His pontificate began under the omen of war; at conclave, the Cardinals had expressed the desire for a pope who would be more diplomatic than his predecessor, Pious XI. As such, Pious XII’s ascent to the chair of Saint Peter heralded a shift in the Vatican’s position – Pious XII was less direct in his condemnations, and sought to prevent the outbreak of war. The Holy See had to remain neutral, and potentially act as a mediator. The public positions expressed by Pious XII from 1939-1945 can now be found in the Vatican Archives.
Pious XII’s neutrality policy was reminiscent of that of Benedict XV. He sought to maintain the Holy See as a beacon of diplomacy and openness to negotiation. But the Vatican was under police surveillance by Fascist Italy, followed by the threat of the Nazi army following the Occupation of Rome in 1943. Diplomatic bags were often searched. Telephone lines were tapped, and the Osservatore Romano newspaper was censored. The comings and goings of diplomats and journalists were closely monitored. Pious XII relied on the use of Radio Vatican to make his voice heard, even though its broadcasts were scrambled by the Germans during the conflict, much like those of the BBC.
Pious XII laid out the theological and diplomatic framework for his positions in his first papal encyclical, published on 20 October 1939. It condemned various forms of racism and nationalism, as well as class war, denouncing the “forgetfulness of that law of human solidarity and charity which is dictated and imposed by our common origin and by the equality of rational nature in all men, to whatever people they belong.” Though he did not name names, Pious XII was firmly opposed to Nazism and Fascism, but also to Communism and ‘Godless liberalism’, which he saw as being responsible for the war, and which could not provide a solution. “The spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind,” wrote Pious XII.
When Warsaw fell, Pope Pious told the French ambassador to Poland: “You know on which side my sympathies lie. But I cannot say it.” In September 1939, the Nazis began eradicating the Polish elites: religious leaders, politicians, teachers, men of letters, and others. 52,000 were killed, of which 2,350 were priests or monks. Millions of Poles were sent to the concentration camps, with 2600 deportees ending up in the priest barracks in Dachau. The Pope strove to protect Polish Catholics. Pious XII’s encyclical denounced the persecution of civilians: “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,” he wrote. However, the Pope did not join in France and Britain’s condemnation of the invasion. According to the Reich’s ministry of foreign affairs, he did so in order to protect German Catholics. To Mussolini’s envoy he declared: “We ought to speak words of fire against such things, and the only thing that dissuades us from doing so is the knowledge that if we should speak, we would be making the condition of these unfortunate souls even worse.” His 1939 Christmas address reiterated his protest: “Alas, we have had to witness a series of acts which are irreconcilable not only with the tenets of international law, but also with the principles of natural rights and the most fundamental sentiments of humanity. These acts have been carried out with contempt for human dignity, freedom and life that gives rise to actions that cry out for vengeance before God.”
Even after the war, Catholics remained deeply divided over what many called the “Pope’s silence.”
Alan Alfredo Geday