NEWLY AVAILABLE SOURCES ON CHURCH HISTORY

Vatican Secret Archive holdings for the reign of Pius XI (1922-1939), made accessible in 2003-06;

Personal papers of the American Vatican diplomat, Bishop Joseph Hurley;

Personal papers of the American Vatican diplomat, Bishop Aloysius Muench;

Personal papers of Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen;

Wartime and postwar records of the OSS and other government records from France, Italy, Great Britain, and the USA.

Pope Pius XII(1939-58):

Born in 1876 into an aristocratic Roman family,

ordained in 1899, a highly trained

canon lawyer and diplomat.

The young Nuncio Pacelli conveys the peace proposals of

Benedict XV to Imperial German headquarters in 1917. The dismal failure of this mission left him

pessimistic about the Vatican’s scope for action in time of war….

Young Nuncio Pacelli’s residence in Munich,

which was invaded by Red Guards in March 1919, and his Benz

limousine, which was requisitioned by them

Abbot Benedikt Gariador, whose “Friends of Israel” included 3,000 priests, 19 cardinals, and 287 bishops

in January 1928

Abbot Ildefons Schuster of the Congregation of Rites, who supported the petition to reform the Good Friday liturgy, and Cardinal Raffael Merry del Val, head of the Holy Office, who forced him to renounce his “errors”

Pius XI (1922-39)

inaugurates the Vatican Radio in

1931 with his Cardinal

Secretary of State,

Eugenio Pacelli

The Vatican found Mussolini’s bark to be much worse than his

bite and hoped at first that the same was true

of Hitler….

But Vatican City covers less than ¼ of a square mile and depends on Rome for water and

power….

“The Final Blow!” (Nazi campaign

poster from July 1932 to

denounce the alliance of

Catholic clergy and Social Democratic labor bosses that allegedly controlled the

Weimar Republic)

Edith Stein, the Carmelite nun who

wrote Pius XI in April 1933 “as a child of

the Jewish people” to implore him to speak

out against the persecution of Jews

Pacelli’s notes on his conference with Pius XI on

1 April 1933:“Write the Berlin Nuncio

that more Jewish dignitaries have reported to the Holy Father on the

danger of anti-Semitic excesses in Germany, and

it is said that they have occurred in many places. He should inquire whether and how something can be done. [There could come a time in which one must be

able to say that one did something about this

matter. Such action also counts among the good

traditions of the Holy See.]”

Papal Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo is greeted by Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and Adolf Hitler at the New Year’s Reception in the Reich Chancellery, 12

January 1939

Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is flanked by the German officials Franz von Papen and Rudolf Buttmann at the signing of the Reich Concordat, July 20, 1933

“A solemn moment at the ground-breaking for the House of German Art.

The Papal Nuncio Vasallo di Torregrossa has just

said to the Führer:‘For a long time I did not understand you. I have tried to for a

long time. Today I do understand

you.’Today every German Catholic understands

Adolf Hitler as well and will therefore vote ‘YES!’

on November 12”(referendum campaign

poster, fall 1933)

Father Charles E. Coughlin,Detroit’s “Radio Priest” and

founder of the “Christian Front”

“Pacelli Lunches with Roosevelt,” New York Times, November 6, 1936

Cardinal Adolf Bertram, Prince-Bishop of Breslau (b. 1859), who demanded respect for Hitler as the lawful

head of state

Clemens August Graf von Galen,

born 1878, Bishop of

Münster (1933-1946),

who delivered three public

sermons in 1941 to condemn the Third Reich for

murder

“This congenitally ill

patient will cost the National Community

60,000 marks in his lifetime.

Comrades, this too is Your

Money”(Nazi poster

from 1937): This campaign

climaxed with the mass

“euthanasia” action of 1940/41

Konrad von Preysing became Bishop of Berlin in 1935and led the movement to denounce abuses of human

rights

German paratroopers occupy Rome

on 10 September

1943 (near the

Castello San Angelo)

Hitler wanted to bring the Pope to Berlin in a cage, but Ambassador Ernst von Weizsäcker and SS General Karl Wolff agreed on the need to avoid

conflict with the Vatican

General Mark Clark and the

U.S. Army enter Rome on June 4,

1944.Soon

thereafter Pius XII publicly

denounced the

deportation of Jews from

Hungary

Pius XII as depicted in Rolf Hochhuth’s The

Deputy(Berlin premier in

1963)