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Adapted from an article in The Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church. ed. E.A. Livingstone, (Oxford, 1996).
PIUS XII (1876–1958) Pope from 1939. Eugenio Pacelli entered the Papal Secretariat of State in 1901; in 1920 he became Nuncio in Berlin, and in 1930 Papal Secretary of State. He was elected Pope six months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
His elevation, contrary to the tradition against electing the Papal Secretary of State, reflected the need for an experienced politician and diplomat to guide the Church through the grave dangers that threatened. His first encyclical, ‘Summi Pontificatus’ (20 Oct. 1939), appealed to mankind to restore to God His due place in the life of the world and to unite in the defence of Natural Law, while his ‘Christmas Allocution’ (1939) laid down the principles of a lasting peace in ‘Five Peace Points’:
(1) recognition of the right of every nation to life and independence;
(2) true disarmament both material and spiritual;
(3) institution of an international court to guarantee the peace;
(4) recognition of the rights of minorities; and
(5) the acquisition of a true Christian spirit among the nations.
The question of his alleged ‘silence’ in the face of Nazi atrocities has been the subject of heated modern debate and grotesquely unjust accusations. His experience in dealing with the German Government appears to have convinced him that a public stand would provoke worse persecution. It must be noted that through his direct influence the lives of thousands of Jews were saved throughout Europe, particularly in Italy. In addition, he is almost certainly the author of most if not all of Mit Brennender Sorge, the anti-Nazi pastoral letter smuggled into Germany during the reign of his predecessor, Pius XI. Throughout the War (1939–45) he laboured to relieve distress, especially among prisoners.
Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish historian and Israeli diplomat, stated that Pius XII, “was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.”
Through its diplomatic network, the Holy See under Pius XII helped Jews to travel safely out of Eastern Europe. It also issued baptismal certificates to Hungarian Jews to help them escape. Thousands of Jews were also sheltered in the Vatican itself.
His encyclical Mediator Dei (1947) expressed sympathy with the desire to use the vernacular in the liturgy and gave conditional support to the Liturgical Movement. In 1951 he restored the Paschal Vigil Service and in the following years he reordered the entire Holy Week liturgy. In 1953 he standardized the relaxations in the Eucharistic Fast which had been introduced during the War and in 1957 he permitted further relaxations which made possible the widespread introduction of Evening Masses. Other events of his pontificate include the definition of the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1950
From
The Tablet
on the False charge of Papal silence under Hitler
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/12/09/bbc-admits-it-underestimated-the-churchs-opposition-to-hitler/
The BBC conceded it
was false to describe the Church as being 'silent' in the face of Nazism
Pope Pius XII, who was the pontiff during World War II, has been accused of silent acquiescence to the Holocaust, most famously by a 1999 book, Hitler’s Pope, which sparked a major controversy among historians. Its author, John Cornwell, has since backed down on some of his claims.
In a blog post criticising the BBC report, Lord Alton pointed out that several historians had praised Pius’s achievements in the fight against Nazism. The peer quoted Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish historian and Israeli diplomat, as saying that Pius XII “was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.”
Through its diplomatic network, the Holy See under Pius XII helped Jews to travel safely out of Eastern Europe. It also issued baptismal certificates to Hungarian Jews to help them escape. Thousands of Jews were also sheltered in the Vatican itself.
Lord Alton quoted the Jewish Chronicle’s praise of Pius (“Such actions will always be remembered”) and Albert Einstein’s remark in 1940 that “only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth … I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.”
Lord Alton also drew attention to the many Catholics, both clerical and lay, who opposed Hitler – from Bishop Clemens von Galen of Münster, who openly denounced the Nazis’ euthanasia programme, to Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer executed for refusing to fight in the Wehrmacht. Both have been beatified.
After this week’s ruling, Lord Alton told the Catholic Herald: “The BBC is right to recognise that the libel that Catholics said and did nothing against Nazism is precisely that, a collective libel. I am grateful to them for doing so.”
He added that the notion the Church had remained silent was “a canard that is either repeated through sheer ignorance or because the facts don’t fit the story.”
Lord Alton also noted the “irony” that part of the report had come from St Maximilian Kolbe’s cell at Auschwitz. St Maximilian, who died after taking the place of another prisoner, “had been arrested for publishing a denunciation of the Nazis in his magazine, Knight, which had a circulation of around one million people. Hardly silence, then.”
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