Pope Pius XI (Italian:Pio XI; bornAmbrogio Damiano Achille Ratti,Italian:[amˈbrɔːdʒodaˈmjaːnoaˈkilleˈratti]; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of theCatholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of theVatican City upon its creation on 11 February 1929.
Pius XI issued numerousencyclicals, includingQuadragesimo anno on the 40th anniversary ofPope Leo XIII's groundbreaking social encyclicalRerum novarum, highlighting the capitalistic greed of international finance, the dangers ofatheisticsocialism/communism, andsocial justice issues, andQuas primas, establishing thefeast of Christ the King in response toanti-clericalism. The encyclicalStudiorum ducem, promulgated 29 June 1923, was written on the occasion of the 6th centenary of the canonization ofThomas Aquinas, whose thought is acclaimed as central to Catholic philosophy and theology. The encyclical also singles out thePontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas,Angelicum as the preeminent institution for the teaching of Aquinas: "ante omnia Pontificium Collegium Angelicum, ubi Thomam tamquam domi suae habitare dixeris" (before all others the Pontifical Angelicum College, where Thomas can be said to dwell).[2][3] The encyclicalCasti connubii promulgated on 31 December 1930 prohibited Catholics from usingcontraception.
To establish or maintain the position of the Catholic Church, Pius XI concluded a record number ofconcordats, including theReichskonkordat withNazi Germany, and he condemned their betrayals four years later in the encyclicalMit brennender Sorge ("With Burning Concern"). During his pontificate, the longstanding hostility with the Italian government over the status of the papacy and the Church in Italy was successfully resolved in theLateran Treaty of 1929. He was unable to stop the persecution of the Church and the killing of clergy inMexico,Spain, and theSoviet Union. He canonized saints includingThomas More,Peter Canisius,Bernadette of Lourdes, andDon Bosco. He beatified and canonizedThérèse de Lisieux, for whom he held special reverence, and gaveequivalent canonization toAlbertus Magnus, naming him aDoctor of the Church due to his writings' spiritual power. He took a strong interest in fostering the participation of laypeople throughout the Church, especially in theCatholic Action movement. The end of his pontificate was dominated by speaking out againstAdolf Hitler andBenito Mussolini, and defending the Catholic Church from intrusions into its life and education.
Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti was born inDesio, in theprovince of Milan, in 1857, the son of the owner of asilk factory.[7] His parents were Francesco AntonioRatti (1823–1881) and his wife Angela Teresa née Galli-Cova (1832–1918);[8] his siblings were Carlo (1853–1906), Fermo (1854–1929),[9] Edoardo (1855–1896), Camilla (1860–1946),[10] and Cipriano. He was ordained a priest in 1879 and was selected for a life of academic studies within the Church. He obtained three doctorates (inphilosophy,canon law, andtheology) at theGregorian University inRome, and from 1882 to 1888 was a professor at a seminary inPadua. His scholarly speciality was as an expertpaleographer, a student of ancient and medieval Church manuscripts. In 1888, he was transferred from seminary teaching to theAmbrosian Library inMilan, where he worked until 1911.[11]
During this time, Ratti edited and published an edition of theAmbrosianMissal (the rite of Mass used in a wide territory in northern Italy, coinciding above all with thediocese of Milan). He also engaged in research and writing on the life and works of the reforming Archbishop of Milan,Charles Borromeo. Ratti became head of the Ambrosian Library in 1907 and undertook a thorough programme of restoration and reclassification of its collections.
Despite his job as a librarian, Ratti was physically active. During his entire time in Milan, he was an avidmountaineer, undertaking over twenty major tours between 1885 and 1913 and climbing, among others,Mont Blanc (the Italian normal route to Mont Blanc now bears his name), theMatterhorn, thePresolana and theDufourspitze. He climbed the latter in July 1889 on the route via the eastern flank, which had been first climbed in 1872, an extremely challenging route, previously considered unclimbable, and he was part of the first Italian rope team to conquer the 4634 meter high mountain peak. They were also the first to make the traverse fromMacugnaga toZermatt by the Zumsteinjoch. After climbing the Dufourspitze, he spent the night on the summit with his companions.[12] Ratti also wrote a significant number of mountaineering writings.[13] A scholar-athlete pope was not seen again untilJohn Paul II.
The young Ratti as a newly ordained priest.
Ratti (centre) circa 1900 in the Alps on a tour.
Dufourspitze (mountain massif in the middle), Zumsteinspitze (in the background left)
In 1918,Pope Benedict XV (1914–1922) appointed Ratti to what was in effect a diplomatic post, asapostolic visitor (an unofficial papal representative) inPoland. In the aftermath of World War I, a Polish state was restored, though the process was in practice incomplete, since the territory was still under the effective control ofGermany andAustria-Hungary. In October 1918, Benedict was the first head of state to congratulate the Polish people on the occasion of the restoration of their independence.[15] In March 1919, he appointed ten new bishops and on 6 June 1919 reappointed Ratti, this time to the rank ofpapal nuncio and on 3 July appointed him atitular archbishop.[15] Ratti was consecrated as abishop on 28 October 1919.
Achille Ratti, shortly after his consecration as bishop
According to German theologianJoseph Schmidlin'sPapstgeschichte der Neuesten Zeit, Benedict and Ratti repeatedly cautioned Polish authorities against persecuting Lithuanian andRuthenian clergy.[16] During the Bolshevik advance againstWarsaw during thePolish-Soviet War, Benedict asked for worldwide public prayers for Poland, while Ratti was the only foreign diplomat who refused to flee Warsaw when theRed Army was approaching the city in August 1920.[17] On 11 June 1921, Benedict asked Ratti to deliver his message to the Polish episcopate, warning against political misuses of spiritual power, urging peaceful coexistence with neighboring peoples, and saying that "love of country has its limits in justice and obligations".[18]
Ratti intended to work forPoland by building bridges to men of goodwill in theSoviet Union, even to shedding his blood for Russia.[19] But Benedict needed Ratti as a diplomat, not a martyr, and forbade his traveling to the USSR despite his being the official papal delegate for Russia.[19] The nuncio's continued contacts with Russians did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. After Benedict sent Ratti toSilesia to forestall potential political agitation within the Polish Catholic clergy,[16] Ratti was asked to leave Poland. On 20 November, when German CardinalAdolf Bertram announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed.[20] "While he tried honestly to show himself as a friend of Poland, Warsaw forced his departure, after his neutrality inSilesian voting was questioned"[21] by Germans and Poles. Nationalistic Germans objected to the Polish nuncio supervising local elections, and patriotic Poles were upset because he curtailed political action among the clergy.[20]
Pius XI makes his first public appearance as pope in 1922. The coat of arms on the banner is that ofPope Pius IX.
In theconsistory of 3 June 1921, Benedict XV created three new cardinals, including Ratti, who was appointedArchbishop of Milan simultaneously. Benedict told them, "Well, today I gave you the red hat, but soon it will be white for one of you."[22] After the Vatican celebration, Ratti went to the Benedictine monastery atMonte Cassino for a retreat to prepare spiritually for his new role. He accompanied Milanese pilgrims toLourdes in August 1921.[22] Ratti received a tumultuous welcome on a visit to his home town ofDesio, and was enthroned in Milan on 8 September. On 22 January 1922, Benedict XV died unexpectedly ofpneumonia.[23]
At the conclave to choose a new pope, the longest of the 20th century, theCollege of Cardinals was divided into two factions, one led byRafael Merry del Val favoring the policies and style of Pius X and the other favoring those of Benedict XV led byPietro Gasparri.[24]
Gasparri approached Ratti before voting began on the third day and told him he would urge his supporters to switch their votes to Ratti, who was shocked to hear this. When it became clear that neither Gasparri nor del Val could win, the cardinals approached Ratti, thinking him a compromise candidate not identified with either faction. CardinalGaetano de Lai approached Ratti and was believed to have said: "We will vote for Your Eminence if Your Eminence will promise that you will not choose Cardinal Gasparri as your secretary of state". Ratti is said to have responded: "I hope and pray that among so highly deserving cardinals the Holy Spirit selects someone else. If I am chosen, it is indeed Cardinal Gasparri whom I will take to be my secretary of state".[24]
Ratti was elected on the conclave's 14th ballot on 6 February 1922 and took the name Pius XI, explaining that Pius IX was the pope of his youth and Pius X had appointed him head of the Vatican Library. It was rumored that immediately after the election, he decided to appoint Pietro Gasparri as hisCardinal Secretary of State.[24] When asked if he accepted his election, Ratti was said to have replied: "In spite of my unworthiness, of which I am deeply aware, I accept". He went on to say that his choice in papal name was because "Pius is a name of peace".[25]
After the dean CardinalVincenzo Vannutelli asked if he assented to the election, Ratti paused in silence for two minutes, according to CardinalDésiré-Joseph Mercier. The Hungarian cardinalJános Csernoch later commented: "We made Cardinal Ratti pass through the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis and then we left him alone on Calvary".[26]
As Pius XI's first act as pope, he revived the traditional public blessing from the balcony,Urbi et Orbi ("to the city and to the world"), abandoned by his predecessors since theloss of Rome to the Italian state in 1870. This suggested his openness to a rapprochement with the government of Italy.[27] Less than a month later, considering that all four cardinals from the Americas had been unable to participate in his election, he issuedCum proxime to allow the College of Cardinals to delay the start of a conclave for as long as 18 days following the death of a pope.[28][29]
Public teaching: "The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ"
Pius XI's first encyclical as pope was directly related to his aim of Christianizing all aspects of increasingly secular societies.Ubi arcano, promulgated in December 1922, inaugurated the "Catholic Action" movement.
Similar goals were in evidence in two encyclicals of 1929 and 1930.Divini illius magistri ("That Divine Teacher's") (1929) made clear the need for Christian over secular education.[30]Casti connubii ("Chaste Wedlock") (1930) praised Christian marriage and family life as the basis for any good society; it condemned artificial means of contraception, but acknowledged the unitive aspect of intercourse:
...[A]ny use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.[31]
....Nor are those considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial rights there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider so long as they are subordinated to the primary end and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved.[32]
In contrast to some of his 19th-century predecessors who favored monarchy and dismissed democracy, Pius XI took a pragmatic approach toward different forms of government. In his encyclicalDilectissima Nobis (1933), in which he addressed the situation of the Church inRepublican Spain, he proclaimed,
Universally known is the fact that the Catholic Church is never bound to one form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God and of Christian consciences are safe. She does not find any difficulty in adapting herself to various civil institutions, be they monarchic or republican, aristocratic or democratic.[33]
Pius XI argued for a reconstruction of economic and political life on the basis of religious values.Quadragesimo anno (1931) was written to mark 'forty years' sincePope Leo XIII's (1878–1903) encyclicalRerum novarum, and restated that encyclical's warnings against both socialism and unrestrained capitalism, as enemies to human freedom and dignity. Pius XI instead envisioned an economy based on cooperation and solidarity.
InQuadragesimo anno, Pius XI wrote that social and economic issues are vital to the Church not from a technical point of view but morally and ethically. Ethical considerations include the nature of private property[34] in terms of its functions for society and the development of the individual.[35] He defined fair wages and called international capitalism materially and spiritually exploitative.
Pius XI wrote that mothers should work primarilywithin the home, or in its immediate vicinity, and concentrate on household duties. He argued that every effort in society must be made for fathers to make high enough wages that it never becomes necessary for mothers to work. Forced dual-income situations in which mothers work he called an "intolerable abuse".[36] Pius also criticizedegalitarianist stances, describing modern attempts to "liberate women" as a "crime".[37] He wrote that attempts to liberate women from their husbands are a "false liberty and unnatural equality" and that the true emancipation of women "belongs to the noble office of a Christian woman and wife."[38]
The Church has a role in discussing the issues related to the social order. Social and economic issues are vital to it not from a technical point of view but morally and ethically. Ethical considerations include the nature of private property.[34] Within the Catholic Church, several conflicting views had developed. Pius declared private property essential for individual development and freedom, and said that those who deny private property also deny personal freedom and development. He also said that private property has a social function and loses its morality if it is not subordinated to the common good, and governments have a right to redistribution policies. In extreme cases, he granted the state a right to expropriate private property.[35]
A related issue, said Pius, is the relation between capital and labor and the determination of fair wages.[39] Pius develops the following ethical mandate: The Church considers it a perversion of industrial society to have developed sharp opposite camps based on income. He welcomes all attempts to alleviate these differences. Three elements determine a fair wage: the worker's family, the economic condition of the enterprise, and the economy as a whole. The family has an innate right to development, but this is possible only within the framework of a functioning economy and a sound enterprise. Thus, Pius concludes that cooperation and not conflict is a necessary condition, given the interdependence of the parties involved.[39]
Pius XI believed that industrialization results in less freedom at the individual and communal level because numerous free social entities get absorbed by larger ones. The society of individuals becomes the mass class-society. People are much more interdependent than in ancient times, and become egoistic or class-conscious in order to save some freedom for themselves. The pope demands more solidarity, especially between employers and employees, through new forms of cooperation and communication. Pius displays an unfavorable view of capitalism, especially anonymous international finance markets.[40] He identifies certain dangers for small and medium-size enterprises that have insufficient access to capital markets and are squeezed or destroyed by larger ones. He warns that capitalist interests can become a danger for nations, which could be reduced to "chained slaves of individual interests".[41]
Pius XI was the first Pope to use the power of modern communications technology in evangelizing the wider world. He establishedVatican Radio in 1931, and was the first Pope to broadcast on radio.
In his management of the Church's internal affairs, Pius XI mostly continued the policies of his predecessor. LikeBenedict XV, he emphasized spreading Catholicism in Africa and Asia and training native clergy in those territories. He ordered every religious order to devote some of its personnel and resources to missionary work.
Pius XI continued the approach of Benedict XV on the issue of how to deal with the threat ofmodernism in Catholic theology. He was thoroughly orthodox theologically and had no sympathy with modernist ideas that relativized fundamental Catholic teachings. He condemned modernism in his writings and addresses. But his opposition to modernist theology was by no means a rejection of new scholarship within the Church, as long as it was developed within the framework of orthodoxy and compatible with the Church's teachings.[citation needed] Pius XI was interested in supporting serious scientific study within the Church, establishing thePontifical Academy of the Sciences in 1936. In 1928 he formed the Gregorian Consortium of universities in Rome administered by theSociety of Jesus, fostering closer collaboration between theirGregorian University,Biblical Institute, andOriental Institute.[42][43]
Pope Pius XI (1922–1939). Warsaw forced his departure as Nuncio. Two years later, he was pope. He signed concordats with numerous countries, including Lithuania and Poland.
Pius XI was the first pope to directly address theChristian ecumenical movement. Like Benedict XV he was interested in achieving reunion with theEastern Orthodox (failing that, he determined to give special attention to theEastern Catholic churches).[44] He also allowed the dialogue between Catholics andAnglicans that had been planned during Benedict XV's pontificate to take place atMechelen, but these enterprises were firmly aimed at actually reuniting with the Catholic Church other Christians who basically agreed with Catholic doctrine, bringing them back under papal authority. To the broad pan-Protestant ecumenical movement he took a less favorable attitude.[citation needed]
He rejected, in his 1928 encyclicalMortalium animos, the idea that Christian unity could be attained by establishing a broad federation of many bodies holding conflicting doctrines; rather, the Catholic Church was the true Church of Christ. "The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it." The pronouncement also prohibited Catholics from joining groups that encouraged interfaith discussion without distinction.[45]
The next year, the Vatican was successful in lobbying theMussolini regime to require Catholic religious education in all schools, even those with a majority of Protestants or Jews. The Pope expressed his "great pleasure" with the move.[46]
In 1934, the Fascist government at the Vatican's urging agreed to expand the prohibition of public gatherings of Protestants to include private worship in homes.[47]
Pius XI created 76 cardinals in 17 consistories, includingAugust Hlond (1927),Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster (1929),Raffaele Rossi (1930),Elia Dalla Costa (1933), andGiuseppe Pizzardo (1937). One of those was his successor, Eugenio Pacelli, who becamePope Pius XII. Pius XI in fact believed that Pacelli would be his successor and dropped many hints that this was his hope. On one such occasion at a consistory for new cardinals on 13 December 1937, while posing with the new cardinals, Pius XI pointed to Pacelli and told them: "He'll make a good pope!"[26]
Pius XI also accepted the resignation of a cardinal from the cardinalate in 1927: the JesuitLouis Billot.
The pope deviated from the usual practice of naming cardinals in collective consistories, opting instead for smaller and more frequent consistories, with some of them being less than six months apart. Unlike his predecessors, he increased the number of non-Italian cardinals.
In 1923, Pius XI wanted to appoint Ricardo Sanz de Samper y Campuzano (majordomo in thePapal Household) to the College of Cardinals but was forced to abandon the idea when KingAlfonso XIII of Spain insisted that the pope appoint cardinals fromSouth America despite the fact that Sanz hailed fromColombia. Since Pius XI did not want to appear to be influenced by political considerations, he chose in the December 1923 consistory to name no South American cardinals at all. According to an article by the historian Monsignor Vicente Cárcel y Ortí, a 1928 letter from Alfonso XIII asked the pope to restoreValencia as a cardinalitial see and appoint its archbishop, Prudencio Melo y Alcalde, a cardinal. Pius XI responded that he could not do so because Spain already had the habitual number of cardinals (set at four) with two of them fixed (Toledo andSeville) and the other two variable. Pius XI recommended that Alfonso XIII wait for a future occasion, but he never did make the archbishop a cardinal, and not until 2007 was the diocese given a cardinal archbishop. In December 1935, the pope intended to appoint the Jesuit priestPietro Tacchi Venturi a cardinal, but abandoned the idea given that theBritish government would have regarded the move as a friendly gesture towardFascism since the priest andBenito Mussolini were considered to be close.[48]
The pontificate of Pius XI coincided with the early aftermath of the First World War. Many of the old European monarchies had been swept away and a new and precarious order formed across the continent. In the East, theSoviet Union arose. InItaly, theFascist dictatorBenito Mussolini took power, while in Germany, the fragileWeimar Republic collapsed with the Nazi seizure of power.[49] His reign was one of busy diplomatic activity for the Vatican. The Church made advances on several fronts in the 1920s, improving relations withFrance and, most spectacularly, settling theRoman question with Italy and gaining recognition of an independent Vatican state.
Pius XI's major diplomatic approach was to makeconcordats. He concluded eighteen such treaties during the course of his pontificate. However, wrotePeter Hebblethwaite, these concordats did not prove "durable or creditable" and "wholly failed in their aim of safeguarding the institutional rights of the Church" for "Europe was entering a period in which such agreements were regarded as mere scraps of paper".[50]
From 1933 to 1936 Pius wrote several protests against the Nazi regime, while his attitude to Mussolini's Italy changed dramatically in 1938, after Nazi racial policies were adopted in Italy.[49] Pius XI watched the rising tide of totalitarianism with alarm and delivered three papal encyclicals challenging the new creeds: againstItalian FascismNon abbiamo bisogno (1931; "We Do Not Need [to Acquaint You]"); against NazismMit brennender Sorge (1937; "With Deep Concern"), and against atheist CommunismDivini redemptoris (1937; "Divine Redeemer"). He also challenged the extremist nationalism of theAction Française movement andantisemitism in the United States.[49]
France's republican government had long been anti-clerical, and much of the French Catholic Church anti-republican. The1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State had expelled many religious orders from France, declared all Church buildings to be government property, and had led to the closure of most Church schools. Since that time Pope Benedict XV had sought a rapprochement, but it was not achieved until the reign of Pope Pius XI. InMaximam gravissimamque (1924), many areas of dispute were tacitly settled and a bearable coexistence made possible.[51]
In 1926, worried by the agnosticism of its leaderCharles Maurras, Pius XI condemned the monarchist movementAction Française.[52] The Pope also judged that it was folly for the French Church to continue to tie its fortunes to the unlikely dream of a monarchist restoration, and distrusted the movement's tendency to defend the Catholic religion in merely utilitarian and nationalistic terms.[53][54] Prior to this, Action Française had operated with the support of a great number of French lay Catholics, such asJacques Maritain, as well as members of the clergy. Pius XI's decision was strongly criticized by CardinalLouis Billot who believed that the political activities ofmonarchist Catholics should not be censured by Rome.[55] He later resigned from his position as Cardinal, the only man to do so in the twentieth century, which is believed by some to have been the ultimate result of Pius XI's condemnation,[56] though these claims have been disputed.[b] Pius XI's successor, Pope Pius XII, repealed the papal ban on the group in 1939, once again allowing Catholics to associate themselves with the movement.[58] However, despite Pius XII's actions to rehabilitate the group,Action Française ultimately never recovered to their former status.
Pius XI aimed to end the long breach between the papacy and the Italian government and to gain recognition once more of the sovereign independence of the Holy See. Most of thePapal States had been seized by the forces of KingVictor Emmanuel II of Italy (1861–1878) in 1860 at thefoundation of the modern unified Italian state, and the rest,including Rome, in 1870. The Papacy and the Italian Government had been at odds ever since: the Popes had refused to recognise the Italian state's seizure of the Papal States, instead withdrawing to becomeprisoners in the Vatican, and the Italian government's policies had always beenanti-clerical. Now Pius XI thought a compromise would be the best solution.
To bolster his own new regime,Benito Mussolini was also eager for an agreement. After years of negotiation, in 1929, the Pope supervised the signing of theLateran Treaties with the Italian government. According to the terms of the treaty that was one of the agreed documents,Vatican City was given sovereignty as an independent nation in return for the Vatican relinquishing its claim to the former territories of the Papal States. Pius XI thus became a head of state (albeit the smallest state in the world), the first Pope who could be termed a head of state since the Papal States fell after the unification of Italy in the 19th century. The concordat that was another of the agreed documents of 1929 recognised Catholicism as the sole religion of the state (as it already was under Italian law, while other religions were tolerated), paid salaries to priests and bishops, gave civil recognition to church marriages (previously couples had to have a civil ceremony), and brought religious instruction into the public schools. In turn, the bishops swore allegiance to the Italian state, which had veto power over their selection.[59] The Church was not officially obligated to support the Fascist regime; the strong differences remained, but the seething hostility ended. Friction continued over theCatholic Action youth network, which Mussolini wanted to merge into hisFascist youth group.[60]
The third document in the agreement paid the Vatican 1.75 billionlira (about $100 million) for the seizures of church property since 1860. Pius XI invested the money in the stock markets and real estate. To manage these investments, the Pope appointed the lay-personBernardino Nogara, who, through shrewd investing in stocks, gold, and futures markets, significantly increased the Catholic Church's financial holdings. The income largely paid for the upkeep of the expensive-to-maintain stock of historic buildings in the Vatican which until 1870 had been maintained through funds raised from the Papal States.
The Vatican's relationship with Mussolini's government deteriorated drastically after 1930 as Mussolini's totalitarian ambitions began to impinge more and more on the autonomy of the Church. For example, the Fascists tried to absorb the Church's youth groups. In response, Pius issued the encyclicalNon abbiamo bisogno ("We Have No Need)" in 1931. It denounced the regime's persecution of the church in Italy and condemned "pagan worship of the State."[61] It also condemned Fascism's "revolution which snatches the young from the Church and from Jesus Christ, and which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence and irreverence".[62]
From the earliest days of the Nazi takeover in Germany, the Vatican was taking diplomatic action to attempt to defend the Jews of Germany.[citation needed] In the spring of 1933, Pope Pius XI urged Mussolini to ask Hitler to restrain the anti-Semitic actions taking place in Germany.[63] Mussolini urged Pius to excommunicate Hitler,[when?] as he thought it would render him less powerful in Catholic Austria and reduce the danger to Italy and wider Europe. The Vatican refused to comply and thereafter Mussolini began to work with Hitler, adopting his anti-Semitic and race theories.[64] In 1936, with the Church in Germany facing clear persecution, Italy and Germany agreed to theBerlin-Rome Axis.[65]
The Nazis, like the Pope, were unalterably opposed to Communism. In the years leading up to the 1933 election, the German bishops opposed theNazi Party by proscribing German Catholics from joining and participating in it. This changed by the end of March after CardinalMichael Von Faulhaber of Munich met with the Pope. One author claims that Pius expressed support for the regime soon after Hitler's rise to power, with the author asserting that he said, "I have changed my mind about Hitler, it is for the first time that such a government voice has been raised to denounce Bolshevism in such categorical terms, joining with the voice of the pope."[66]
A threatening, though initially sporadic persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the 1933 Nazi takeover in Germany.[67] In the dying days of theWeimar Republic, the newly appointed ChancellorAdolf Hitler moved quickly to eliminatepolitical Catholicism. Vice ChancellorFranz von Papen was dispatched to Rome to negotiate aReich concordat with the Holy See.[68]Ian Kershaw wrote that the Vatican was anxious to reach an agreement with the new government, despite "continuing molestation of Catholic clergy, and other outrages committed by Nazi radicals against the Church and its organisations".[69] Negotiations were conducted by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later becamePope Pius XII (1939–1958). TheReichskonkordat was signed by Pacelli and by the German government in June 1933, and included guarantees of liberty for the Church, independence for Catholic organisations and youth groups, and religious teaching in schools.[70] The treaty was an extension of existing concordats already signed withPrussia andBavaria, but, wrote Hebblethwaite, it seemed "more like a surrender than anything else: it involved the suicide of the [Catholic]Centre Party... ".[50]
"The agreement", wroteWilliam Shirer, "was hardly put to paper before it was being broken by the Nazi Government". On 25 July, the Nazis promulgated theirsterilization law, an offensive policy in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Five days later, moves began to dissolve the Catholic Youth League. Clergy, nuns and lay leaders began to be targeted, leading to thousands of arrests over the ensuing years, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality".[71]
In February 1936, Hitler sent Pius a telegram congratulating the Pope on the anniversary of hiscoronation, but Pius responded with criticisms of what was happening in Germany so forcefully that the German foreign secretaryKonstantin von Neurath wanted to suppress the response, but Pius insisted it be forwarded to Hitler.[72]
The pope supported theChristian Social Party inAustria, a country with an overwhelmingly Catholic population but a powerful secular element.[73] He especially supported the regime ofEngelbert Dollfuss (1932–1934), who wanted to remold society based on papal encyclicals. Dollfuss suppressed the anti-clerical factions and the socialists, but was assassinated by Austrian Nazis in 1934. His successorKurt von Schuschnigg (1934–1938) was also pro-Catholic and received Vatican support.[74] TheAnschluss saw the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in early 1938.[75]
At the direction of CardinalTheodor Innitzer, the churches of Vienna pealed their bells and flew swastikas for Hitler's arrival in the city on 14 March.[76] However, wroteMark Mazower, such gestures of accommodation were "not enough to assuage the Austrian Nazi radicals, foremost among them the youngGauleiter Globocnik".[77] Globocnik launched a campaign against the Church, confiscating property, closing Catholic organisations, and sending many priests toDachau.[77] Anger at the treatment of the Church in Austria grew quickly and October 1938, wrote Mazower, saw the "very first act of overt mass resistance to the new regime", when a rally of thousands left Mass in Vienna chanting "Christ is our Fuehrer", before being dispersed by police.[78] A Nazi mob ransacked Cardinal Innitzer's residence, after he denounced Nazi persecution of the Church.[73] The AmericanNational Catholic Welfare Conference wrote that Pope Pius, "again protested against the violence of the Nazis, in language recallingNero andJudas the Betrayer, comparing Hitler withJulian the Apostate."[79]
The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity and interfered with Catholic schooling, youth groups, workers' clubs and cultural societies.[80] By early 1937, the church hierarchy in Germany, which had initially attempted to co-operate with the new government, had become highly disillusioned. In March, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclicalMit brennender Sorge accusing the Nazi Government of violations of the 1933 Concordat, and of sowing the "tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny, of secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church". The Pope noted on the horizon the "threatening storm clouds" of religious wars of extermination over Germany.[71]
Copies had to be smuggled into Germany so they could be read from church pulpits.[81] The encyclical, the only one ever written in German, was addressed to German bishops and was read in all parishes of Germany. The text is credited to Munich CardinalMichael von Faulhaber and toCardinal Secretary of StateEugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII.[82]
There was no advance announcement of the encyclical, and its distribution was kept secret in an attempt to ensure the unhindered public reading of its contents in all the Catholic churches of Germany. The encyclical condemned particularly the paganism ofNazism, the myth of race and blood, and fallacies in the Nazi conception of God:
Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community – however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things – whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.[83]
The Nazis responded with an intensification of theircampaign against the churches, beginning around April.[84] There were mass arrests of clergy and church presses were expropriated.[85]
Pope Pius XI in a portrait byAdolfo Wildt exposed in the Vatican Museums in Rome
While numerous German Catholics, including those who participated in the secret printing and distribution of the encyclical, went to jail and concentration camps, the Western democracies remained silent, which Pius XI labeled bitterly a "conspiracy of silence".[86] As the extreme nature of Nazi racialanti-Semitism became obvious, and as Mussolini in the late 1930s began imitating Hitler's anti-Jewish race laws in Italy, Pius XI continued to make his position clear. After Fascist Italy'sManifesto of Race was published, the pope said in a public address in the Vatican to Belgian pilgrims in 1938: "Mark well that in the CatholicMass,Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [Christians] are all Semites".[87] These comments were reported by neitherOsservatore Romano norVatican Radio.[88] They were reported in Belgium on 14 September 1938 issue ofLa Libre Belgique[89] and on 17 September 1938 issue of French Catholic dailyLa Croix.[90] They were then published worldwide but had little resonance at the time in the secular media.[86] The "conspiracy of silence" included not only the silence of secular powers against the horrors of Nazism but also their silence on the persecution of the Church in Mexico, the Soviet Union and Spain. Despite these public comments, Pius was reported to have suggested privately that the Church's problems in those three countries were "reinforced by the anti-Christian spirit of Judaism".[91]
In 1933, when the new Nazi government began to instigate its program of anti-Semitism, Pius XI ordered the papal nuncio in Berlin,Cesare Orsenigo, to "look into whether and how it may be possible to become involved" in aiding Jews. Orsenigo proved ineffective in this, concerned more with anti-church Nazi policies, and how these might affect German Catholics.[92]
On 11 November 1938, following the NaziKristallnacht pogrom, Pius XI joined Western leaders in condemning the pogrom. In response, the Nazis organised mass demonstrations against Catholics and Jews in Munich, and the BavarianGauleiterAdolf Wagner declared before 5,000 protesters: "Every utterance the Pope makes in Rome is an incitement of the Jews throughout the world to agitate against Germany".[93] On 21 November, in an address to the world's Catholics, the Pope rejected the Nazi claim of racial superiority, and insisted instead that there is only a single human race.Robert Ley, the Nazi Minister of Labour declared the following day in Vienna: "No compassion will be tolerated for the Jews. We deny the Pope's statement that there is but one human race. The Jews are parasites." Catholic leaders, including CardinalAlfredo Ildefonso Schuster of Milan, CardinalJozef-Ernest van Roey in Belgium and CardinalJean Verdier in Paris, backed the Pope's strong condemnation ofKristallnacht.[94]
Under Pius XI, papal relations with East Asia were marked by the rise of theEmpire of Japan to prominence, as well as the unification ofChina underChiang Kai-shek. In 1922 he established the position of Apostolic Delegate to China, and the first person in that capacity wasCelso Benigno Luigi Costantini.[95] On 1 August 1928, the Pope addressed a message of support for the political unification of China. Following theJapanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the creation ofManchukuo, the Holy See recognized the new state. On 10 September 1938, the Pope held a reception atCastel Gandolfo for an official delegation from Manchukuo, headed by Manchukuoan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ts'ai Yün-sheng.[96]
MotherKatharine Drexel, who founded the American order ofSisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, corresponded with Pius XI, as she had with his papal predecessors. (In 1887, Pope Leo XIII had encouraged Katharine Drexel—then a young Philadelphia socialite— to do missionary work with America's disadvantaged people of color). In the early 1930s, Mother Drexel wrote Pius XI asking him to bless a publicity campaign to acquaint white Catholics with the needs of the disadvantaged races among them. An emissary had shown him photos ofXavier University, acollege for blacks in New Orleans which Mother Drexel had founded to provide higher education to Catholic African-Americans. Pius XI replied promptly, sending his blessing and encouragement. Upon his return, the emissary told Mother Katharine that the Pope said he had read the novelUncle Tom's Cabin as a boy, and it had ignited his lifelong concern for the American Negro.[97]
Worried by the persecution of Christians in theSoviet Union, Pius XI mandated Berlin nuncioEugenio Pacelli to work secretly on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. Pacelli negotiated food shipments for Russia and met with Soviet representatives, including Foreign MinisterGeorgi Chicherin, who rejected any kind of religious education and the ordination of priests and bishops but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican.[100] Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until Pius XI ordered them discontinued in 1927 because they generated no results and would be dangerous to the Church if made public.
The "harsh persecution short of total annihilation of the clergy, monks, and nuns and other people associated with the Church",[101] continued well into the 1930s. In addition to executing and exiling many clerics, monks and laymen, the confiscation of Church implements "for victims of famine" and the closing of churches were common.[102] Yet according to an official report based on the census of 1936, some 55% of Soviet citizens identified themselves openly as religious.[102]
During the pontificate of Pius XI, the Catholic Church was subjected to extreme persecutions inMexico, which resulted in the death of over 5,000 priests, bishops and followers.[103] In the state ofTabasco the Church was in effect outlawed altogether. In his encyclicalIniquis afflictisque[104] from 18 November 1926, Pope Pius protested against the slaughter and persecution. The United States intervened in 1929 and moderated an agreement.[103] The persecutions resumed in 1931. Pius XI condemned the Mexican government again in his 1932 encyclicalAcerba animi. Problems continued with reduced hostilities until 1940, when in the new pontificate ofPope Pius XII PresidentManuel Ávila Camacho returned the Mexican churches to the Catholic Church.[103]
There were 4,500 Mexican priests serving Mexican believers before the rebellion. In 1934 over 90% of them suffered persecution as only 334 priests were licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people. Excluding foreign religious, over 4,100 Mexican priests were eliminated by emigration, expulsion and assassination.[105][106] By 1935, 17 Mexican states were left with no priests at all.[107]
TheRepublican government which came to power in Spain in 1931 was strongly anti-clerical, secularising education, prohibiting religious education in the schools, and expelling theJesuits from the country. OnPentecost 1932, Pope Pius XI protested against these measures and demandedrestitution.
The Fascist government in Italy abstained from copying Germany's racial andanti-Semitic laws and regulations until 1938, when Italy introducedanti-Semitic legislation. In a public speech, the Pope sought to dissuade Italy from adopting demeaning racist legislation, stating that the term "race" is divisive, more appropriate to differentiate animals.[108] He said the Catholic view sees instead "the unity of human society" whose differences are like the different tones in music. Italy, a civilized country, should not be led by the barbarian German legislation.[109] He also criticized the Italian government for attackingCatholic Action and even thepapacy itself.
By the time of his death ... Pius XI had managed to orchestrate a swelling chorus of Church protests against the racial legislation and the ties that bound Italy to Germany. He had single-mindedly continued to denounce the evils of the Nazi regime at every possible opportunity and feared above all else the re-opening of the rift between Church and State in his beloved Italy. He had, however, few tangible successes. There had been little improvement in the position of the Church in Germany and there was growing hostility to the Church in Italy on the part of the fascist regime. Almost the only positive result of the last years of his pontificate was a closer relationship with the liberal democracies and yet, even this was seen by many as representing a highly partisan stance on the part of the Pope.[111]
Pius XI planned an encyclicalHumani generis unitas (The Unity of the Human Race) to denounce racism in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, as well as antisemitism, colonialism and violent German nationalism. He died without issuing it.[112] Pius XI's successor, Pius XII, who was not aware of the draft encyclical,[113] chose not to publish it. However, Pius XII's first encyclicalSummi Pontificatus ("On the Supreme Pontificate", 12 October 1939), published after the beginning of World War II, bore the subtitleOn the Unity of Human Society and used many of the arguments of the document drafted for Pius XI, while avoiding its negative characterizations of the Jewish people.
To denounce racism and anti-Semitism, Pius XI sought out the American journalist priestJohn LaFargeSJ and summoned him to Castel Gandolfo on 25 June 1938. The pope told the Jesuit that he planned to write an encyclical denouncing racism, and asked LaFarge to help write it while swearing him to strict silence. LaFarge took up this task in secret inParis, but the Jesuit Superior-GeneralWlodimir LedóchowskiSJ promised the pope and LaFarge that he would facilitate the encyclical's production. This proved to be a hindrance since Ledóchowski was privately an anti-Semite and conspired to block LaFarge's efforts whenever and wherever possible. In late September 1938, the Jesuit had finished his work and returned to Rome, where Ledóchowski welcomed him and promised to deliver the work to the pope immediately. LaFarge was directed to return to the United States, while Ledóchowski concealed the draft from the pope, who remained wholly unaware of what had transpired.[114]
But in the fall of 1938, LaFarge had realized the Pope still had not received the draft and sent a letter to Pius XI[115] where he implied that Ledóchowski had the document in his possession. Pius XI demanded that the draft be delivered to him, but did not receive it until 21 January 1939[116] with a note from Ledóchowski, who warned that the draft's language was excessive and advised caution. Pius XI planned to issue the encyclical following his meeting with bishops on 11 February, but died before both the meeting and encyclical's promulgation could take place.[114]
Pius XI was seen as a blunt-spoken and no-nonsense man, qualities he shared withPope Pius X. He was passionate about science and was fascinated with the power of radio, which would soon result in the founding and inauguration ofVatican Radio. He was intrigued by new forms of technology that he employed during his pontificate. He was also known for a rare smile.[citation needed]
Pius XI was known[117] to have a temper at times[117] and was someone who had a keen sense of knowledge and dignity of the office he held.[117] In keeping with a papal tradition discarded by his immediate predecessors he insisted that he eat alone with no one around him[117] and would not allow his assistants or any other priests or clergy to dine with him.[117] He would frequently meet with political figures[citation needed] but would always greet them seated.[citation needed] He insisted that when his brother and sister wanted to see him, they had to refer to him as "Your Holiness"[117] and book an appointment.[117]
Pius XI was also a very demanding individual, certainly one of the stricter pontiffs at that time.[citation needed] He held very high standards and did not tolerate any sort of behaviour that was not up to that standard.[117] In regard to Angelo Roncalli, the futurePope John XXIII, a diplomatic blunder inBulgaria, where Roncalli was stationed, led Pius XI to make Roncalli kneel for 45 minutes as a punishment.[118][117] However, when in due course Pius learned that Roncalli had made the error in circumstances for which he could not fairly be considered culpable, he apologized to him. Aware of the implied impropriety of a Supreme Pontiff's going back on a reprimand in a matter concerning Catholic faith and morals,[119] but also deeply conscious that on a human level he had failed to keep his temper in check, he made his apology "as Achille Ratti" and in doing so stretched out his hand in friendship to Monsignor Roncalli.[120]
Pius XI on 6 February 1939, 4 days before his deathThe funeral of Pius XI.
Pius XI had been ill for some time when, on 25 November 1938, he suffered two heart attacks within several hours. He had serious breathing problems and could not leave his apartment.[121] He gave his last major pontifical address to thePontifical Academy of Sciences, which he had founded, speaking without a prepared text on the relation between science and the Catholic religion.[122] Medical specialists reported that heart insufficiency combined with bronchial attacks had hopelessly complicated his already poor prospects.
Pius XI died at 5:31 a.m. (Rome time) of a third heart attack on 10 February 1939, at the age of 81. His last words to those near him at the time of his death were spoken with clarity and firmness: "My soul parts from you all in peace."[123] Some believe he was murdered, based on the fact that his primary physician, Francesco Petacci, was the father ofClaretta Petacci, Mussolini's mistress.[124][125][126][127][128] CardinalEugène Tisserant wrote in his diary that the pope had been murdered, a claim thatCarlo Confalonieri later strongly denied.[114]
Pius XI's tomb as seen on 4 March 1939.
The tomb of Pius XI in the grottoes of Saint Peter's Basilica.
The Pope's last audible words were reported to have been "peace, peace". Those at his bedside at 4:00 am realized that his end was near, at which stage the sacrist was summoned to administer the final sacrament 11 minutes before the pope's death. The pontiff's confessor CardinalLorenzo Lauri arrived a few seconds too late. After his final words, the pope's lips moved slowly. Rocchi said it was possible to discern that the pope was making an effort to recite a Latin prayer.[129] About half a minute before his death, Pius XI raised his right hand weakly and tried making thesign of the Cross to impart his last blessing to those gathered at his bedside. One of the last things he was reported to have said was "We still had so many things to do". He died among a low murmur of psalms recited by those present. Upon his death, his face was covered by a white veil. Pacelli, in accordance with his duties asCamerlengo, lifted the veil and gently struck the pope's forehead three times with a small, ceremonial silver hammer, reciting his Christian name (Achille) and pausing for an answer to confirm that the pope had died, before turning to those present and in Latin saying: "Truly the pope is dead."[129]
Upon Pius XI's death, the AnglicanArchbishop of CanterburyCosmo Lang paid tribute to his efforts for world peace, calling him a man of "sincere piety" who bore his duties with exceptional "dignity and courage". Others who sent messages of condolences were Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, the former visiting the Vatican to pay his respects. Flags were flown half-staff in Rome, Paris, and Berlin.[129]
Pius XI is remembered as the pope who reigned between the two great wars of the 20th century. Although he served as the librarian who reorganized the Vatican archives, he was hardly a withdrawn and bookish figure. He also refounded thePontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, with the aim of turning it into the "scientific senate" of the Church. Hostile to any form of ethnic or religious discrimination, he appointed over 80 academicians from various countries, backgrounds, and areas of research.[136] In his honor,John XXIII established the Pius XI Medal, which the Council of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences awards to a young scientist under 45 who has distinguished himself or herself at the international level.[137]
Pius was a well-known mountain climber.[139] If a cardinal turned up his nose at the Pope's lofty goals, Pius XI would say: "We have no fear of heights."[140] Alpine clubs and mountaineering associations all over the world have honored the mountaineering pope with numerous awards − and also nominations. TheWeisskugelhütte (a mountain hut for overnight stays for mountaineers) in the South Tyrolean part of the Ötztal Alps is called“Rifugio Pio XI alla palla biancha” in Italian. AChilean glacier, theBrüggen Glacier, the largest glacier in Patagonia, is also known asPío XI Glacier.[141] In 1942, Bishop T. B. Pearson founded the Achille Ratti Climbing Club, based in the United Kingdom and named for Pius XI.[142] In 1923, Pius XI designated SaintBernard of Menthon, founder of theGreat St Bernard Hospice, one of the first institutions for rescue in mountaineering distress, as patron saint of mountaineers and Alpine dwellers. He entrusted the Augustinian Canons of the hospice, all of whom possessed high mountaineering skills, with an extremely difficult task—the Catholic mission on the "Roof of the World,"Tibet.[143]
^Trythall, Marisa Patrulli (2010)."Pius XI and American Pragmatism". In Gallagher, Charles R.; Kertzer, David I.; Melloni, Alberto (eds.).Pius XI and America: Proceedings of the Brown University Conference. Lit Verlag. p. 28.ISBN978-3-643-90146-0.Archived from the original on 9 February 2018.
^Pope Pius XI (1 March 1922)."Cum proxime" (in Italian). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved1 November 2017.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
^Salvador Miranda."Pius XI (1922–1939)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved18 February 2022.
^abcEncyclopædia Britannica Online: Pius XI; web Apr. 2013
^abPeter Hebblethwaite; Paul VI, the First Modern Pope; HarperCollins Religious; 1993; p.118
^Kenneth Scott Latourette,Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the 19th and 20th Century: Vol 4 The 20th Century In Europe (1961) pp 129–53
^Kenneth Scott Latourette,Christianity in a Revolutionary Age A History of Christianity in the 19th and 20th Century: Vol 4 The 20th Century In Europe (1961) pp 32–35, 153, 156, 371
^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; p.295
^Latourette,Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the 19th and 20th Century: Vol 4 The 20th Century in Europe (1961) pp 176–88
^abWilliam L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; p234-5
^"The papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust", Frank J. Coppa, p. 160, Catholic University Press of America, 2006,ISBN0-8132-1449-1
^abWilliam L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 349–350.
^Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age A History of Christianity in the 19th and 20th Century: Vol 4 The 20th Century In Europe (1961) pp 188–91
^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 325–329
^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; W.W. Norton & Co; London; p. 413
^Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997;ISBN0-674-63680-5; p. 136
^Giovanni Miccoli, " Les Dilemmes et les silences de Pie XII: Vatican, Seconde Guerre mondiale et Shoah », Éditions Complexe, 2005,ISBN978-2-87027-937-3, p. 401
^Hubert Wolf, Kenneth Kronenberg,Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich (2010), p. 283
^Peter C. Kent, "A Tale of Two Popes: Pius XI, Pius XII and the Rome-Berlin Axis",Journal of Contemporary History (1988) 23#4 pp 589–608in JSTORArchived 7 January 2017 at theWayback Machine
^The draft text was published in 1995 by Georges Passelecq and Berard Suchecky asL'Encyclique Cachée De Pie XI. La Découverte, Paris 1995.
^Letter of Father Maher to Father La Farge, 16 March 1939.
^ Action Française claimed Billot's resignation was in direct response to the Pope's censure of their organization,[56] however this narrative contrasts with official statements released by the Holy See, affirming that Billot's relationship with the Pope remained amicable and his reason for resigning was due to his advanced age, which was 81.[57] According to Church officials, Billot had only an academic interest in Action Française.[56]
Browne-Olf, Lillian.Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 305–59online
Confalonieri, Carlo (1975).Pius XI – A Close Up. (1975). Altadena, California: The Benzinger Sisters Press.
Eisner, Peter, (2013),The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler, New York, New York: HarperCollins |ISBN978-0-06-204914-8
Fattorini, Emma (2011),Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican: Pope Pius XI and the Speech that was Never Made, Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press
Morgan, Thomas B. (1937)A Reporter at the Papal Court – A Narrative of the Reign of Pope Pius XI. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.
Wolf, Hubert (2010),Pope and Devil: The Vatican Archives and the Third Reich. Trans. Kenneth Kronenberg, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.[1]
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