Pope Pius XII - Our Patron
Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
(2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958), reigned
from 2 March 1939 to his death in 1958. Before his election to the papacy,
Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical
Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany (1917–1929), and Cardinal Secretary of State,
in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin
American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany,
with which most historians believe the Vatican sought to protect the Church in
Germany while Adolf Hitler sought the destruction of 'political Catholicism'. A
pre-war critic of Nazism, Pius XII lobbied world leaders to avoid war and, as
Pope at the outbreak of war, issued Summi Pontificatus, expressing
dismay at the invasion of Poland, reiterating Church teaching against racism
and calling for love, compassion and charity to prevail over war.
While the Vatican was officially neutral during
the war, 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. The Reichskonkordat of 1933 and Pius's
leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II remains the subject of
controversy—including allegations of public silence and inaction about the fate
of the Jews.
After the war Pius XII advocated peace and
reconciliation, including lenient policies towards Axis and Axis-satellite
nations. The Church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of
Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc. Pius XII was a staunch opponent of Communism
and of the Italian Communist Party. Pius XII explicitly invoked ex cathedra
papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 apostolic
constitution Munificentissimus Deus. His magisterium includes almost
1,000 addresses and radio broadcasts. 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 1946.
Pius XII suffered from the shadow of ill health
in 1954 which would continue until his death in 1958. The embalming of his body
was mishandled, with effects that were evident during the funeral. He was
buried in the Vatican grottos and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.
In the process toward sainthood, his cause for
canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by Pope Paul VI during the final
session of the Second Vatican Council. He was made a Servant of God by Pope
John Paul II in 1990 and Pope Benedict XVI declared Pius XII Venerable on 19
December 2009.
