inadequate by the Allied Powers, while the Nazis viewed him as an Allied sympathizer who had dishonored his policy of Vatican neutrality. In , the newly elected Pope Pius XII appointed several prominent Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican after they had been dismissed from Italian universities under Fascist leader Benito Mussolini 's racial laws.

Almagia had been at the University of Rome since but was dismissed after Benito Mussolini 's antisemitic legislation of The program was cancelled 14 months later, after fewer than 1, visas had been issued, amid suspicions of "improper conduct" i. Prime Minister Tuka , who confirmed the plan Taylor passed a US Government memorandum to Pius on 26 September , outlining intelligence received from the Jewish Agency for Palestine which said that Jews from across the Nazi Empire were being systematically "butchered".

Taylor asked if the Vatican might have any information which might "tend to confirm the reports", and if so, what the Pope might be able to do to influence public opinion against the "barbarities". The note thanked Washington for passing on the intelligence, and confirmed that reports of severe measures against the Jews had reached the Vatican from other sources, though it had not been possible to "verify their accuracy". Nevertheless, "every opportunity is being taken by the Holy See, however, to mitigate the suffering of these unfortunate people".

Here lies one of the reasons, why We impose self-restraint on Ourselves in our speeches; the experience, that we made in with papal addresses, which We authorized to be forwarded to the Believers, justifies our opinion, as far as We see. The Holy See has done whatever was in its power, with charitable, financial and moral assistance. To say nothing of the substantial sums which we spent in American money for the fares of immigrants.

Since it is currently thought that the Germans will take no further steps against the Jews in Rome, the question of our relations with the Vatican may be considered closed. In March , through the papal nuncio in Budapest , Angelo Rotta, the pope urged the Hungarian government to moderate its treatment of the Jews. State Department for those countries to honor the documents. In , Corriere della Sera published a document dated 20 November on the subject of Jewish children baptized in war-time France.

The document ordered that baptized children, if orphaned, should be kept in Catholic custody and stated that the decision "has been approved by the Holy Father". His encyclicals, Evangelii praecones and Fidei donum , issued on 2 June and 21 April , respectively, increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture. Finland, Burma and French Africa became independent dioceses in From elsewhere in the liberated Nazi Empire Pius selected other resistors: His personal confessor Augustin Bea was a German Jesuit and Mother Pascalina Lehnert and the other German speaking sisters of the papal household added to this element.

The American bishop Aloisius Muench wrote in November that Pius XII was 'more interested in affairs of the Church in Germany than in any other part of the Church' and resolved to make the postwar German crisis a top priority — 'its refugee crisis, poverty, hunger and disease, the fate of prisoners-of-war and accused war criminals, the disruption to the internal organization and communal life of German Catholicism, and Germany's uncertain political future. He was concerned too about the potential spread of Communism in Western Europe and the Americas.

Pope Pius XII Crowned [1939]

As he sought to secure resources from abroad to aid post-war recovery, believing deprivation fuelled political agitation, so he also sought to influence Italian politics. In January , Luigi Gedda, of Italy's Catholic Action movement, was called to the Vatican as the campaign for the first parliament of Italy's post-fascist republic was underway.

In July he approved a controversial move by the Holy Office to threaten with excommunication anyone with known Communist affiliations. A group of Jesuits around the journal La Civilta Cattolica , active in Vatican circles, further spread alarm that fifth columns of Soviet Communism were active in Western Europe poised to exploit popular discontent to aid Soviet expansionism. On the eve of the local elections in Rome, in which again the Communist and Socialist parties threatened to win out, he used informal connections to make his views known.

Pius XII stated that the war against communism was a holy war and excommunicated members of the Communist Party. Adopting a domino theory he warned that, if "the Communists win in Rome, in Italy, it will cast a shadow on the entire world: France would become Communist, and then Spain and then all of Europe'. The last years of the pontificate of Pius XII began in late with a long illness, during which he considered abdication.

Afterwards, changes in his work habit became noticeable.