Pope Pius XII

The encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu, published in 1943,

This theological investigative freedom does not, however, extend to all aspects of theology. According to Pius, theologians, employed by the Catholic 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. "The most noble office of theology is to show how a doctrine defined by the Church is contained in the sources of revelation, ... in that sense in which it has been defined by the Church."^[119] The deposit of faith is authentically interpreted not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only to the teaching authority of the Church.^[120]

Mariology and the dogma of the Assumption

World consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

As a young boy and in later life, Pacelli was an ardent follower of the Virgin Mary. He was consecrated as a bishop on 13 May 1917, the very first day of the apparitions of

Dogma of the Assumption of Mary

On 1 November 1950, Pius XII invoked

Medical theology

Pius XII delivered numerous speeches to medical professionals and researchers.

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.^[128]

Theology and science

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.

In 1950, Pius XII promulgated Humani generis, which acknowledged that evolution might accurately describe the biological origins of the human form, but at the same time criticized those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution ... explains the origin of all things". 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.^[131] Fifty years later, Pope John Paul II, stating that scientific evidence now seemed to favour the evolutionary theory, upheld the distinction of Pius XII regarding the human soul. "Even if the human body originates from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is spontaneously created by God."^[132]

Capital punishment

In an address given on 14 September 1952, 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.^[133]

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.^[134]

Democracy and monarchy

Pius XII taught that the masses were a threat to true democracy. In such a democracy, liberty is the individual's moral duty and equality is the right of all people to honorably live in the place and station that God has assigned them.^[135]

On 1 June 1946, one day before the

The problem is whether one or the other of those nations, of those two Latin sisters [elections were taking place in France on the same day] with several thousands of years of civilization will continue to learn against the solid rock of Christianity,...or on the contrary do they want to hand over the fate of their future to the impossible omnipotence of a material state without extraterrestrial ideals, without religion, and without God. One of these two alternatives shall occur according to whether the names of the champions or the destroyers of Christian civilization emerge victorious from the urns[137]

After the referendum was successful and the Italian monarchy was abolished, Pius privately agreed with his envoy Myron Charles Taylor "...that it would have been far preferable for Italy to remain a monarchy, but he also noted that what was done was done".^[138]

Encyclicals, writings and speeches

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 1909. Because of the novelty of it all, and a feared occupation of the Vatican by the German Wehrmacht, not all documents exist today. In 1944, a number of papal documents were burned or "walled in".^[141]

Several encyclicals addressed the

Pius XII made two substantial interventions on the media. His 1955 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".^[149] Compared to his predecessor's teaching, the encyclical Miranda Prorsus (1957) shows a "high regard for the importance of cinema, television, and radio".^[150]

Feasts and devotions

In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared the Feast of the

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"^[153]—and Maria Goretti. He beatified Pope Innocent XI. The first canonizations were two women, the founder of a congregation for women, Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, and a young laywoman, 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 virtuous woman in her twenties, said to have the stigmata.^[154]

Pius XII also named Anthony of Padua as a Doctor of the Church on 16 January 1946 while conferring upon him the title Doctor evangelius.

World War II

During World War II Pius saw his primary obligation as being to ensure the continuation of the "Church visible" and its divine mission.^[155] Pius XII lobbied world leaders to prevent the outbreak of World War II and then expressed his dismay that war had come in his October 1939 Summi Pontificatus encyclical. He followed a strict public policy of Vatican neutrality for the duration of the conflict mirroring that of Pope Benedict XV.

In 1939, 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.[158]

Outbreak of war

Summi Pontificatus

Summi Pontificatus was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, in October 1939 and established some of the themes of his pontificate. During the drafting of the letter, the Second World War commenced with the German/Soviet invasion of Poland—the "dread tempest of war is already raging despite all Our efforts to avert it". The papal letter denounced antisemitism, war, totalitarianism, the attack on Catholic Poland and the Nazi persecution of the church.^[159]

Pius XII reiterated church teaching on the "principle of equality"—with specific reference to Jews: "there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision".^[160] The forgetting of solidarity "imposed by our common origin and by the equality of rational nature in all men" was called "pernicious error".^[161] Catholics everywhere were called upon to offer "compassion and help" to the victims of the war.^[162] The Pope declared determination to work to hasten the return of peace and trust in prayers for justice, love and mercy, to prevail against the scourge of war.^[163] The letter also decried the deaths of noncombatants.^[164]

Following themes addressed in

Pius wrote of a persecuted church[166] and a time requiring "charity" for victims who had a "right" to compassion. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote:^[159]

[This is an] "Hour of Darkness"... in which the spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind... The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the "beginnings of sorrows"... but even now there reigns in thousands of families death and desolation, lamentation and misery. 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

In Summi Pontificatus, Pius expressed dismay at the killing of non-combatants in the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Poland and expressed hope for the "resurrection" of that country. The Nazis and Soviets commenced a persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland. In April 1940, the Vatican advised the U.S. 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.^[168] Michael Phayer, a critic of Pius XII, assesses his policy as having been to "refuse to censure" the "German" invasion and annexation of Poland. 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 1942, an "implicit recognition" of the breakup of Poland; the opinions of the Volksdeutsche, mostly German Catholic minorities living in occupied Poland, were more mixed.^[169] Phayer argues that Pius XII—both before and during his papacy – consistently "deferred to Germany at the expense of Poland", and saw Germany—not Poland—as critical to "rebuilding a large Catholic presence in Central Europe".^[170] In May 1942, Kazimierz Papée, Polish ambassador to the Vatican, complained that Pius had failed to condemn the recent wave of atrocities in Poland; when Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione replied that the Vatican could not document individual atrocities, Papée declared, "when something becomes notorious, proof is not required".^[171] Although Pius XII received frequent reports about atrocities committed by and/or against Catholics, his knowledge was incomplete; for example, he wept after the war on learning that Cardinal August Hlond had banned German liturgical services in Poland.^[172]

There was a well-known case of Jewish rabbis who, seeking support against the Nazi persecution of Polish Jews in the

Pius warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.[180] In Rome in 1942, U.S. envoy Myron C. Taylor, thanked the Holy See for the "forthright and heroic expressions of indignation made by Pope Pius XII when Germany invaded the Low countries".^[181] After Germany invaded the Low Countries during 1940, Pius XII sent expressions of sympathy to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, King Leopold II of Belgium, and Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. 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 Galeazzo Ciano claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience".^[182]

When, in 1940, 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".^[183] During the meeting, von Ribbentrop suggested an overall settlement between the Vatican and the Reich government in exchange for Pius XII instructing the German bishops to refrain from political criticism of the German government, but no agreement was reached.^[184]

At a special mass at St Peters for the victims of the war, held in November 1940, soon after the commencement of the

In 1941, Pius XII interpreted Divini Redemptoris, an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, which forbade Catholics to help Communists, as not applying to military assistance to the Soviet Union. This interpretation assuaged American Catholics who had previously opposed Lend-Lease arrangements with the Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

In March 1942, Pius XII established diplomatic relations with the Empire of Japan and received ambassador Ken Harada, who remained in that position until the end of the war.^[197][198]

In June 1942, diplomatic relations were established with the

Several authors have alleged a plot to kidnap Pius XII by the Nazis during their occupation of Rome in 1943 (Vatican City itself was not occupied); British historian Owen Chadwick and the Jesuit ADSS editor Robert A. Graham each concluded such claims were an intentional creation of the British Political Warfare Executive.^[205][206] However, in 2007, subsequently to those accounts, Dan Kurzman published a work in which he establishes that the plot was a fact.^[207]

In 1944, Pius XII issued a Christmas message in which he warned against rule by the masses and against secular conceptions of liberty and equality.^[135]

Final stages

As the war was approaching its end in 1945, 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.^[208] On 23 August 1944, he met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was visiting Rome. 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.^[209]

Holocaust

During the Second World War, after Nazi Germany commenced its mass-murder of Jews in occupied Soviet territory, Pius XII employed diplomacy to aid victims of the Holocaust and directed the church to provide discreet aid to Jews.^[210] Upon his death in 1958, among many Jewish tributes, the Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff, said: "Jews will always remember what the Catholic Church did for them by order of the Pope during the Second World War. When the war was raging, Pius spoke out very often to condemn the false race theory."^[211] This is disputed by commentator John Cornwell, who, in his book, Hitler's Pope, argues that the Pope was weak and vacillating in his approach to Nazism. 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.^[212]

In his 1939 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 1942, once evidence of the mass-murder 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 1958, Pius was praised emphatically by the Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir, 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 dishonoured his policy of Vatican neutrality.^[213] Hitler biographer John Toland, while scathing of Pius's cautious public comments in relation to the mistreatment of Jews, concluded that the Allies' own record of action against the Holocaust was "shameful", while "The Church, under the Pope's guidance, had already saved the lives of more Jews than all other churches, religious institutions and rescue organizations combined".^[179]

In 1939, 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

Following the German/Soviet invasion of Poland, the Pope's first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus reiterated Catholic teaching against racial persecution and rejected antisemitism, quoting scripture singling out the "principle of equality"—with specific reference to Jews: "there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision" and direct affirmation of the Jewish Revelation on Sinai.^[220][221] The forgetting of solidarity "imposed by our common origin and by the equality of rational nature in all men" was called "pernicious error".^[161] Catholics everywhere were called upon to offer "compassion and help" to the victims of the war.^[162] The Pope declared determination to work to hasten the return of peace and trust in prayers for justice, love and mercy, to prevail against the scourge of war.^[222] The letter also decried the deaths of noncombatants.^[164]

Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione received a request from Chief Rabbi of Palestine Isaac Herzog in the spring of 1940 to intercede on behalf of Lithuanian Jews about to be deported to Germany.^[58] Pius called Joachim von Ribbentrop on 11 March, repeatedly protesting against the treatment of Jews.^[219] In 1940, Pius asked members of the clergy, on Vatican letterhead, to do whatever they could on behalf of interned Jews.^[223]

In 1941, Cardinal

In 1942, the Slovak chargé d'affaires told Pius that Slovak Jews were being sent to concentration camps.^[224] On 11 March 1942, several days before the first transport was due to leave, the chargé d'affaires in Bratislava reported to the Vatican: "I have been assured that this atrocious plan is the handwork of ... Prime Minister (Tuka), who confirmed the plan ... he dared to tell me—he who makes such a show of his Catholicism—that he saw nothing inhuman or un-Christian in it ... the deportation of 80,000 persons to Poland, is equivalent to condemning a great number of them to certain death." The Vatican protested to the Slovak government that it "deplore(s) these... measures which gravely hurt the natural human rights of persons, merely because of their race."^[232]

On 18 September 1942, Pius XII received a letter from Monsignor Montini (future

In December 1942, when Tittmann asked Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione if Pius would issue a proclamation similar to the Allied declaration "German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race", Maglione replied that the Vatican was "unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities".[238] Pius XII directly explained to Tittman that he could not name the Nazis without at the same time mentioning the Bolsheviks.^[239]

On 14 December 1942, German Jesuit and

Following the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Poland, Pius XII's Summi Pontificatus called for the sympathy of the whole world towards Poland, where "the blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants" was being spilled.^[164] Pius never publicly condemned the Nazi massacre of 1,800,000–1,900,000 Poles, overwhelmingly Catholic (including 2,935 members of the Catholic clergy).^[242][243] In late 1942, Pius XII advised German and Hungarian bishops to speak out against the massacres on the Eastern Front.^[244] In his 1942 Christmas Eve message, he expressed concern for "those hundreds of thousands, who ... sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or progressive extinction.^[245] On 7 April 1943, Msgr. Tardini, one of Pius XII's closest advisors, advised Pius XII that it would be politically advantageous after the war to take steps to help Slovak Jews.^[246]

In January 1943, Pius XII declined to denounce publicly the Nazi discrimination against the Jews, following requests to do so from

On 26 September 1943, following the German occupation of northern Italy, Nazi officials gave Jewish leaders in Rome 36 hours to produce 50 kilograms (110 lb) of gold (or the equivalent), threatening to take 300 hostages. Then Chief Rabbi of Rome Israel Zolli recounts in his memoir that he was selected to go to the Vatican and seek help.^[248] The Vatican offered to loan 15 kilos, but the offer proved unnecessary when the Jews received an extension.^[249] Soon afterward, when deportations from Italy were imminent, 477 Jews were hidden in the Vatican itself and another 4,238 were protected in Roman monasteries and convents.^[250] Eighty percent of Roman Jews were saved from deportation.^[251] Phayer argues that the German diplomats in Rome were the "initiators of the effort to save the city's Jews", but holds that Pius XII "cooperated in this attempt at rescue", while agreeing with Zuccotti that the Pope "did not give orders" for any Catholic institution to hide Jews.^[252]

On 30 April 1943, Pius XII wrote to Bishop Konrad von Preysing of Berlin to say: "We give to the pastors who are working on the local level the duty of determining if and to what degree the danger of reprisals and of various forms of oppression occasioned by episcopal declarations ... ad maiora mala vitanda (to avoid worse) ... seem to advise caution. Here lies one of the reasons, why We impose self-restraint on Ourselves in our speeches; the experience, that we made in 1942 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."^[253]

On 28 October 1943, Ernst von Weizsäcker, the German Ambassador to the Vatican, telegraphed Berlin that "the Pope has not yet let himself be persuaded to make an official condemnation of the deportation of the Roman Jews. ... 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."^[254][255]

In March 1944, through the papal

In 2005,

Writings from released Vatican records revealed that Pius XII was personally but secretly involved in hiding the Finaly children from their Jewish family in an ultimately failed attempt to keep them Catholic after their secret baptism done against the wishes of their family. The French Catholic Church received very bad press from the affair, and several nuns and monks were jailed for the kidnapping before the children were discovered and spirited away to Israel. Only recently was the Pope's personal involvement revealed.^[264]

Post–World War II

Further information:

Ratlines (World War II aftermath)

After World War II, Pope Pius XII focused on material aid to war-torn Europe, an internal internationalization of the Catholic Church, and the development of its worldwide diplomatic relations. His encyclicals,

Fidei donum, issued on 2 June 1951 and 21 April 1957, 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.^[265][266] Though his language retained old conceptions – Africa, for example, merited special attention since the church there worked 'to forward her work among the heathen multitudes' – in 1956 he expressed solidarity with the 'non-Europeans who aspire to full political independence'.^[267]

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Pius XII

elevated in 1953

.

A German contingent dominated his inner circle at this period – the German Jesuits

Aloisius Muench wrote in November 1948 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'.^[269]

He was concerned too about the potential spread of Communism in Western Europe and the Americas. 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 1948, Luigi Gedda, of Italy's Catholic Action movement, was called to the Vatican as the election campaign for the first parliament of Italy's post-fascist republic was underway.^[270]

Pius XII was rather distrustful of

Alcide de Gasperi and Italy's Christian Democrats, considering the party indecisive and fractious – reformist currents within it particularly, which tended to the moderate Left – represented by the Sicilian priest Luigi Sturzo for example – he considered too accommodating to the Left. On the eve of the 1952 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 Italian Communist Party. Having decided to encourage the Christian Democrats to consider a political alliance with the Rightist parties as part of an anti-left coalition, he asked the Jesuit, Father Riccardo Lombardi, to speak with de Gasperi to consider such an alliance – an electoral alliance with those even of monarchist and neo-fascist tendencies -including the Italian Social Movement. 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."^[271]

Later life, illness and death

Late years of Pope Pius XII

Main article: Late years of Pope Pius XII

A long illness in late 1954 caused the Pope to consider

cellular rejuvenation treatment administered by Paul Niehans, the most important in 1954 when Pius was gravely ill. Side-effects of the treatment included hallucinations, from which the Pope suffered in his last years. "These years were also plagued by horrific nightmares. Pacelli's blood-curdling screams could be heard throughout the papal apartments."^[273]

Pius XII often elevated young priests as bishops, such as Julius Döpfner (35 years) and Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II, 38 years), one of his last appointees in 1958. He took a firm stand against pastoral experiments, such as "worker-priests", who worked full-time in factories and joined political parties and unions. He continued to defend the theological tradition of Thomism as worthy of continued reform, and as superior to modern trends such as phenomenology or existentialism.^[274]

Illness and death

With frequent absences from work, Pope Pius XII had come to depend heavily on a few close colleagues, especially his aide Domenico Tardini, his speechwriter Robert Leiber, and his long-serving housekeeper Sister Pascalina Lehnert. The Pope still addressed lay people and groups about a wide range of topics. Sometimes he answered specific moral questions, which were addressed to him. To professional associations he explained specific occupational ethics in light of church teachings. Robert Leiber helped him occasionally with his speeches and publications. Cardinal Augustin Bea was his personal confessor. Sister Pascalina was for forty years his "housekeeper, muse and lifelong companion".^[275]

On Monday, 6 October 1958, at around 8:30 CET (7:30 GMT), he suffered a stroke, weakening him greatly in addition to his other maladies, after having taken ill the previous day after a series of meetings. He received the Last rites. However, his condition suitably improved until 8 October when he suffered a second stroke. By the mid-afternoon, his doctors had reported that Pius XII was suffering from a severe cardio-pulmonary collapse and by 15:00 CET (14:00 GMT) believed that his death was imminent. Just before sunset, Pius XII contracted pneumonia and doctors immediately moved to bring in oxygen and blood plasma. His last words were reportedly, "Pray. Pray that this regrettable situation for the church may end". When Pius XII was interred, the small crucifix and rosary that he held in his hands as he died were buried with him.^[276]

On the last full day of his life, his temperature rose steadily and his breathing became difficult. At 3:52 CET (2:52 GMT) on Thursday, 9 October, a Feast of Saint Denis of Paris, he gave a smile, lowered his head and died. The cause of death was recorded as acute heart failure. Domenico Tardini prayed the Magnificat Anima mea dominum, the Virgin Mary's praise of the Lord, in Latin. His doctor Gaspanini said afterwards: "The Holy Father did not die because of any specific illness. He was completely exhausted. He was overworked beyond limit. His heart was healthy, his lungs were good. He could have lived another 20 years, had he spared himself."^[277] Spain declared ten days of mourning;^[278] Italy declared three days of mourning and the closure of offices and schools as a sign of respect;^[279] Cuba declared three days of mourning.^[278]

The Testament of Pope Pius XII was published the month of his death.^[280]

Botched embalming

Madonna and Child

, added by John Paul II in 1982, hangs over the tomb of Pius XII.

Pius XII's physician, Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, reported that the pontiff's body was embalmed in the room where he died using a novel process invented by Oreste Nuzzi.^[281]

Pope Pius XII did not want the vital organs removed from his body, demanding instead that it be kept in the same condition "in which God created it".^[282] According to Galeazzi-Lisi, this was the reason why he and Nuzzi, an embalmer from Naples, used an atypical approach with the embalming procedure.^[282] In a controversial press conference, Galeazzi-Lisi described in great detail the embalming of the body of the late pontiff. He claimed to have used the same system of oils and resins with which the body of Jesus Christ was preserved.^{[282][clarification needed]}

Galeazzi-Lisi asserted that the new process would "preserve the body indefinitely in its natural state".^[281] However, whatever chance the new embalming process had of efficaciously preserving the body was obliterated by intense heat in Castel Gandolfo during the embalming process. As a result, the body decomposed rapidly and the viewing of the faithful had to be terminated abruptly.^[283]

Galeazzi-Lisi reported that heat in the halls, where the body of the late Pope lay in state, caused chemical reactions which required it to be treated twice after the original preparation.^[282] Swiss Guards stationed around Pius XII's body were reported to have become ill during their vigil.^[281]

Funeral

His funeral procession into Rome was the largest congregation of Romans as of that date. Romans mourned "their" pope, who was born in their own city, especially as a hero in the time of war.^[284] Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (later to be Pope John XXIII) wrote in his diary on Saturday, 11 October 1958 that probably no Roman emperor had enjoyed such a triumph, which he viewed as a reflection of the spiritual majesty and religious dignity of the late Pius XII.^[285]

Cause for canonisation

Papal vestments Papal tiara Pectoral cross

Main article: Canonization of Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII's

Venerable.^[286] Pope Benedict XVI did so on 19 December 2009, simultaneously making the same declaration in regard to Pope John Paul II.^[7]

For Venerable status, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints certifies the "heroic virtues" of the candidate. Making Pius XII as Venerable met with various responses, most centered on the papal words and actions during World War II. Benedict's signature on the decree of heroic virtue was regarded by some as a public relations blunder, though acceptance of Pius XII as a saviour of Europe's Jews is regarded as 'proof of fidelity to the Church, the pope and the Tradition' by neoconservative Catholic groups.[287] On the other hand, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center said "there would be a great distortion of history" if Pius XII were canonized.^[288] Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, the head of Sydney's Great Synagogue, said: "How can one venerate a man who ... seemed to give his passive permission to the Nazis as the Jews were prised from his doorstep in Rome?"^[289]

On 1 August 2013, an anonymous "source who works for the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints" said Pope Francis is considering canonization without a miracle, "us[ing] the formula of scientia certa".^[290]

Pope Francis also announced his intention in January 2014 to open the

Vatican Secret Archives to scholars so that an evaluation of the late pontiff's role in the war can be determined before canonization. This has been met with praise by the Jewish community. However, it was said that it could take up to a year to gather all the documents and then analyze them.^{[291][292][293]}

On 26 May 2014 on his way back from the Holy Land to the Vatican City, Pope Francis stated that the late pope would not be beatified because the cause has stalled. Pope Francis stated that he checked the progress of the cause for Pius XII and said that there were no miracles attributed to his intercession, which was the main reason that the cause had halted.^[294]

Father Peter Gumpel stated, on a 12 January 2016 documentary on the late pope, that there was consultation of the Vatican Secret Archives which were carried out in secret; in short it means that there are no controversies surrounding the late pontiff that could impede the potential beatification.^[295] In that same documentary, the cause's vice-postulator Marc Lindeijer stated that several miracles attributed to the late pope are reported to the postulation every year but the individuals related to the healings do not come forward to enact diocesan proceedings of investigation. Lindeijer explained that this was the reason that the cause has stalled in the past as none have come forward to assist the postulation in their investigations.^[296]

Potential miracle

Reports from 2014 indicate a potential miracle from the United States attributed to the intercession of the late pope that was reported to the postulation. The miracle pertains to a male plagued with severe influenza and pneumonia that could have proven to be fatal; the individual was said to have been healed in full after a novena to Pius XII.^[297][298]

Views, interpretations and scholarship

Contemporary

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

During the war, Time credited Pius XII and the Catholic Church for "fighting totalitarianism more knowingly, devoutly and authoritatively, and for a longer time, than any other organised power".^[299] During the war he was also praised editorially by The New York Times for opposing Nazi anti-Semitism and aggression.^[300] According to Paul O'Shea, "The Nazis demonised the Pope as the agent of international Jewry; the Americans and British were continually frustrated because he would not condemn Nazi aggression; and the Russians accused him of being an agent of Fascism and the Nazis."^[301]

On 21 September 1945, the general secretary of the World Jewish Congress, Aryeh Leon Kubowitzki, presented an amount of money to the Pope, "in recognition of the work of the Holy See in rescuing Jews from Fascist and Nazi persecutions."^[302] After the war, in the autumn of 1945, Harry Greenstein from Baltimore, a close friend of Chief Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem, told Pius XII how grateful Jews were for all he had done for them. "My only regret", the Pope replied, "is not to have been able to save a greater number of Jews".^[303]

Pius XII was also criticised during his lifetime.

Leon Poliakov wrote in 1950 that Pius XII had been a tacit supporter of Vichy France's anti-Semitic laws, calling him "less forthright" than Pope Pius XI either out of "Germanophilia" or the hope that Hitler would defeat Communist Russia.^[304]

After Pius XII's death on 9 October 1958 many Jewish organisations and newspapers around the world paid tribute to his legacy. At the United Nations, Golda Meir, Israel's Foreign Minister, said, "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict."^[305] The Jewish Chronicle (London) stated on 10 October, "Adherents of all creeds and parties will recall how Pius XII faced the responsibilities of his exalted office with courage and devotion. Before, during, and after the Second World War, he constantly preached the message of peace. Confronted by the monstrous cruelties of Nazism, Fascism and Communism, he repeatedly proclaimed the virtues of humanity and compassion."^[305] In the Canadian Jewish Chronicle (17 October), Rabbi J. Stern stated that Pius XII "made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away..."^[305] In 6 November edition of The Jewish Post & News in Winnipeg, William Zukerman, the former The American Hebrew columnist, wrote that no other leader "did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late Pope".^[305] Other prominent Jewish figures, such as Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett and Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog expressed their public gratitude to Pius XII.^[306]

Early historical accounts

Some early works echoed the favourable sentiments of the war period, including Polish historian Oskar Halecki's Pius XII: Eugenio Pacelli: Pope of peace (1954) and Nazareno Padellaro's Portrait of Pius XII (1949).

Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish theologian and Israeli diplomat to Milan in the 1960s, estimated controversially in Three Popes and the Jews that Pius "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000 but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands".^[307] Some historians have questioned this^[308] often cited number, which Lapide reached by "deducting all reasonable claims of rescue" by non-Catholics from the total number of European Jews surviving the Holocaust.^[309] A Catholic scholar, Kevin J. Madigan, has interpreted this and other praise from prominent Jewish leaders, including that offered by Golda Meir, as less than sincere, an attempt to secure Vatican recognition of the State of Israel.^[310]

The Deputy

Main article: The Deputy

In 1963,

Communist bloc. It was on Moscow Radio, on 2 June 1945, that the first accusation directly against Pius XII of refusing to speak out against the exterminations in Nazi concentration camps. It was also the first medium to call him "Hitler's Pope".^[314]

The former high-ranking Securitate General Ion Mihai Pacepa alleged in 2007 that Hochhuth's play and numerous publications attacking Pius XII as a Nazi sympathizer were fabrications that were part of a KGB and Eastern bloc secret services disinformation campaign, named Seat 12, to discredit the moral authority of the church and Christianity in the west.^[315] Pacepa indicated that he was involved in contacting eastern bloc agents close the Vatican in order to fabricate the story to be used for the attack against the wartime pope.^[315]

Actes

Main article: Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale

In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding The Deputy, in 1964, Pope Paul VI authorized Jesuit scholars to access the Vatican State Secretariat Archives, which are normally not opened for seventy-five years. Original documents in French and Italian, Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, were published in eleven volumes between 1965 and 1981.^[216] Pierre Blet also published a summary of the eleven volumes.^[316]

Hitler's Pope and The Myth of Hitler's Pope

Main articles: Hitler's Pope and The Myth of Hitler's Pope

In 1999, British author John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope criticised Pius XII for his actions and inactions during the Holocaust. Cornwell argued that Pius XII subordinated opposition to the Nazis to his goal of increasing and centralising the power of the Papacy. Further, Cornwell accused Pius XII of anti-Semitism.^[317] The Encyclopædia Britannica described Cornwell's depiction of Pius XII as anti-Semitic as lacking "credible substantiation".^[318] Kenneth L. Woodward stated in his review in Newsweek that "errors of fact and ignorance of context appear on almost every page".^[319] Paul O'Shea summarized the work by saying it was "disappointing because of its many inaccuracies, selective use of sources, and claims that do not bear any scrutiny. However, [Cornwell] has rendered a service by insisting Pacelli be re-examined thoroughly and placed firmly within the context of his times".^[320] Five years after the publication of Hitler's Pope, Cornwell stated: "I would now argue, in the light of the debates and evidence following Hitler's Pope, that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by Germany".^{[321][322][323]}

Cornwell's work was the first to have access to testimonies from Pius XII's

David Kertzer's The Pope Against the Jews denounced Pius, while Ralph McInery and José Sanchez wrote less critical assessments of Pius XII's pontificate.^[326]

In specific riposte to Cornwell's criticism, American Rabbi and historian

David Dalin published The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis in 2005. He reaffirmed previous accounts of Pius having been a saviour of thousands of Europe's Jews. In a review of the book, another Jewish scholar—Churchill biographer, Martin Gilbert—wrote that Dalin's work was "an essential contribution to our understanding of the reality of Pope Pius XII's support for Jews at their time of greatest danger. Hopefully, his account will replace the divisively harmful version of papal neglect, and even collaboration, that has held the field for far too long".^[327] Dalin's book also argued that Cornwell and others were liberal Catholics and ex-Catholics who "exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today" and that Pius XII was responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Jews.^[328]

A number of other scholars replied with favourable accounts of Pius XII, including

Cardinal Winning, Michael Burleigh, Paul Johnson, and Denis Mack Smith.^[326]

In his 2003 book

Colossians, in God's eyes "there is neither Gentile nor Jew". In saying this, the Pope affirmed that Jews were full members of the human community—which is Goldhagen's own criterion for establishing 'dissent from the anti-Semitic creed'."^[331]

In Pius XII, the Hound of Hitler, Catholic journalist Gerard Noel dismissed accusations that Pius was "anti-semitic" or "pro-Nazi", but accused him of "silence" based on fear of retaliation and wrote that "Hitler played the Pope with consummate expertise".^[326] Ian Kershaw came to a similar conclusion about Pius's motives.^[332] He suggested that besides seeking to protect his own church and parishioners, Pius feared that speaking out would worsen the plight of the Jews, though he could have hardly made it worse after 1942. Kershaw called the 1942 Christmas message "a missed opportunity", adding: "Having decided to refer to the genocide, Pius ought to have followed this with a condemnation that was loud, plain and unequivocal." However, he doubted that condemnation from the Pope would have led to Nazi Germany changing course.^[332]

Gerald Steinacher's Nazis on the Run accused Pius of turning a blind eye to the activities of Vatican priests assisting "denazification through conversion", which he said helped ex-Nazi anti-communists to escape justice.^[333][334]

A Berlin Jewish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wolfsson, argued in defense of the pope: "None of us wanted the Pope to take an open stand. We were all fugitives, and fugitives do not wish to be pointed at. The Gestapo would have become more excited and would have intensified its inquisitions. If the Pope had protested, Rome would have become the center of attention. It was better that the Pope said nothing. We all shared this opinion at the time, and this is still our conviction today." There were examples when the Catholic Church reaction to Nazi brutality only intensified SS persecutions of both Jews and the church.^[335]

International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission

Main article:

International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission

In 1999, in an attempt to address some of this controversy, the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (Historical Commission), a group of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars was appointed, respectively, by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (Holy See's Commission) and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), to whom a preliminary report was issued in October 2000.^[336]

The Commission did not discover any documents, but had the agreed-upon task to review the existing Vatican volumes, that make up the Actes et Documents du Saint Siège (ADSS)^[337] The commission was internally divided over the question of access to additional documents from the Holy See, access to the news media by individual commission members, and, questions to be raised in the preliminary report. It was agreed to include all 47 individual questions by the six members, and use them as Preliminary Report.^[338] In addition to the 47 questions, the commission issued no findings of its own. It stated that it was not their task to sit in judgment of the Pope and his advisors but to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the papacy during the Holocaust.^[339]

The 47 questions by the six scholars were grouped into three parts: (a) 27 specific questions on existing documents,^[340] mostly asking for background and additional information such as drafts of the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, which was largely written by Eugenio Pacelli.^[341] (b) Fourteen questions dealt with themes of individual volumes,^[342] such as the question how Pius viewed the role of the church during the war.^[343] (c) Six general questions,^[344] such as the absence of any anti-communist sentiments in the documents.^[345] The disagreement between members over additional documents locked up under the Holy See's 70-year rule resulted in a discontinuation of the commission in 2001 on friendly terms.^[338] Unsatisfied with the findings, Michael Marrus, one of the three Jewish members of the commission, said the commission "ran up against a brick wall .... It would have been really helpful to have had support from the Holy See on this issue."^[346]

Peter Stanford, a Catholic journalist and writer, wrote, regarding Fatal Silence: The Pope, the Resistance and the German Occupation of Rome (written by Robert Katz; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003):

[The Vatican] still refuses to open all its files from the period—which seems to me to be a conclusive admission of guilt—but Katz has winkled various papers out of God's business address on earth to add to the stash of new information he has uncovered in America in the archives of the Office of Strategic Services. From this we learn that, although Pius's defenders still say that he paid a golden ransom in a vain effort to save Rome's Jews from transportation to the death camps, the most he did was indicate a willingness to chip in if the Jews could not raise the sum demanded. He also shows that no individual Jews were spared, as is often claimed, after Pius personally intervened with the Nazis. Moreover, Katz reveals that those who did escape the Nazi round-up and found sanctuary in church buildings in Rome did so in the face of explicit opposition from the Vatican. The real heroes and heroines were the priests and nuns who refused to bow to Pius's officials and hand over the desperate people whom they were hiding. The main problem with writing about Pius's wartime is that in effect, he did nothing. Facing the murders of six million people, he remained silent. As Jews were taken away from the ghetto that sat right alongside St Peter's, he may have agonised, but he did not intervene. When he did raise his voice with the German occupiers, it was either to ensure that the Vatican City state would not be compromised—that is to say, he would be safe—or to emphasise his own neutrality in a conflict which, for many, became a battle between good and evil. His unrealistic hope was that the Catholic Church could emerge as the peacemaker across Europe. Instead, both the American and British leaderships, as Katz shows, regarded the papacy as tainted by its association with Nazism and irrelevant in the post-1945 reshaping of the continent. Both had urged Pius to speak up against the Holocaust and so drew their own conclusions about him. Far from being a saint, then, he was at best a fool, perhaps an anti-Semite and probably a coward.^[347]

Katz's book also discusses how the Pope's view of the anti-Nazi resistance—as harbingers of Communism—meant he chose not to intervene in the Ardeatine massacre.^[348]

Recent developments

In The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina (2002), the Argentine journalist

Argentine government and the British Foreign Office. Other information sources have become available, including the diary of Bishop Joseph Patrick Hurley. These documents reveal new information about Pius XII's actions regarding the Ustaše regime, the genocides in Poland, the finances of the wartime church, the deportation of the Roman Jews, and the ratlines for Nazis and fascists fleeing Europe.^[351] According to Phayer, "the face of Pope Pius that we see in these documents is not the same face we see in the eleven volumes the Vatican published of World War II documents, a collection which, though valuable, is nonetheless critically flawed because of its many omissions".^[352]

On 19 September 2008, Pope Benedict XVI held a reception for conference participants during which he praised Pius XII as a pope who made every effort to save Jews during the war.^[353] A second conference was held from 6–8 November 2008 by the Pontifical Academy of Life.^[354]

On 9 October 2008, the 50th anniversary of Pius XII's death, Benedict XVI celebrated pontifical Mass in his memory. Shortly before and after the Mass, dialectics continued between the Jewish hierarchy and the Vatican as Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen of Haifa addressed the Synod of Bishops and expressed his disappointment towards Pius XII's "silence" during the war.^[355]

On 16 June 2009, the Pave the Way Foundation announced that it would release 2,300 pages of documents in Avellino, Italy, dating from 1940 to 1945, which the organisation claims show that Pius XII "worked diligently to save Jews from Nazi tyranny"; the organisation's founder, Krupp, has accused historians of harbouring "private agendas" and having "let down" the public.^[356] The foundation's research led to the publication of the book Pope Pius XII and World War II: the documented truth, authored by Krupp; the book reproduces 225 pages of the new documents produced by the foundation's research.

Mark Riebling argued in his 2015 book Church of Spies that Pius XII was involved in plots to overthrow Hitler from mid-October 1939 and was prepared to mediate a peace between the Allies and the Axis in the event of a regime change in Germany. The courier between the resistance group under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and the Pope was the Bavarian lawyer and Catholic politician Joseph Müller.^[357]

Opening of the Vatican Secret Archives

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the

Vatican Secret Archives on 4 March 2019 that Vatican archival materials pertaining to Pius XII's pontificate will be accessible to scholars beginning on 2 March 2020.^[358][359] While this announcement was welcome by researchers, much of it has been clouded by the role of Pope Pius XII with regard to the Holocaust. However, archival research of this period should inform a much broader shift within global Christianity, from Europe to the global South.^[360]

The Vatican archives have provided many millions of pages and it is expected to take many years to process the findings. As of May 2021, the study of the archive has been inconclusive.[361] In January 2022, historian Michael F. Feldkamp announced that he had discovered in the Vatican archives evidence that Pius XII had personally saved at least 15,000 Jews from extermination, and that he had sent a report on the Holocaust to the American government shortly after the Wannsee Conference, although they did not believe the pope.^[362]

In June 2022,

anti-Catholic policies of the Nazis, although no agreement was reached.^[364]

In September 2023, Corriere della Sera published a newly discovered documentation from the Vatican Secret Archive showing that a German Jesuit had informed the Pope of the Holocaust.^[365][366]

See also

• Cardinals created by Pius XII
• List of people from Rome
• List of popes
• List of saints canonized by Pope Pius XII
• Pius XII Memorial Library
• Pius Wars
• Operation Seat 12

Notes

1. ^ John Paul II surpassed this number on 21 February 2001, elevating 44 cardinals. By that time, the limit had been suspended and over 120 cardinals existed.

References

Footnotes