Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
{{infobox christian leader | type	Pope|English namePius IV|Latin namePio PP. IV| imagePius iv.jpg| birth_nameGiovanni Angelo Medici| term_start25 December 1559|term_end9 December 1565 (5 years, 11 months, 14 days)| predecessorPaul IV|successorPius V
consecration	20 April, 1546
consecrated by	Filippo Archinto
cardinal	8 April, 1549| birth_dateMarch 31, 1499|birth_placeMilan, Italy| deaddead| death_dateDecember 09, 1565| death_placeRome, Italy| otherPius}}

dipstyle	His Holiness
offstyle	Your Holiness
relstyle	Holy Father
deathstyle	None }}

Pope Pius IV (31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 1559 to 1565. He is notable for presiding over the culmination of the Council of Trent.

Biography

Giovanni Angelo Medici was born of humble parentage in Milan, distantly related to the Medicis of Florence. His early career connects itself in some measure with the rise of his elder brother, Gian Giacomo Medici, from the position of a mere ''bravo'' to that of Marchese di Marignano.

After studying at Bologna and acquiring a reputation as a jurist, he went in 1527 to Rome, and as the favourite of Pope Paul III was rapidly promoted to the governorship of several towns, the archbishopric of Ragusa, the vice-legateship of Bologna, and in April 1549, to the cardinalate. On the death of Pope Paul IV, he was elected Pope Pius IV on 25 December 1559, and installed on 6 January 1560. His first public acts of importance were to grant a general pardon to the participators in the riot which had closed the previous pontificate, and to bring to trial the nephews of his predecessor, of whom Cardinal Carlo Carafa was strangled, and Duke Giovanni Carafa of Paliano, with his nearest connections, beheaded.

On 18 January 1562 the council of Trent, which had been suspended by Pope Julius III, was opened for the third time. Great skill and caution were necessary to effect a settlement of the questions before it, inasmuch as the three principal nations taking part in it, though at issue with regard to their own special demands, were prepared to unite their forces against the demands of Rome. Pius IV, however, aided by Cardinal Morone and Charles Borromeo, proved himself equal to the emergency, and by judicious management – and concession – brought the council to a termination satisfactory to the disputants and favourable to the pontifical authority. Its definitions and decrees were confirmed by a papal bull dated 26 January 1564; and, though they were received with certain limitations by France and Spain, the famous Creed of Pius IV, or Tridentine Creed, became an authoritative expression of the Catholic faith. The more marked manifestations of stringency during his pontificate appear to have been prompted rather than spontaneous, his personal character inclining him to moderation and ease.

Thus, a warning, issued in 1564, summoning Jeanne d'Albret, the Queen of Navarre, before the Inquisition on a charge of Calvinism, was withdrawn by him in deference to the indignant protest of Charles IX of France. In the same year he published a bull granting the use of the cup to the laity of Austria and Bohemia. One of his strongest passions appears to have been that of building, which somewhat strained his resources in contributing to the adornment of Rome (including the new Porta Pia and Via Pia, named after him, and the northern extension (''Addizione'') of the rione of Borgo), and in carrying on the work of restoration, erection, and fortification in various parts of the ecclesiastical states.

On the other hand, others bemoaned the austere Roman culture during his papacy; Giorgio Vasari in 1567 spoke of a time when "the grandeurs of this place reduced by stinginess of living, dullness of dress, and simplicity in so many things; Rome is fallen into much misery, and if it is true that Christ loved poverty and the City wishes to follow in his steps she will quickly become beggarly...".

A conspiracy against Pius IV, headed by Benedetto Accolti the Younger, the son of a cardinal, was discovered and crushed in 1565.

Pius IV was a nepotist. Among the relatives he favoured, the main figure is that of Carlo Borromeo. Under his reign Michelangelo re-built the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (in the Diocletian's Baths) and the eponymous Villa Pia, now known as Casina Pio IV and headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, was designed by Pirro Ligorio in the Vatican Gardens.

He died on 9 December 1565, and was buried in Santa Maria degli Angeli. His successor was Pius V.

He is generally believed to be the first pope to have died leaving ''in pectore'' cardinals unpublished.

Katherine Rinne said in her book ''Waters of Rome'' that Pius IV also ordered public construction to improve water supply of the Rome city.

See also

List of popes from the Medici family

Sources

''Text from the 9th edition (1888) of the Encyclopædia Britannica''

Notes

Category:Popes Category:Italian popes Category:Council of Trent Category:People from Milan Category:1499 births Category:1565 deaths Medici, Giovanni Angelo

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
{{infobox christian leader | type	Pope
english name	Pius XII
coat of arms	Pius 12 coa.svg
birth name	Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
term start	2 March 1939
term end	9 October 1958 ()
predecessor	Pius XI
successor	John XXIII
ordination	2 April 1899
consecration	13 May 1917
consecrated by	Pope Benedict XV
cardinal	16 December 1929
birth date	March 02, 1876
birth place	Rome, Italy
dead	dead
death date	October 09, 1958
death place	Castel Gandolfo, Italy
signature	Signature_of_Pope_Pius_XII.svg
other	Pius }}

The Venerable Pope Pius XII (; ), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958), reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958.

Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio 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. His leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II remains the subject of continued historical controversy. He has been praised by Rabbi David Dalin as a 'righteous gentile' and a Jewish Study found that he had been responsible for saving at least 700,000 Jews and possibly up to 860,000.

After the war, Pius XII contributed to the rebuilding of Europe, and advocated peace and reconciliation, including lenient policies toward vanquished nations and the unification of Europe. The Church, flourishing in the West, experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the East. In light of his protests, and his involvement in the Italian elections of 1948, he became known as a staunch opponent of communism.

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; Humani Generis on the Church's position on theology and evolution. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946.

Early life

Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on 2 March 1876 in Rome into a deeply religious, aristocratic family with a history of ties to the papacy (the "Black Nobility"). His grandfather, Marcantonio Pacelli, was Under-Secretary in the Papal Ministry of Finances and then Secretary of the Interior under Pope Pius IX from 1851 to 1870 and founded the Vatican's newspaper, ''L'Osservatore Romano'' in 1861; his cousin, Ernesto Pacelli, was a key financial advisor to Pope Leo XIII; his father, Filippo Pacelli, a Franciscan Tertiary, was the dean of the Sacra Rota Romana; and his brother, Francesco Pacelli, became a lay canon lawyer and the legal advisor to Pius XI, in which role he negotiated the Lateran Treaty in 1929, bringing an end to the Roman Question.

Together with his brother Francesco and his two sisters, Giuseppina and Elisabetta, he grew up in the centre of Rome. At the age of 12, Eugenio announced his intentions to enter the priesthood instead of becoming a lawyer. After completing state primary schools, Pacelli received his secondary, classical education at the Visconti Institute, which was dominated by an anti-Catholic atmosphere popular at that time In 1894, at the age of 18, he entered the Collegio Capranica Seminary to begin study for the priesthood and enrolled at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Apollinare Institute of Lateran University. From 1895 to 1896, he studied philosophy at University of Rome La Sapienza. In 1899, he received degrees in theology and ''in utroque iure'' (civil and canon law). At the seminary, he received a special dispensation to live at home for health reasons.

Church career

Priest and Monsignor

He was ordained a priest on Easter Sunday, 2 April 1899 by Bishop Francesco di Paola Cassetta – the vice-regent of Rome and a family friend – and received his first assignment as a curate at Chiesa Nuova, where he had served as an altar boy. In 1901, he entered the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, a sub-office of the Vatican Secretariat of State, where he became a ''minutante'', at the recommendation of Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, another family friend.

In 1904, Pacelli became a papal chamberlain and in 1905 a domestic prelate. From 1904 until 1916, he assisted Cardinal Pietro Gasparri in his codification of canon law with the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. He was also chosen in January 1901 by Pope Leo XIII to deliver condolences on behalf of the Vatican to Edward VII of the United Kingdom after the death of Queen Victoria. In 1908, he served as a Vatican representative on the International Eucharistic Congress in London, where he met Winston Churchill. In 1911, he represented the Holy See at the coronation of King George V.

In 1908 and 1911, Pacelli turned down professorships in canon law at a Roman university and The Catholic University of America, respectively. Pacelli became the under-secretary in 1911, adjunct-secretary in 1912 (a position he received under Pope Pius X and retained under Pope Benedict XV) and secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1914—succeeding Gasparri, who was promoted to Cardinal Secretary of State. As secretary, Pacelli concluded a concordat with Serbia four days before Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo. During World War I, Pacelli maintained the Vatican's registry of prisoners of war. In 1915, he travelled to Vienna to assist Monsignor Raffaele Scapinelli – nuncio to Vienna – in his negotiations with Franz Joseph I of Austria regarding Italy.

Archbishop and Papal Nuncio

Pope Benedict XV appointed Pacelli as nuncio to Bavaria on 23 April 1917, consecrating him as titular Bishop of Sardis and immediately elevating him to archbishop in the Sistine Chapel on 13 May 1917. After his consecration, Eugenio Pacelli left for Bavaria. As there was no nuncio to Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the German Empire.

Once in Munich, he conveyed the papal initiative to end the war to German authorities. He met with King Ludwig III on 29 May and later with Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, who replied positively to the Papal initiative. However, Bethmann-Hollweg was forced to resign and the German High Command, hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until 20 September. For the remainder of the war, he concentrated on Benedict's humanitarian efforts. Pacelli was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Germany on 23 June 1920, and—after the completion of a Bavarian concordat—his nunciature was moved to Berlin in 1925. Many of Pacelli's Munich staff stayed with him for the rest of his life, including his advisor Robert Leiber and Pascalina Lehnert – housekeeper, friend, and adviser to Pacelli for 41 years. In Berlin, Pacelli was Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and active in diplomatic and many social activities. He worked with the German priest Ludwig Kaas, who was known for his expertise in Church-state relations and was politically active in the Catholic Centre Party. While in Germany, he traveled to all regions as a pastor, attended Katholikentag (national gatherings of the faithful), and delivered some 50 sermons and speeches to the German people.

In post-war Germany, in the absence of a nuncio in Moscow, Pacelli worked also on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. He negotiated food shipments for Russia, where the Church was persecuted. He met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin, who rejected any kind of religious education, the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican. Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until Pope Pius XI ordered them to be discontinued in 1927.

Pacelli supported the Weimar Coalition of Social Democrats and liberal parties. Although he had cordial relations with representatives of the Centre Party, he did not involve the Centre in his dealings with the German government. Pacelli supported German diplomatic activity aimed at rejection of punitive measures from victorious former enemies. He blocked French attempts for an ecclesiastical separation of the Saar region, supported the appointment of a papal administrator for Danzig and aided the reintegration of priests expelled from Poland.

Cardinal Secretary of State and Camerlengo

Pacelli was made a Cardinal-Priest of ''Santi Giovanni e Paolo'' on 16 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and within a few months, on 7 February 1930, Pius XI appointed him Cardinal Secretary of State. In 1935, Pacelli was named Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.

As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed concordats with a number of countries and states, including Baden (1932), Austria (1933), Germany (1933), Yugoslavia (1935) and Portugal (1940). The Lateran treaties with Italy (1929) were concluded before Pacelli became secretary of state. Such concordats allowed the Catholic Church to organize youth groups, make ecclesiastical appointments, run schools, hospitals, and charities, or even conduct religious services. They also ensured that canon law would be recognized within some spheres (e.g., church decrees of nullity in the area of marriage).

He made many diplomatic visits throughout Europe and the Americas, including an extensive visit to the United States in 1936 where he met Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appointed a personal envoy – who did not require Senate confirmation – to the Holy See in December 1939, re-establishing a diplomatic tradition that had been broken since 1870 when the pope lost temporal power.

Pacelli presided as Papal Legate over the International Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 10–14 October 1934, and in Budapest on 25–30 May 1938. At this time, antisemitic laws were in the process of being formulated in Hungary. Pacelli made reference to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today". This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed in Nostra Aetate issued during the Second Vatican Council. According to Joseph Bottum, Pacelli in 1937 "warned A. W. Klieforth, the American consul to Berlin, that Hitler was "an untrustworthy scoundrel and fundamentally wicked person"; Klieforth wrote that Pacelli "did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, and... fully supported the German bishops in their anti-Nazi stand". A report written by Pacelli the following year for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and filed with Ambassador Joseph Kennedy declared that the Church regarded compromise with the Third Reich as "out of the question".

Some historians have argued that Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI – who was nearing death at the time – from condemning the ''Kristallnacht'' in November 1938, when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin. Likewise the draft encyclical ''Humani Generis Unitas'' ("On the Unity of the Human Race"), which was ready in September 1938 but, according to those responsible for an edition of the document and other sources, it was not forwarded to the Holy See by the Jesuit General Wlodimir Ledochowski. The draft encyclical contained an open and clear condemnation of colonialism, racism and antisemitism. Some historians have argued that Pacelli learned about its existence only after the death of Pius XI and did not promulgate it as Pope. He did however use parts of it in his inaugural encyclical Summi Pontificatus, which he titled "On the Unity of Human Society."

His various positions on Church and policy issues during his tenure as Cardinal Secretary of State were made public by the Holy See in 1939. Most noteworthy among the 50 speeches is his review of Church-State issues in Budapest in 1938.

''Reichskonkordat'' and ''Mit brennender Sorge''

The ''Reichskonkordat'' was an integral part of four concordats Pacelli concluded on behalf of the Vatican with German States. The state concordats were necessary because the German federalist Weimar constitution gave the German states authority in the area of education and culture and thus diminished the authority of the churches in these areas; this diminution of church authority was a primary concern of the Vatican. As Bavarian Nuncio, Pacelli negotiated successfully with the Bavarian authorities in 1925. He expected the concordat with Catholic Bavaria to be the model for the rest of Germany. Prussia showed interest in negotiations only after the Bavarian concordat. However, Pacelli obtained less favorable conditions for the Church in the Prussian concordat of 1929, which excluded educational issues. A concordat with the German state of Baden was completed by Pacelli in 1932, after he had moved to Rome. There he also negotiated a concordat with Austria in 1933. A total of 16 concordats and treaties with European states had been concluded in the ten year period 1922–1932.

The ''Reichskonkordat'', signed on 20 July 1933, between Germany and the Holy See, while thus a part of an overall Vatican policy, was controversial from its beginning. It remains the most important of Pacelli's concordats. It is debated, not because of its content, which is still valid today, but because of its timing. A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state, because he had hoped to strengthen the legal position of the Church. Pacelli, who knew German conditions well, emphasized in particular protection for Catholic associations (§31), freedom for education and Catholic schools, and freedom for publications.

As nuncio during the 1920s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between 1930 and 1933 he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but the opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim. In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of 1932.

Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of the Church and the Catholic Centre Party. He sent his vice chancellor Franz von Papen, a Catholic nobleman and member of the Centre Party, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat. On behalf of Pacelli, Prelate Ludwig Kaas, the outgoing chairman of the Centre Party, negotiated first drafts of the terms with Papen. The concordat was finally signed, by Pacelli for the Vatican and von Papen for Germany, on 20 July and ratified on 10 September 1933. Father Franziscus Stratman, senior Catholic chaplain at Berlin University wrote 'The souls of well-disposed people are in a turmoil as a result of the tyranny of the National Socialists, and I am merely stating a fact when I say that the authority of the bishops among innumerable Catholics and non-Catholics has been shaken by the quasi-approval of the National Socialist movement'.

Between 1933 and 1939, Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the ''Reichskonkordat''. Most notably, early in 1937, Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the ''Reichskonkordat''; this was to become Pius XI's 1937 encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge''. The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Roman Catholic Church documents. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and read from every German Catholic Church pulpit on Palm Sunday, it condemned the paganism of the National Socialism ideology. Pope Pius XI credited its creation and writing to Pacelli. It was the first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organization and resulted in persecution of the Church by the infuriated Nazis who closed all the participating presses and "took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy."

On 10 June 1941 he commented on the problems of the ''Reichskonkordat'' in a letter to the Bishop of Passau, in Bavaria: "The history of the Reichskonkordat shows, that the other side lacked the most basic prerequisites to accept minimal freedoms and rights of the Church, without which the Church simply cannot live and operate, formal agreements notwithstanding".

Papacy

Election and coronation

dipstyle	His Holiness
offstyle	Your Holiness
relstyle	Holy Father
deathstyle	Venerable }}

Pius XI died on 10 February 1939. Several historians have interpreted the conclave to choose his successor as facing a choice between a diplomatic or a spiritual candidate, and they view Pacelli's diplomatic experience, especially with Germany, as one of the deciding factors in his election on 2 March 1939, his 63rd birthday, after only one day of deliberation and three ballots. He was the first cardinal secretary of state to be elected Pope since Clement IX in 1667. He was also one of only two men known to have served as Camerlengo immediately prior to being elected as pope (the other being Pope Leo XIII). His coronation took place on 12 March 1939. Upon being elected pope he was also formally the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis.

Pacelli took the same papal name as his predecessor, a title used exclusively by Italian Popes. He was quoted as saying, "I call myself Pius; my whole life was under Popes with this name, but especially as a sign of gratitude towards Pius XI." On 15 December 1937, during his last consistory, Pius XI strongly hinted to the cardinals that he expected Pacelli to be his successor, saying "He is in your midst." He had previously been quoted as saying: "When today the Pope dies, you’ll get another one tomorrow, because the Church continues. It would be a much bigger tragedy, if Cardinal Pacelli dies, because there is only one. I pray every day, God may send another one into one of our seminaries, but as of today, there is only one in this world."

Appointments

After his election, he made Luigi Maglione his successor as Cardinal Secretary of State. Cardinal Maglione, a seasoned Vatican diplomat, had reestablished diplomatic relations with Switzerland and was for many years nuncio in Paris. Yet, Maglione did not exercise the influence of his predecessor Pacelli, who as Pope continued his close relation with Monsignors Montini (later Pope Paul VI) and Domenico Tardini. After the death of Maglione in 1944, Pius left the position open and named Tardini head of its foreign section and Montini head of the internal section. Tardini and Montini continued serving there until 1953, when Pius XII decided to appoint them cardinals, an honor which both turned down. They were then later appointed to be Pro-Secretary with the privilege to wear Episcopal Insignia. Tardini continued to be a close co-worker of the Pope until the death of Pius XII, while Montini became archbishop of Milan, after the death of Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster.

Pius XII slowly eroded the Italian monopoly on the Roman Curia; he employed German and Dutch Jesuit advisors, Robert Leiber, Augustin Bea, and Sebastian Tromp. He also supported the elevation of Americans such as Cardinal Francis Spellman from a minor to a major role in the Church. After World War II, Pius XII appointed more non-Italians than any Pope before him. American appointees included Joseph P. Hurley as regent of the nunciature in Belgrade, Gerald P. O'Hara Nuncio to Romania and Monsignor Aloisius Joseph Muench as nuncio to Germany. For the first time, numerous young Europeans, Asians and "Americans were trained in various congregations and secretariats within the Vatican for eventual service throughout the world."

Consistories

Only twice in his pontificate did Pius XII hold a consistory to create new cardinals, in contrast to Pius XI, who had done so 17 times in as many years. Pius XII chose not to name new cardinals during World War II, and the number of cardinals shrank to 38, with Dennis Joseph Dougherty of Philadelphia being the only living U.S. cardinal. The first occasion on 18 February 1946 – which has become known as the "Grand Consistory" – yielded the elevation of a record 32 new cardinals, almost 50 percent of the College of Cardinals and reaching the canonical limit of 70 cardinals. In the 1946 consistory, Pius XII, while maintaining the maximum size of the College of Cardinals at 70, named cardinals from China, India, the Middle East and increased the number of Cardinals from the Americas, proportionally lessening the Italian influence.

In his second consistory on 12 January 1953, it was expected that his closest co-workers, Msgrs. Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Montini would be elevated and Pius XII informed the assembled cardinals that both of them were originally on the top of his list, but they had turned down the offer, and were rewarded instead with other promotions. The two consistories of 1946 and 1953 brought an end to over five hundred years of Italians constituting a majority of the College of Cardinals. With few exceptions, Italian prelates accepted the changes positively; there was no protest movement or open opposition to the internationalization efforts.

Earlier, in 1945, Pius XII had dispensed with the complicated papal conclave procedures which attempted to ensure secrecy while preventing Cardinals from voting for themselves, compensating for this change by raising the requisite majority from two-thirds to two thirds plus one.

Church reforms

Liturgy reforms

In his encyclical Mediator Dei, Pius XII links liturgy with the last will of Jesus Christ.

The Church has, therefore, according to Pius XII, a common aim with Christ himself, teaching all men the truth, and, offering to God a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice. This way, the Church re-establishes the unity between the Creator and His creatures. The sacrifice of the altar, being Christ's own actions, convey and dispense divine grace from Christ to the members of the Mystical Body.

The numerous Liturgy reforms of Pius XII show two characteristics. Renewal and the rediscovery of old liturgical traditions, such as the reintroduction of the Easter Vigil, and, a more structured atmosphere within the Church buildings. The use of vernacular language, favoured by Pius XII, was hotly debated at his time. He increased non-Latin services, especially in countries with expanding Catholic mission activities. The church tabernacle holding the Blessed Sacrament should be immovably fixed to the altar and, unless another position was thought to be more appropriate, should normally be at the main altar. The Church should display religious objects, but not be overloaded with secondary objects. Modern sacred art should be reverential and reflect the spirit of our time. Priests are permitted to officiate marriages without Holy Mass. They may also officiate confirmations in certain instances.

The most radical of his liturgical changes concerned Palm Sunday and the Paschal Triduum. In the latter, he changed the hour of the celebrations, so that the Mass of the Lord's Supper was held in the evening, not the morning of Maundy Thursday, the Good Friday liturgical service was held in the afternoon, and the Vigil Mass of the resurrection of Jesus was no longer celebrated on the morning of Holy Saturday, but instead during the night that led to Easter Sunday. He inserted the washing of feet into the Mass of the Lord's Supper and made the distribution of Communion to the faithful a normal part of the celebration: previously the Roman Missal spoke of the consecration only of two large hosts (one reserved for Good Friday) and of small ones for the sick, "if necessary". The faithful were to be given Communion also on Good Friday, when previously only the priest received Communion. In the Easter Vigil service the Pope made many changes. He replaced a prayer said over incense (that apparently arose as a result of understanding "incensum cereum", meaning "the lit candle", as referring to "incensum", meaning "incense") was replaced with one over the Easter candle. He added a completely new ceremony in which the priest inscribed this candle with the Arabic numerals of the date of the year and inserted into it five pieces of incense. He abolished the triple candlestick with the three candles that were lit at different points of the ceremony. He removed the obligation for the priest to read silently by himself the Scripture readings that were being proclaimed to the people, and he introduced a newly composed ceremony of renewal of baptismal promises, in which the vernacular language could be used.

Canon Law Reforms

Decentralised authority and increased independence of the Uniate Churches were aimed at in the Canon Law/Corpis Iuris Canonici (CIC) reform. In its new constitutions, Eastern Patriarchs were made almost independent from Rome (CIC Orientalis, 1957) Eastern marriage law (CIC Orientalis, 1949), civil law (CIC Orientalis, 1950), laws governing religious associations (CIC Orientalis, 1952) property law (CIC Orientalis, 1952) and other laws. These reforms and writings of Pius XII were intended to establish Eastern Orientals as equal parts of the mystical body of Christ, as explained in the encyclical Mystici Corporis.

Priests and Religious

With the Apostolic constitution ''Sedis Sapientiae'', Pius XII added social sciences, sociology, psychology and social psychology, to the pastoral training of future priests. Pius XII emphasised the need to systematically analyze the psychological condition of candidates to the priesthood to ensure that they are capable of a life of celibacy and service. Pius XII added one year to the theological formation of future priests. He also included a "pastoral year", an introduction into the practice of Parish work.

The call to constant interior reform and Christian heroism is a central part of the message of Pius XII to all Religious. This means to be above average, to be a living example of Christian virtue. As the secular world has fallen back into Hedonism, the Catholic alternative is the sanctification especially of Priests and Religious. The strict norms governing their lives are meant to make them models of Christian perfection for lay people, he writes in Menti Nostrae. Bishops are encouraged to look at model saints like Boniface, and Pope Pius X. Priests were encouraged to be living examples of the love of Christ and his sacrifice.

Theology

Pius XII explained the Catholic faith in 41 encyclicals and almost 1000 messages and speeches during his long pontificate. Mediator Dei clarified membership and participation in the Church. The encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu opened the doors for biblical research. His magisterium was far larger and is difficult to summarize. In numerous speeches Catholic teaching is related to various aspects of life, education, medicine, politics, war and peace, the life of saints, Mary, the mother of God, things eternal and contemporary. Theologically, Pius XII specified the nature of the teaching authority of the Church. He also gave a new freedom to engage in theological investigations.

Theological orientation

;Biblical Research The encyclical, ''Divino Afflante Spiritu'', published in 1943 emphasized the role of the Bible. Pius XII freed biblical research from previous limitations. He encouraged Christian theologians to revisit original versions of the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. Noting improvements in archaeology, the encyclical reversed Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, which had only advocated going back to the original texts to resolve ambiguity in the Latin Vulgate. The encyclical demands a much better understanding of ancient Jewish history and traditions. It requires bishops throughout the Church to initiate biblical studies for lay people. The Pontiff also requests a reorientation of Catholic teaching and education, relying much more on sacred scriptures in sermons and religious instruction.

;The role of theology This theological investigative freedom does not, however, extend to all aspects of theology. According to Pius, theologians, employed by the Church, are assistants, to teach the official teachings of the Church and not their own private thoughts. They are free to engage in empirical research, which the Church generously supports, but in matters of morality and religion, they are subjected to the teaching office and authority of the Church, the Magisterium. "The most noble office of theology is to show how a doctrine defined by the Church is contained in the sources of revelation, … in that sense in which it has been defined by the Church." The deposit of faith is authentically interpretated not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only to the teaching authority of the Church.

Mariology and the Dogma of the Assumption

As a young boy and in later life, Pacelli was an ardent follower of the Virgin Mary. He was consecrated as a bishop on 13 May 1917, the very first day of the appearances of Our Lady of Fátima. He consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942, in accordance with the second "secret" of Our Lady of Fátima. His remains were to be buried in the crypt of Saint Peter's Basilica on the feast day of Our Lady of Fátima, 13 October 1958.

On 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption:

The dogma of the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary is the crowning of the theology of Pius XII. It resolved a theological difficulty that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception had left open: if the soul of Mary had been created without the taint of sin, yet the Bible states that the wages of sin is death, should it be concluded that Mary, who by definition never sinned, therefore never died? The dogma of her assumption settles the problem by stating that she did not experience the ordinary human death, but was taken to Heaven as a divine gift.

The dogma was preceded by the 1946 encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae, which requested all Catholic bishops to express their opinion on a possible dogmatization. On 8 September 1953, the encyclical Fulgens corona announced a Marian year for 1954, the centennial of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In the encyclical Ad caeli reginam he promulgated the feast, Queenship of Mary. Mystici Corporis summarizes his mariology.

Social teachings

;Medical theology Pius XII delivered numerous speeches to medical professionals and researchers. He addressed doctors, nurses, midwives, to detail all aspects of rights and dignity of patients, medical responsibilities, moral implications of psychological illnesses and the uses of psycho pharmaca. He also took on issues like the uses of medicine in terminally ill persons, medical lies in face of grave illness, and the rights of family members to make decisions against expert medical advice. Pope Pius XII often reconsidered previously accepted truth, thus he was first to determine that the use of pain medicine in terminally ill patients is justified, even if this may shorten the life of the patient, as long as life shortening is not the objective itself.

;Family and sexuality Pope Pius XII developed an extensive theology of the family, taking issue with family roles, sharing of household duties, education of children, conflict resolution, financial dilemmas, psychological problems, illness, taking care of older generations, unemployment, marital holiness and virtue, common prayer, religious discussions and more. Within the overall divine purpose of family life, he fully accepted the rhythm method as a moral form of family planning, although only limited circumstances, within the context of family.

;Theology and science To Pius XII, science and religion were heavenly sisters, different manifestations of divine exactness, who could not possibly contradict each other over the long term Regarding their relation, his advisor Professor Robert Leiber wrote: "Pius XII was very careful not to close any doors prematurely. He was energetic on this point and regretted that in the case of Galileo."

;Evolution In 1950, Pius XII promulgated ''Humani Generis'' which acknowledged that evolution might accurately describe the biological origins of human life, but at the same time criticized those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution... explains the origin of all things". Catholics must believe that the human soul was created immediately by God. Since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person.." Fifty years later, Pope John Paul II, stating that scientific evidence now seemed to favour the evolutionary theory, upheld the distinction of Pius XII regarding the human soul. "Even if the human body originates from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is spontaneously created by God."

Encyclicals, writings and speeches

Pius XII issued 41 encyclicals during his pontificate – more than all his successors in the past 50 years taken together – along with many other writings and speeches. The pontificate of Pius XII was the first in Vatican history, which published papal speeches and addresses in vernacular language on a systematic basis. Until then, papal documents were issued mainly in Latin in Acta Apostolicae Sedis since 1909. Because of the novelty of it all, and a feared occupation of the Vatican by the German Wehrmacht, not all documents exist today. In 1944, a number of papal documents were burned or "walled in", to avoid detection by the advancing German army. Insisting that all publications must be reviewed by him on a prior basis to avoid any misunderstanding, several speeches by Pius XII, who did not find sufficient time, were never published or appeared only once issued in the Vatican daily, ''Osservatore Romano''.

Several encyclicals addressed the Oriental Churches. ''Orientalis Ecclesiae'' was issued in 1944 on the 15th centenary of the death of Cyril of Alexandria, a saint common to Orthodox and Latin Churches. Pius XII asks for prayer for better understanding and unification of the Churches. ''Orientales Omnes'', issued in 1945 on the 350th anniversary of the reunion, is a call to continued unity of the Ruthenian Church, threatened in its very existence by the authorities of the Soviet Union. ''Sempiternus Rex'' was issued in 1951 on the 1500th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. It included a call to oriental communities adhering to monophysitism to return to the Catholic Church.

''Orientales Ecclesias'' was issued in 1952 and addressed to the Eastern Churches, protesting the continued Stalinist persecution of the Church. Several Apostolic Letters were sent to the bishops in the East. On 13 May 1956, Pope Pius addressed all bishops of the Eastern Rite. Mary, the mother of God was the subject of encyclical letters to the people of Russia in Fulgens Corona and a papal letter to the people of Russia.

Feasts and devotions

In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics. The first medal of the Holy Face, produced by Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli based on the image on the Shroud of Turin had been offered to Pius XII who approved of the medal and the devotion based on it. The general devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus had been approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885 before the image on the Turin Shroud had been photographed.

Canonisations and beatifications

Pope Pius XII canonized numerous saints, including Pope Pius X and Maria Goretti. He beatified Pope Innocent XI. The first canonizations were two women, the founder of a female order, Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, and a young housekeeper said to have stigmata, Gemma Galgani. Pelletier had a reputation for opening new ways for Catholic charities, helping people in difficulties with the law, who had been neglected by the system and the Church. Galgani was a woman in her twenties whose virtue became model by her canonization.

World War II

As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed a Concordat between Germany and the Vatican at a ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. His pontificate began on the eve of World War II. In the 1937 encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge'', drafted by Pope Pius XII when he was still a cardinal, Pope Pius XI denounced Nazism and breaches of the Reichskonkordat. Read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches, it has been described as the first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organization. Nazi persecution of the Church in Germany then began by "outright repression" and "staged prosecutions of monks for homosexuality, with the maximum of publicity." When Dutch bishops protested against the deportation of Jews, the Nazis responded by deporting Jewish converts, including Edith Stein.

In Poland, the Nazis murdered over 2,500 monks and priests while even more were sent to concentration camps. The Priester-Block (priests barracks) in the Dachau concentration camp lists 2,600 Roman Catholic priests. Pius XII's refusal to censure the German invasion and annexation of Poland was regarded as a "betrayal" by many Polish Catholics and clergy, who saw his appointment of Hilarius Breitinger as apostolic administrator for the Wartheland in May 1942 as "implicit recognition" of the breakup of Poland; the opinions of the ''Volksdeutsche'', mostly Catholic German minorities living in Poland, were more mixed. Although Pius XII received frequent reports about atrocities committed by and/or against Catholics, his knowledge was not complete; for example, he wept after the war upon learning that Cardinal Hlond had banned German liturgical services in Poland. Phayer argues that Pius XII – both before and during his papacy – consistently "deferred to Germany at the expense of Poland", and saw Germany – not Poland – as critical to "rebuilding a large Catholic presence in Central Europe".

During the war, the Pope followed a policy of public neutrality mirroring that of Pope Benedict XV during World War I. In 1939, Pius XII turned the Vatican into a centre of aid which he organized from various parts of the world At the request of the Pope, an information office for prisoners of war and refugees operated in the Vatican under Giovanni Battista Montini, which in the years of its existence from 1939 until 1947 received almost 10 million (9,891,497) information requests and produced over 11 million (11,293,511) answers about missing persons.

In April 1939, after the submission of Charles Maurras and the intervention of the Carmel of Lisieux, Pius XII ended his predecessor's ban on Action Française, an organization described by some authors as virulently antisemitic and anti-Communist.

In 1939, the Pope employed Jewish cartographer Roberto Almagia to work on old maps in the Vatican library. Almagia had been at the University of Rome since 1915 but was dismissed after Benito Mussolini's anti-semitic legislation of 1938. The Pope's appointment of two Jews to the Vatican Academy of Science as well as the hiring of Almagia were reported by ''The New York Times'' in the editions of 11 November 1939, and 10 January 1940.

During the Soviet Union's acts of aggression against Finland, the Winter War, Pius XII condemned the Soviet attack on 26 December 1939 in a speech at the Vatican. Later he donated a signed and sealed prayer on behalf of Finland.

On 18 January 1940, after over 15,000 Polish civilians had been killed, Pius XII said in a radio broadcast, "The horror and inexcusable excesses committed on a helpless and a homeless people have been established by the unimpeachable testimony of eye-witnesses."

In his first encyclical ''Summi Pontificatus'' (20 October 1939), Pius XII publicly condemned the invasion, occupation and partition of Poland under the Nazi-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

''Time'' magazine reports that France and Britain were favourably surprised by the encyclical.

On 11 March 1940, The Pope had a personal meeting with German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim Ribbentrop, who was visiting Rome. During that meeting, The German Foreign Minister suggested to the Pope an overall settlement between the Vatican and the Reich government in exchange for the Pope instructing the German Bishops to refrain from political criticism of the German government, but no agreement was reached. The Vatican diplomatic record of the meeting describes what transpired as follows:

He (Ribbentrop) answered that at the bottom it is a question of a revolution and that compared with other revolutions the National Socialist Revolution has not caused grave harm to the churches. To which the Pope replied that in reality there had been many injuries – and he continued to point out examples. Ribbentrop underlined that the State spends a great deal for the clergy and the Church. The Pope replied that a great deal has been taken away from the Church, houses, institutions of education – kicking out the legitimate owners malo modo in a few hours. The Holy Father insisted particularly on the schools.

After Germany invaded the Low Countries during 1940, Pius XII sent expressions of sympathy to the Queen of the Netherlands, the King of Belgium, and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. When Mussolini learned of the warnings and the telegrams of sympathy, he took them as a personal affront and had his ambassador to the Vatican file an official protest, charging that Pius XII had taken sides against Italy's ally Germany. Mussolini's foreign minister claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience."

In the spring of 1940, a group of German generals seeking to overthrow Hitler and make peace with the British approached Pope Pius XII, who acted as a negotiator between the British and the abortive plot.

On 13 June 1940, while the battle of France was still raging, the Pope issued encyclical ''Saeculo Exeunte Octavo'', which, though relating to Portugal, made an ambiguous statement about the general situation in the following words: "now, when more than a few European nations have been lost to the Church because of the changes in these calamitous times", which could have referred either to the German occupation or to Communism in Russia.

In April 1941, Pius XII granted a private audience to Ante Pavelić, the leader of the newly proclaimed Croatian state (rather than the diplomatic audience Pavelić had wanted). Pius was criticised for his reception of Pavelić: an unattributed British Foreign Office memo on the subject described Pius as "the greatest moral coward of our age." The Vatican did not officially recognise Pavelić's regime. Pius XII did not publicly condemn the expulsions and forced conversions to Catholicism perpetrated on Serbs by Pavelić; however, the Holy See did expressly repudiate the forced conversions in a memorandum dated 25 January 1942, from the Vatican Secretiat of State to the Yugoslavian Legation. Pius XII was well-informed of the involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustaša regime, even possessing a list of clergymembers who had "joined in the slaughter", but decided against condemning the regime or taking action against the involved clergy, fearing that it would lead to schism in the Croatian church or undermine the formation of a future Croatian state. Pius XII elevated Aloysius Stepinac—a Croatian archbishop convicted of collaborating with the Ustaša—to the cardinalate. Although Phayer agrees in part with criticisms of Stepinac conviction as a "show trial", he states "the charge that he supported the Ustaša regime was, of course, true, as everyone knew", and that "if Stepinac had responded to the charges against him, his defense would have inevitably unraveled, exposing the Vatican's support of the genocidal Pavelić".

In 1941, Pius XII interpreted ''Divini Redemptoris'', an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, which forbade Catholics to help communists, as not applying to military assistance to the Soviet Union. This interpretation assuaged American Catholics who had previously opposed Lend-Lease arrangements with the Soviet Union.

In March 1942, Pius XII established diplomatic relations with the Japanese Empire and received ambassador Ken Harada, who remained in that position until the end of the war. In May 1942, Kazimierz Papée, Polish ambassador to the Vatican, complained that Pius had failed to condemn the recent wave of atrocities in Poland; when Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione replied that the Vatican could not document individual atrocities, Papée declared, "when something becomes notorious, proof is not required."

In June 1942, diplomatic relations were established with the Nationalist government of China. This step was envisaged earlier, but delayed due to Japanese pressure to establish relations with the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei government. The first Chinese Minister to the Vatican, Hsieh Shou-kang, was only able to arrive at the Vatican in January 1943, due to difficulties of travel resulting from the war. He remained in that position until late 1946.

Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address on the Vatican Radio remains a "lightning rod" in debates about Pius XII. The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society; at the very end of the speech, Pius XII mentioned "the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline". Reactions of contemporaries and scholars are divided, but the speech did denounce genocide (a term not coined until 1944), although "it is still not clear ''whose'' genocide or ''which'' genocide he was referring to".

Several authors have alleged a plot to kidnap Pius XII by the Nazis during their occupation of Rome in 1943 (Vatican City itself was not occupied); British historian Owen Chadwick and Jesuit ADSS editor Robert A. Graham concluded that such claims were the invention of British wartime propagandists. However, subsequent to those accounts, Dan Kurzman in 2007 published a work which he maintains establishes the plot as fact.

As the war was approaching its end in 1945, Pius advocated a lenient policy by the Allied leaders in an effort to prevent what he perceived to be the mistakes made at the end of World War I. In August 1944, he met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was visiting Rome. At their meeting, the Pope expressed the hope that the planned war crimes trials shall not include Italian defendants, since he considered the Italians as victims of the Third Reich.

The Holocaust

In 1939, the newly elected Pope Pius XII appointed several prominent Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican after they had been dismissed from Italian universities under Fascist leader Benito Mussolini's racial laws. Pius later engineered an agreement—formally approved on 23 June 1939—with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas to issue 3,000 visas to "non-Aryan Catholics". However, over the next 18 months Brazil's Conselho de Imigração e Colonização (CIC) continued to tighten the restrictions on their issuance, including requiring a baptismal certificate dated before 1933, a substantial monetary transfer to the Banco do Brasil, and approval by the Brazilian Propaganda Office in Berlin. The program was cancelled 14 months later, after fewer than 1,000 visas had been issued, amid suspicions of "improper conduct" (i.e., continuing to practice Judaism) among those who had received visas.

Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione received a request from Chief Rabbi of Palestine Isaac Herzog in the Spring of 1940 to intercede on behalf of Lithuanian Jews about to be deported to Germany. Pius called Ribbentrop on 11 March, repeatedly protesting against the treatment of Jews. In his 1939 encyclical ''Summi Pontificatus'', Pius rejected anti-semitism, stating that in the Catholic Church there is "neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision." In 1940, Pius asked members of the clergy, on Vatican letterhead, to do whatever they could on behalf of interned Jews.

In 1941, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna informed Pius of Jewish deportations in Vienna. Later that year, when asked by French Marshal Philippe Pétain if the Vatican objected to antisemitic laws, Pius responded that the church condemned antisemitism, but would not comment on specific rules. Similarly, when Philippe Pétain's regime adopted the "Jewish statutes", the Vichy ambassador to the Vatican, Léon Bérard (a French politician), was told that the legislation did not conflict with Catholic teachings. Valerio Valeri, the nuncio to France was "embarrassed" when he learned of this publicly from Pétain and personally checked the information with Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione who confirmed the Vatican's position. Yet in June 1942, Pius personally protested against the mass deportations of Jews from France, ordering the papal nuncio to protest to Pétain against "the inhuman arrests and deportations of Jews". In September 1941, Pius objected to a Slovakian Jewish Code, which, unlike the earlier Vichy codes, prohibited intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. In October 1941, Harold Tittman, a U.S. delegate to the Vatican, asked the pope to condemn the atrocities against Jews; Pius replied that the Vatican wished to remain "neutral," reiterating the neutrality policy which Pius invoked as early as September 1940.

In 1942, the Slovakian chargé d'affaires told Pius that Slovakian Jews were being sent to concentration camps. On 11 March 1942, several days before the first transport was due to leave, the chargé d'affaires in Bratislava reported to the Vatican: "I have been assured that this atrocious plan is the handwork of ... Prime Minister (Tuka), who confirmed the plan ... he dared to tell me—he who makes such a show of his Catholicism—that he saw nothing inhuman or un-Christian in it ... the deportation of 80,000 persons to Poland, is equivalent to condemning a great number of them to certain death." The Vatican protested to the Slovak government that it "deplore(s) these... measures which gravely hurt the natural human rights of persons, merely because of their race."

On 18 September 1942, Pius received a letter from Monsignor Montini (future Pope Paul VI), saying, "the massacres of the Jews reach frightening proportions and forms." Later that month, Myron Taylor, U.S. representative to the Vatican, warned Pius that the Vatican's "moral prestige" was being injured by silence on European atrocities, a warning which was echoed simultaneously by representatives from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, and Poland. The Cardinal Secretary of State replied that the rumors about genocide could not be verified. In December 1942, when Tittman asked Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione if Pius would issue a proclamation similar to the Allied declaration "German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race", Maglione replied that the Vatican was "unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities." Pius XII directly explained to Tittman that he could not name the Nazis without at the same time mentioning the Bolsheviks. Pius XII also never publicly condemned the Nazi massacre of 1,800,000–1,900,000 mainly Catholic Polish gentiles (including 2,935 members of the Catholic Clergy), nor did he ever publicly condemn the Soviet Union for the deaths of 1,000,000 mainly Catholic Polish gentile citizens including an untold number of clergy. In late 1942, Pius XII advised German and Hungarian bishops that speaking out against the massacres in the Eastern Front would be politically advantageous. In his 1942 Christmas Eve message, he expressed strong concern for "those hundreds of thousands, who ... sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or progressive extinction. On 7 April 1943, Msgr. Tardini, one of Pius’ closest advisors, told Pius that it would be politically advantageous after the war to take steps to help Slovakian Jews.

In January 1943, Pius declined to publicly denounce the Nazi discrimination against Jews, following requests to do so from Władysław Raczkiewicz, president of the Polish government-in-exile, and Bishop Konrad von Preysing of Berlin. On 26 September 1943, following the German occupation of northern Italy, Nazi officials gave Jewish leaders in Rome 36 hours to produce 50 kilograms of gold (or the equivalent) threatening to take 300 hostages. Then Chief Rabbi of Rome Israel Zolli recounts in his memoir that he was selected to go to the Vatican and seek help. The Vatican offered to loan 15 kilos, but the offer proved unnecessary when the Jews received an extension. Soon afterward, when deportations from Italy were imminent, 477 Jews were hidden in the Vatican itself and another 4,238 were protected in Roman monasteries and convents. Eighty percent of Roman Jews were saved from deportation. Phayer argues that the German diplomats in Rome were the "initiators of the effort to save the city's Jews", but holds that Pius XII "cooperated in this attempt at rescue", while agreeing with Zuccotti that the pope "did not give orders" for any Roman Catholic institution to hide Jews.

On 30 April 1943, Pius wrote to Bishop Graf von Preysing of Berlin to say: "We give to the pastors who are working on the local level the duty of determining if and to what degree the danger of reprisals and of various forms of oppression occasioned by episcopal declarations... ''ad maiora mala vitanda'' (to avoid worse)... seem to advise caution. Here lies one of the reasons, why We impose self-restraint on Ourselves in our speeches; the experience, that we made in 1942 with papal addresses, which We authorized to be forwarded to the Believers, justifies our opinion, as far as We see.... The Holy See has done whatever was in its power, with charitable, financial and moral assistance. To say nothing of the substantial sums which we spent in American money for the fares of immigrants."

On 28 October 1943, Ernst von Weizsäcker, the German Ambassador to the Vatican, telegrammed Berlin that "...the Pope has not yet let himself be persuaded to make an official condemnation of the deportation of the Roman Jews.... Since it is currently thought that the Germans will take no further steps against the Jews in Rome, the question of our relations with the Vatican may be considered closed."

In March 1944, through the papal nuncio in Budapest, Angelo Rotta, the pope urged the Hungarian government to moderate its treatment of the Jews. The pope also ordered Rotta and other papal legates to hide and shelter Jews. These protests, along with others from the King of Sweden, the International Red Cross, the United States, and Britain led to the cessation of deportations on 8 July 1944. Also in 1944, Pius appealed to 13 Latin American governments to accept "emergency passports", although it also took the intervention of the U.S. State Department for those countries to honor the documents.

The Kaltenbrunner Report to Adolf Hitler dated 29 November 1944 on the background of the 20 July 1944 Plot to assassinate Hitler, states that the Pope was somehow a conspirator, specifically naming Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, as being a party in the attempt.

Post–World War II

After World War II Pope Pius XII focused on material aid to war-torn Europe, an internal internationalization of the Roman Catholic Church, and the development of its worldwide diplomatic relations. His encyclicals, ''Evangelii Praecones'' and ''Fidei Donum'', issued on 2 June 1951 and 21 April 1957, respectively, increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture. Continuing the line of his predecessors, Pius XII supported the establishment of local administration in Church affairs: in 1950, the hierarchy of Western Africa became independent; in 1951, Southern Africa; and in 1953, British Eastern Africa. Finland, Burma and French Africa became independent dioceses in 1955.

;Persecutions in Eastern Europe and China

While the Church thrived in the West and most of the developing world, it faced most serious persecutions in the East. The Communist regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania practically eradicated the Roman Catholic Church in their countries.

;Church policies toward Poland

;Pope Pius and Russia

The difficult relations of the Vatican with the Soviet Union originated in the revolution in 1917 and continued through the pontificate of Pius XII, affecting the Orthodox Church and other non-Catholics as well. The Oriental Catholic churches were eliminated in most parts of the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era.

;The Vatican and the Church in China

The relations of the Holy See with China from 1939 to 1958 began hopefully with the long withheld recognition of Chinese rites by the Vatican in 1939, the elevation of the first Chinese cardinal in 1946, and the establishment of a local Chinese hierarchy. It ended with the persecution and virtual elimination of the Catholic Church in the early 1950s, and the establishment of a Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in 1957

;Jewish orphans controversy In 2005, ''Corriere della Sera'' published a document dated 20 November 1946 on the subject of Jewish children baptized in war-time France. The document ordered that baptized children, if orphaned, should be kept in Catholic custody and stated that the decision "has been approved by the Holy Father". Nuncio Angelo Roncalli (who became Pope John XXIII, and was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations) ignored this directive. Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who had himself been baptized as a child and had undergone a custody battle afterwards, called for an immediate freeze on Pius's beatification process until the relevant Vatican Secret Archives and baptismal records were opened. Two Italian scholars, Matteo Luigi Napolitano and Andrea Tornielli, confirmed that the memorandum was genuine although the reporting by the ''Corriere della Sera'' was misleading, as the document had originated in the French Catholic Church archives rather than the Vatican archives and strictly concerned itself with children without living blood relatives that were supposed to be handed over to Jewish organizations.

Later life, illness and death

Late years of Pope Pius XII

The last years of the pontificate of Pius XII began in late 1954 with a long illness, during which he considered abdication. Afterwards, changes in his work habit became noticeable. The Pope avoided long ceremonies, canonizations and consistories and displayed hesitancy in personnel matters. During the last years of the pontificate, Pius XII procrastinated personnel decisions within his Vatican, and found it increasingly difficult to chastise subordinates and appointees such as Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, who, after numerous indiscretions was excluded from Papal service for the last years, but, keeping his title, was able to enter the papal apartments to make photos of the dying Pope, which he sold to French magazines.

Pius XII often elevated young priests as bishops, such as Julius Döpfner (35 years) and Karol Wojtyla (38 years), one of his last appointees in 1958. He took a firm stand against pastoral experiments, such as "worker-priests", who worked full time in factories and joined political parties and unions. He continued to defend the theological tradition of Thomism as worthy of continued reform, and as superior to modern trends such as phenomenology or existentialism.

Illness and death

thumb|right|180px |''The Pope of Mary'': A Madonna and Child, added by [[Pope John XXIII|John XXIII, hangs over the tomb of Pius XII.]]

Since his 1954 illness, Pope Pius addressed lay people and groups about an unprecedented range of topics. Frequently, he spoke to members of scientific congresses, explaining Christian teachings in light of most recent scientific results. Sometimes he answered specific moral questions, which were addressed to him. To professional associations he explained specific occupational ethics in light of Church teachings. Pius granted the Honor of Being the "Catholic University of The Philippines" to the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the oldest existing in Asia.

Before 1955, Pius worked for many years with Giovanni Battista Montini. The Pope did not have a full time assistant. Robert Leiber helped him occasionally with his speeches and publications. Augustin Bea was his personal confessor. Madre Pascalina Lehnert was for forty years his housekeeper and assistant. Domenico Tardini was probably closest to him.

Pius XII died on 9 October 1958 of acute heart failure brought on by a sudden myocardial infarction in Castel Gandolfo, the Papal summer residence. His doctor Gaspanini said afterwards: "The Holy Father did not die because of any specific illness. He was completely exhausted. He was overworked beyond limit. His heart was healthy, his lungs were good. He could have lived another 20 years, had he spared himself."

Botched embalming

Pius XII's doctor, Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, reported that the Pontiff's body was embalmed in the room where he died using a novel process invented by Dr. Oreste Nuzzi.

Pope Pius XII did not want the vital organs removed from his body, demanding instead, that it be kept in the same condition, "in which God created it". According to Galeazzi-Lisi, this was the reason why he and Professor Oreste Nuzzi, an embalmer from Naples, used a novel embalming approach invented by Nuzzi. Galeazzi-Lisi asserted that the new process would "preserve the body indefinitely in its natural state" However, whatever chance the new embalming process of efficaciously preserving the body was obliterated by intense heat in Castel Gandolfo during the embalming process. As a result, the body decomposed rapidly and the viewing of the faithful had to be terminated abruptly.

Galeazzi-Lisi reported that heat in the halls, where the body of the late Pope lay in state, caused chemical reactions which required it to be treated twice after the original preparation. Angelo Cardinal Roncalli (Pope John XXIII) wrote in his diary on 11 October that probably no Roman emperor had enjoyed such a triumph, which he viewed as a reflection of the spiritual majesty and religious dignity of Pius XII.

Cause for canonization

The Testament of Pope Pius XII was published immediately after his death. Pope Pius XII's cause of canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by Pope Paul VI. In March 2007, the congregation recommended that Pius XII should be declared Venerable. Pope Benedict XVI did so on 19 December 2009, simultaneously making the same declaration in regard to Pope John Paul II.

Views, interpretations, and scholarship

Contemporary

During the war, the pope was widely praised. For example, ''Time'' magazine credited Pius XII and the Catholic Church for "fighting totalitarianism more knowingly, devoutly, and authoritatively, and for a longer time, than any other organized power". During the war he was also praised editorially by the ''New York Times'' for opposing Nazi anti-Semitism and aggression. Some early works echoed these favorable sentiments, including Polish historian Oskar Halecki's ''Pius XII: Eugenio Pacelli: Pope of peace'' (1954) and Nazareno Padellaro's ''Portrait of Pius XII'' (1949).

Many Jews publicly thanked the Pope for his help. For example, Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish theologian and Israeli diplomat to Milan in the 1960s, estimated controversially in ''Three Popes and the Jews'' that Pius "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000 but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands." Some historians have questioned this oft-cited number, which Lapide reached by "deducting all reasonable claims of rescue" by non-Catholics from the total number of European Jews surviving the Holocaust. Catholic scholar Kevin Madigan interprets this and other praise from prominent Jewish leaders, including Golda Meir, as less than sincere, an attempt to secure Vatican recognition of the State of Israel.

When Pius XII died in October, 1958 many Jewish organizations and newspapers around the world paid tribute to his legacy. At the United Nations, Golda Meir, Israel's Foreign Minister, said, "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict." The Jewish Chronicle in London stated on 10 October "Adherents of all creeds and parties will recall how Pius XII faced the responsibilities of his exalted office with courage and devotion. Before, during, and after the Second World War, he constantly preached the message of peace. Confronted by the monstrous cruelties of Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, he repeatedly proclaimed the virtues of humanity and compassion". In the Canadian Jewish Chronicle (17 October), Rabbi J. Stern stated that Pius XII "made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away..." In the 6 November edition of the Jewish Post in Winnipeg, William Zukerman, the former American Hebrew columnist, wrote that no other leader "did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late Pope". Other prominent Jewish figures, such as Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett and Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog expressed their public gratitude to Pius XII.

Pius was also criticized during his lifetime. For example, Leon Poliakov wrote five years after World War II that Pius had been a tacit supporter of Vichy France's anti-Semitic laws, calling him "less forthright" than Pope Pius XI either out of "Germanophilia" or the hope that Hitler would defeat communist Russia. Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, a long-time critic of Pius XII's policies during the war and an opponent of clerical celibacy and the use of Latin as language of the liturgy, was excommunicated by Pius XII on 2 July 1945.

On 21 September 1945, the general secretary of the World Jewish Council, Dr. Leon Kubowitzky, presented an amount of money to the pope, "in recognition of the work of the Holy See in rescuing Jews from Fascist and Nazi persecutions."

After the war, in the autumn of 1945, Harry Greenstein from Baltimore, a close friend of Chief Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem, told Pius how grateful Jews were for all he had done for them. "My only regret", the pope replied, "is not to have been able to save a greater number of Jews."

''The Deputy''

In 1963, Rolf Hochhuth's controversial drama ''Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel'' (''The Deputy, a Christian tragedy'', released in English in 1964) portrayed Pope Pius XII as a hypocrite who remained silent about the Holocaust. Books such as Dr. Joseph Lichten's ''A Question of Judgment'' (1963), written in response to ''The Deputy'', defended Pius XII's actions during the war. Lichten labelled any criticism of the pope's actions during World War II as "a stupefying paradox" and said, "no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation." Critical scholarly works like Guenter Lewy's ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany'' (1964) also followed the publication of ''The Deputy''. Lewy's conclusion was that "the Pope and his advisers – influenced by the long tradition of moderate anti-Semitism so widely accepted in Vatican circles – did not view the plight of the Jews with a real sense of urgency and moral outrage. For this assertion no documentation is possible, but it is a conclusion difficult to avoid". In 2002 the play was adapted into the film ''Amen.''

An article on La Civilità Cattolica in March 2009 indicated that the accusations that Hochhuth's play made widely known originated not among Jews but in the Communist bloc. It was Moscow Radio, on 2 June 1945, that first direct against Pius XII the accusation of refusing to speak out against the exterminations in Nazi concentration camps. It was also the first to call him "Hitler's Pope".

A former high-ranking KGB officer, Securitate General Ion Mihai Pacepa stated in 2007 that Hochhuth's play and numerous publications attacking Pius XII as a Nazi sympathizer were fabrications that were part of a KGB and Eastern bloc Marxist secret services disinformation campaign, named Seat 12, to discredit the moral authority of the Church and Christianity in the west. Pacepa also indicated that he was involved in contacting east bloc agents close the Vatican in order to fabricate the story to be used for the attack against the wartime pope.

''Actes''

In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding ''The Deputy'', in 1964 Pope Paul VI authorized Jesuit scholars to access the Vatican State Department Archives, which are normally not opened for seventy-five years. Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, was published in 11 volumes between 1965 and 1981.The volumes were published by Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider, Robert A. Graham and Pierre Blet, the latter published a summary of the 11 volumes. All four, most frequently Robert A. Graham published articles and books on the subject matter.

''Hitler's Pope'' and ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope''

thumb|upright|The cover of ''Hitler's Pope'', showing Nuncio Pacelli leaving the residence of [[President of Germany|President Hindenburg in 1927.]] In 1999, John Cornwell's ''Hitler's Pope'' criticized Pius for not doing enough, or speaking out enough, against the Holocaust. Cornwell argued that Pius' entire career as the nuncio to Germany, cardinal secretary of state, and pope was characterized by a desire to increase and centralize the power of the Papacy, and that he subordinated opposition to the Nazis to that goal. He further argued that Pius was anti-Semitic and that this stance prevented him from caring about the European Jews.

Cornwell's work was the first to have access to testimonies from Pius' beatification process as well as to many documents from Pacelli's nunciature which had just been opened under the 75-year rule by the Vatican State Secretary archives. Cornwell's work has received much praise and criticism. Much praise of Cornwell centered around his disputed claim that he was a practising Catholic who had attempted to absolve Pius with his work. While works such as Susan Zuccotti's ''Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy'' (2000) and Michael Phayer's ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965'' (2000) are critical of both Cornwell and Pius XII, Ronald J. Rychlak's ''Hitler, the War and the Pope'' is critical as well but defends Pius XII in light of his access to most recent documents. Cornwell's scholarship has been criticized. For example, Kenneth L. Woodward stated in his review in ''Newsweek'' that "errors of fact and ignorance of context appear on almost every page." Five years after the publication of ''Hitler's Pope'', Cornwell stated: "I would now argue, in the light of the debates and evidence following ''Hitler's Pope'', that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by Germany".

In his 2003 book ''A Moral Reckoning'', Daniel Jonah Goldhagen asserts that Pius "chose again and again not to mention the Jews publicly.... [In] public statements by Pius XII . . . any mention of the Jews is conspicuously absent." In a review of Goldhagen's book, Mark Riebling counters that Pius used the word "Jew" in his first encyclical, ''Summi Pontificatus'', published on October 20, 1939. "There Pius insisted that all human beings be treated charitably – for, as Paul had written to the Colossians, in God's eyes "there is neither Gentile nor Jew." In saying this, the Pope affirmed that Jews were full members of the human community – which is Goldhagen's own criterion for establishing 'dissent from the anti-Semitic creed.'"

Most recently, Rabbi David Dalin's ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope'' argues that critics of Pius are liberal Catholics and ex-Catholics who "exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today" and that Pius XII was actually responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Jews.

International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission

In 1999, in an attempt to address some of this controversy, the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (Historical Commission), a group of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars was appointed, respectively, by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (Holy See's Commission) and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), to whom a preliminary report was issued in October 2000.

The Commission did not discover any documents, but had the agreed-upon task to review the existing Vatican volumes, that make up the ''Actes et Documents du Saint Siege (ADSS)'' The Commission was internally divided over the question of access to additional documents from the Holy See, access to the news media by individual commission members, and, questions to be raised in the preliminary report. It was agreed to include all 47 individual questions by the six members, and use them as Preliminary Report. In addition to the 47 questions, the commission issued no findings of its own. It stated that it was not their task to sit in judgment of the Pope and his advisors but to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the papacy during the Holocaust.

The 47 questions by the six scholars were grouped into three parts: (a) 27 specific questions on existing documents, mostly asking for background and additional information such as drafts of the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, which was largely written by Eugenio Pacelli. (b) Fourteen questions dealt with themes of individual volumes, such as the question how Pius viewed the role of the Church during the war. (c) Six general questions, such as the absence of any anti-communist sentiments in the documents. The disagreement between members over additional documents locked up up under the Holy See's 70 year rule resulted in a discontinuation of the Commission in 2001 on friendly terms.

Recent developments

Phayer's ''Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War'' (2008) makes use of many documents that have recently come to light due to Bill Clinton's 1997 executive order declassifying wartime and postwar documents, many of which are currently at the US National Archives and Holocaust Memorial Museum. These documents include diplomatic correspondence, American espionage, and even decryptions of German communications. Relevant documents have also been released by the Argentine government and the British Foreign Office and other information sources have become available, including the diary of Bishop Joseph Patrick Hurley. These documents reveal new information about Pius XII's actions regarding the Ustaše regime, the genocides in Poland, the finances of the wartime church, the deportation of the Roman Jews, and the postwar "ratlines" for Nazis and fascists fleeing Europe. According to Phayer, "the face of Pope Pius that we see in these documents is not the same face we see in the eleven volumes the Vatican published of World War II documents, a collection which, though valuable, is nonetheless critically flawed because of its many omissions".

A special conference of scholars on Pius XII on the 50th anniversary of his death was held in Rome on 15–17 September 2008, by Pave the Way Foundation, a nonsectarian organization founded by Gary Krupp, a Jewish American that promotes interfaith cooperation. Pope Benedict XVI held on 19 September 2008 a reception for the conference participants, where he praised Pius XII as a pope who made every effort to save Jews during the war. A second conference was held on 6–8 November 2008 by the Pontifical Academy of Life.

On 9 October 2008, the 50th anniversary of Pius XII's death, Benedict XVI celebrated pontifical mass in his memory. Shortly prior to, and after the mass, dialectics continued between the Jewish hierarchy and the Vatican as Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen of Haifa addressed the Synod of Bishops and expressed his disappointment towards Pius XII's "silence" during the war.

On 16 June 2009, the Pave the Way Foundation announced that it would release of 2,300 pages of documents in Avellino, Italy, dating from 1940 to 1945, which the organization claims show that Pius XII "worked diligently to save Jews from Nazi tyranny"; the organization's founder, Gary Krupp, a Jew, accused historians of harboring "private agendas" and having "let down" the public. The foundation's research led to the publication of the book ''Pope Pius XII and World War II: the documented truth'', authored by Krupp; the book reproduces 225 pages of the new documents produced by the foundation's research. On 17 September 2009, Pave the Way Foundation nominated Pius XII to be listed as Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. The foundation's efforts produced some 3,000 original documents and photos on the life of Pius XII and his work to save Jews during World War II.

See also

List of people from Rome

List of popes

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

''Acta Apostolicae Sedis'' (AAS). 1939–1958. Vatican City.

Angelini, Fiorenzo. 1959. ''Pio XII, Discorsi Ai Medici''. Rome.

Claudia, M. 1955. ''Guide to the Documents of Pope Pius XII''. Westminster, Maryland.

''Pio XII, Discorsi e Radio Messaggi di Sua Santita Pio XII''. 1939–1958. Vatican City. 20 vol.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Myron C. Taylor, ed. ''Wartime Correspondence Between President Roosevelt and Pope Pius XII''. Prefaces by Pius XII and Harry Truman. Kessinger Publishing (1947, reprinted, 2005). ISBN 1-4191-6654-9

Utz, A. F., and Gröner, J. F. (eds.). ''Soziale Summe Pius XII'' 3 vol.

Zolli, Israel. 1997. ''Before the Dawn''. Roman Catholic Books (Reprint edition). ISBN 0-912141-46-8.

Olivier Rota. ''Les ‘silences’ du pape Pie XII : genèse et critique d'un procès biaisé'', in Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, Louvain, vol. 99 (3–4), huly-dec. 2004, pp. 758–766.

Thomas Bokenkotter. 2004. ''A Concise History of the Catholic Church''. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50584-1

Owen Chadwick. 1995. ''A History of Christianity''. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-7607-7332-7

Frank J. Coppa, ''The Policies and Politics of Pope Pius XII: Between Diplomacy and Morality'' (New York etc., Peter Lang, 2011).

Cornwell, John. 1999. ''Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII''. Viking. ISBN 0-670-87620-8.

Cushing, Richard. 1959. ''Pope Pius XII''. Paulist Press.

Dalin, David G. 2005. ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis''. Regnery. ISBN 0-89526-034-4.

Falconi, Carlo. 1970 (translated from the 1965 Italian edition). ''The Silence of Pius XII''. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. ISBN 0-571-09147-4

Feldkamp, Michael F. ''Pius XII und Deutschland''. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-34026-5.

Friedländer, Saul. 1966. ''Pius XII and the Third Reich: A Documentation''. New York: Alfred A Knopf. ISBN 0-374-92930-0

Gallo, Patrick J., ed. 2006. ''Pius XII, The Holocaust and the Revisionists''. London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-7864-2374-9

Goldhagen, Daniel. 2002. ''A Moral Reckoning – The role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair''. Little, Brown ISBN 0-316-72446-7

Gutman, Israel (ed.). 1990. ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-864529-4

Halecki, Oskar. 1954. ''Pius XII: Eugenio Pacelli: Pope of peace''. Farrar, Straus and Young.

Hatch, Alden, and Walshe, Seamus. 1958. ''Crown of Glory, The Life of Pope Pius XII''. New York: Hawthorne Books.

ICJHC. 2000. ''The Vatican and the Holocaust: A Preliminary Report''.

Kühlwein, Klaus. 2008. ''Warum der Papst schwieg. Pius XII und der Holocaust''. Düsseldorf: Patoms-Verlag. ISBN 978-3491725270

Kurzman, Dan. 2007. ''A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII''. Da Capo Press.

Leiber, Robert. ''Pius XII'' ''Stimmen der Zeit'', Freiburg i Br. Vol 163, 1958–1959, pp. 81 ff

Lehnert, Pascalina. 1983. ''Ich durfte Ihm dienen, Erinneringen an Papst Pius XII'', Würzburg, Verlag Johann Wolhelm Naumann

Kent, Peter. 2002. ''The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII: The Roman Catholic Church and the Division of Europe, 1943–1950.'' Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2326-X

Pham, John Peter. 2006. ''Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517834-3

Lapide, Pinchas. 1967. ''Three Popes and the Jews''. London and Southampton: Souvenir Press.

Levillain, Philippe (ed.). 2002. ''The Papacy: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0-415-92228-3.

Lewy, Guenter. 1964. ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany''. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-306-80931-1.

Marchione, Sr. Margherita. 2000. ''Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace''. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-3912-X.

Marchione, Sr. Margherita. 2002. ''Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII''. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4083-7.

Marchione, Sr. Margherita. 2002. ''Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pope Pius XII''. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4181-7.

Marchione, Sr. Margherita. 2004. '' Man of Peace: An Abridged Life of Pope Pius XII''. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4245-7.

Martin, Malachi B. 1972. ''Three Popes and the Cardinal: The Church of Pius, John and Paul in its Encounter with Human History''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-27675-7.

McDermott, Thomas. 1946. ''Keeper of the Keys'' -''A Life of Pope Pius XII''. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company.

McInerney, Ralph. 2001. ''The Defamation of Pius XII''. St Augustine's Press. ISBN 1-890318-66-3.

Morsey, Rudolf. 1986. "Eugenio Pacelli als Nuntius in Deutschland" in Herbert Schambeck, ''Pius XII''. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

Murphy, Paul I. and Arlington, R. Rene. 1983. ''La Popessa: The Controversial Biography of Sister Pasqualina, the Most Powerful Woman in Vatican History''. New York: Warner Books Inc. ISBN 0-446-51258-3.

Padellaro, Nazareno. 1949. ''Portrait of Pius XII''. Dutton; 1st American ed edition (1957).

O'Brien, Felicity. 2000, ''Pius XII'', London and Bristol, Burleigh Press,

Paul, Leon. 1957. ''The Vatican Picture Book'' – ''A Picture Pilgrimage''. New York: Greystone Press.

Phayer, Michael. 2000. ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33725-9.

Phayer, Michael. 2008. ''Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34930-9.

Pollard, John F. 2005. ''Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950''. Cambridge University Press.

Pfister, Pierre. 1955. ''PIUS XII'' – ''The Life and Work of a Great Pope''. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Ritner, Carol and Roth, John K. (eds.). 2002. ''Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust''. New York: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0275-2.

Rychlak, Ronald J. 2000. ''Hitler, the War, and the Pope''. Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN 0-87973-217-2.

Sánchez, José M. 2002. ''Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy''. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 0-8132-1081-X.

Scholder, Klaus. 1987. ''The Churches and the Third Reich''. London.

Tardini, Domenico. 1960. ''Pio XII''. Roma: Poliglotta Vaticana.

John Vidmar. 2005. ''The Catholic Church Through the Ages''. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4234-1.

Volk, Ludwig. 1972. ''Das Reichskonkordat vom 20. Juli 1933''. Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag. ISBN 3-7867-0383-3.

Zuccotti, Susan. 2000. ''Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08487-0.

External links

Official Vatican page on Pius XII

*Official Vatican page hosting the ''Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale''

Category:1876 births Category:1958 deaths Category:19th-century Italian people Category:20th-century Italian people Category:Alumni of the Pontifical Gregorian University Category:Alumni of the Almo Collegio Capranica Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica Category:Cardinal Secretaries of State Category:Camerlengos of the Holy Roman Church Category:Cold War leaders Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Italy Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Grand Masters of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre Category:Italian anti-communists Pius 12 Category:Knights of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation Category:People from Rome (city) Category:Sovereigns of Vatican City Category:Venerated Catholics Category:World War II political leaders

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
{{infobox christian leader | type	Pope
english name	Pius X
coat of arms	Pius X COA.svg
birth name	Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto
term start	4 August 1903
term end	20 August 1914 ()
predecessor	Leo XIII
successor	Benedict XV
ordination	18 September 1858
ordinated by	Giovanni Antonio Farina
consecration	20 November 1884
consecrated by	Lucido Maria Parocchi
cardinal	12 June 1893
birth date	June 02, 1835
birth place	Riese, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire
dead	dead|death_dateAugust 20, 1914
death place	Apostolic Palace, Rome
other	Pius
signature	Pxsig.jpg
feast day	21 August3 September (General Roman Calendar 1955–1969)
beatified date	3 June 1951
beatified by	Pope Pius XII
canonized date	29 May 1954
canonized by	Pope Pius XII
patronage	Archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia; diocese of Des Moines, Iowa; first communicants; Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana; archdiocese of Kottayam, India; pilgrims; Santa Luċija, Malta; Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Archdiocese of Zamboanga, Philippines }}

Pope Saint Pius X (Ecclesiastical Latin: ''Pius PP. X'') (2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914), born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox theology. His most important reform was to publish the first Code of Canon Law, which collected the laws of the Church into one volume for the first time. He was a pastoral pope, encouraging personal piety and a lifestyle reflecting Christian values. He was born in the town of Riese, which would later append "Pio X" (Pius X's name in Italian) to the town's name.

Pius was particularly devoted to Mary; his encyclical ''Ad Diem Illum'' expresses his desire through Mary to ''renew all things in Christ'', which he had defined as his motto in his first encyclical. Pius believed that there is no surer or more direct road than by the Virgin Mary to achieve this goal. Pius X was the only Pope in the 20th century with extensive pastoral experience at the parish level, and pastoral concerns permeated his papacy; he favoured the use of the vernacular in catechesis. Frequent communion was a lasting innovation of his papacy. Pius X, like Pope Pius IX, was considered by some to be too outspoken or brusque. His direct style and condemnations did not gain him much support in the aristocratic societies of pre–World War I Europe.

His immediate predecessor had actively promoted a synthesis between the Catholic Church and secular culture; faith and science; and divine revelation and reason. Pius X defended the Catholic faith against popular 19th century views such as indifferentism and relativism which his predecessors had warned against as well. He followed the example of Leo XIII by promoting Thomas Aquinas and Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. Pius opposed modernism, which claimed that Roman Catholic Dogma should be modernized and blended with nineteenth century philosophies. He viewed modernism as an import of secular errors affecting three areas of Roman Catholic belief: theology, philosophy, and dogma.

Personally, Pius combined within himself a strong sense of compassion, benevolence and poverty, but also stubbornness and a certain stiffness. He wanted to be pastoral and was the only pope in the 20th century who gave Sunday sermons every week. His charity was extraordinary, filling the Apostolic Palace with refugees from the 1908 Messina earthquake, long before the Italian government began to act on its own. He rejected any kind of favours for his family; his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome. He often referred to his own humble origins, taking up the causes of poor people. ''I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor''. Considered a holy person by many, public veneration of Pope Pius began soon after his death. Numerous petitions resulted in an early process of beatification.

Early life and ministry

Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire (now Italy). He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852) and Margarita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Giuseppe's childhood was one of poverty, being the son of the village postman. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked six kilometers to school each day. His father was a cobbler.

Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto, 1834 (died after six days); Angelo Sarto, 1837–1916; Teresa Parolin-Sarto, 1839–1920; Rosa Sarto, 1841–1913; Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto, 1843–1917; Maria Sarto, 1846–1930; Lucia Boschin-Sarto, 1848–1924; Anna Sarto, 1850–1926; Pietro Sarto, 1852 (died after six months).

At a young age, Giuseppe studied Latin with his village priest, and went on to study at the gymnasium of Castelfranco Veneto. "In 1850 he received the tonsure from the Bishop of Treviso, and was given a scholarship [from] the Diocese of Treviso" to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".

On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest, and became chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Father Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Saint Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor, who was quite ill. In 1867, he was named Archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the Church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He became popular with the people when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague that swept into northern Italy in the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and Chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As Chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend catholic schools.

In 1878 Bishop Zanelli died, leaving the Bishopric of Treviso vacant. Following Zanelli's death, the canons of cathedral chapters (of which Monsignor Sarto was one) inherited the episcopal jurisdiction as corporate body, and were chiefly responsible for the election of a Vicar-Capitular who would take over the responsibilities of Treviso until a new bishop was named. In 1879, Sarto was elected to the position, which he served in from December of that year to June 1880.

After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884 he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Leo XII. He was consecrated, six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Lucido Cardinal Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of Assistant at the Pontifical Throne on 19 June 1891.

Cardinal and Patriarch

Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. He was created and proclaimed as Cardinal-Priest of ''San Bernardo alle Terme.'' Three days after this, Cardinal Sarto was publicly named Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the patriarch based on its previous alleged exercise by the Emperor of Austria. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of Patriarch in 1894.

As Cardinal-Patriarch, Sarto avoided political involvement, allocating his time for social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Cardinal Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the Pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."

Papal election

On 20 July 1903, Leo XIII died, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. According to historians, the favorite was the late Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto five votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the veto (''jus exclusivae'') against Rampolla's nomination, by Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Krakow in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, was proclaimed. Many in the conclave, including Rampolla, protested the veto, and it was even suggested that he be elected pope despite the veto.

However, the third vote had already begun, and thus the conclave had to continue with the voting, which resulted in no clear winner, though it did indicate that many of the conclave wished to turn their support to Sarto, who had 21 votes upon counting. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.

On the following morning, the fifth vote of the conclave was taken, and the count had Rampolla with 10 votes, Gotti with two votes, and Sarto with 50 votes. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Cardinal Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last time a veto would be exercised by a Catholic monarch in the proceedings of the conclave.

At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. Additionally, he had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, it is further reported, he went into solitude, and took the position after deep prayer in the Pauline chapel and the urging of his fellow cardinals.

In accepting the papacy, Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–78), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. Pius X's traditional coronation took place on the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. Upon being elected pope he was also formally the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis.

Pontificate

dipstyle	His Holiness
offstyle	Your Holiness
relstyle	Holy Father
deathstyle	Saint }}

The pontificate of Pius X was noted for its conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and church law. In what became his motto, the Pope stated in 1903 that his papacy would undertake ''Instaurare Omnia in Christo'', or "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (''E Supremi Apostolatus'', 4 October 1903), he stated that his overriding policy as follows: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."

His simple origins became clear right after his election, when he wore a pectoral cross made of gilded metal on the day of his coronation and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope complained that always wore it and that he had brought no other with him. He was well known for cutting down on papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone (which had been established by Pope Urban VIII), and the pope invited his friends to eat with him

He was also on one occasion chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his (Pius X's) peasant sisters papal countesses, to which he responded 'I have made them sisters of the pope; what more can I do for them'?

He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught catechism to them. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk to them about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the confraternity of Christian doctrine in ever parish was partly motivated by a desire to reclaim children from religious ignorance.

Church reforms and theology

Restoration in Christ and mariology

Pius X promoted daily communion for all Catholics (this practice was criticized for introducing irreverence). In his 1904 encyclical Ad Diem Illum, he views Mary in context of "restoring everything in Christ". Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin.

She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Though a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ.(S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).

''Tra le sollecitudini'' and Gregorian chant

Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his ''motu proprio'' ''Tra le sollecitudini'' (possibly co-written by his friend Lorenzo Perosi). Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Don Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director." The Pope's choice of Dom Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.

Liturgical changes

In his papacy, Pius X worked to increase devotion in the lives of the clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary (which he reformed considerably – see Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X) and the Holy Mass.

Besides restoring to prominence the Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This extended to children, who had reached the "age of discretion", as well, though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. In conjunction, he also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament," by which he is still known among his devotees.

In 1910 he issued the decree Quam Singulari, which changed the age of discretion from 12 to 7 years-old. On one occasion the pope personally gave communion to a four year-old English child whom the Pope had gently asked if he knew who was being received in the Eucharist, and the child answered 'Jesus'. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from catholic schools, now that communion occurred earlier.

Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio 'Tra le sollecitudine':

The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the church.

Anti-modernism

Pius X's papacy featured vigorous condemnation of what he termed 'modernists' and 'relativists' who endangered the Catholic faith (see for example his Oath Against Modernism). This is perhaps the most controversial aspect of his papacy.

Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists justified this change with the idea that beliefs of the Church have evolved (as opposed to a development of doctrine) throughout its history and all evolution should subject itself in conformity to modern man. Anti-modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church because it renders all dogma changeable which would contradict their very nature. As a result all Christian beliefs would be thrown into doubt because they are subject to change and evolution. The most brutal results of Modernism would therefore be a slippery slope into deism, agnosticism, and/or atheism.

In a decree, entitled ''Lamentabili Sane Exitu'' (or "A Lamentable Departure Indeed"), issued 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned sixty-five modernist or relativist propositions concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. This was followed by the encyclical ''Pascendi Dominici Gregis'' (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the ''Sacrorum antistitum'', an oath against Modernism. He also encouraged the formation and efforts of ''Sodalitium Pianum'' (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was seen negatively by many people due to its accusations of heresy against people on the flimsiest of evidence.

Pius X's aggressive stance against modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about forty clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with secularism, modernism, or relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.

Catechism of Saint Pius X

In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo Nimis mandated the existence of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.

The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular Catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, St. Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The Catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical "''Acerbo Nimis''" of April 1905.

The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908, (in Italian ''Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X'') An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.

Asked in 2003, whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."

Reform of Canon Law

Canon Law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of Cardinals to draft a universal set of laws that was to be the Code of Canon Law for most of the twentieth century. Two of his successors worked in the commission, G. della Chiesa, to become Pope Benedict XV and Eugenio Pacelli, to become Pope Pius XII. The first-ever definitive Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, obtained the Force of Law on 19 May 1918 and was in effect until Advent 1983.

Reform of Church administration

Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution ''Sapienti Consilio'', and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical ''Pieni L'Animo''. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.

Church policies towards secular governments

Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Rafael Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but has still not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–46), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the Papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for this visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France, and in 1905 France issued a Law of Separation, which separated church and state, and which the Pope denounced. The effect of this separation was the Church’s loss of its government funding in France. Two French bishops were removed by the Vatican for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in other parts of the world: in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and a number of other states with large Catholic populations. His actions and statements against international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others, like England and Russia. In Ulster, Protestants were increasingly worried that a proposed ''Home Rule'' Ireland run by Catholics inspired by Pius X would result in ''Rome Rule''.

In 1908 the papal decree ''Ne Temere'' came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Roman Catholic priest were declared legal but religiously invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse to perform mixed marriages or lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Roman Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which has a large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and requiring debates in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

As secular authority challenged that of the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the ''Opera dei Congressi'', which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning ''Le Sillon'', a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.

Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting; however, he never recognised the Italian government.

Relations with the Kingdom of Italy

Initially Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the ''Non Expedit'' to be relaxed. In 1905 in his encyclical ''Il Fermo Proposito'' he allowed Catholics to vote when they were ‘''help[ing] the maintenance of social order''’ by voting for deputies who were not socialist.

Relations with Poland and Russia

Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and, in 1905, promulgated a constitution, which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.

Activities for the United States

In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he erected two American cardinals. He was very popular among American catholics, partly due to his simple background in poverty that made him seen as a common ordinary person that was on the papal throne.

In 1910, the Pope refused an audience with the former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the methodist association in Rome, nor Theodore Roosevelt, he intended to address the same association.

Miracles during the Pope's lifetime

Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime. On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and the pope then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was supposedly cured.

Ernesto Ruffini (later cardinal archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the Pontiff's cause for canonization.

Other activities

In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical changes, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of Canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. Also, to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed.

Pius X beatified ten individuals and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate, were Marie Genevieve Meunier (1906), Rose Chretien (1906), Valentin Faustino Berri Ochoa (1906), Saint Clarus (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).

Pius X published sixteen encyclicals; among them was ''Vehementer nos'' on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Roman Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).

In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the Popes, Pius X appears as ''Ignis Ardens'' or "Burning Fire."

Death and burial

In 1913 Pius X, a smoker, suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the Pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August), an illness from which he would not recover. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–18), which reportedly sent the 79 year-old Pope into a state of horror and melancholy. He died on 20 August 1914 of a heart attack, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz.

Following his death, Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below St. Peter's Basilica. Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this, however, and none of his successors have allowed the practice to be reinstituted.

Canonization

name	Pope Saint Pius X
feast day	21 August3 September (General Roman Calendar 1955–1969)
venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
birth date	2 June 1835
birth place	Riese, Italy
death date	20 August 1914
death place	Apostolic Palace, Rome
titles	Pope, Confessor
beatified date	3 June 1951
beatified by	Pope Pius XII
canonized date	29 May 1954
canonized by	Pope Pius XII
patronage	Archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia; diocese of Des Moines, Iowa; first communicants; Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana; archdiocese of Kottayam, India; pilgrims; Santa Luċija, Malta; Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Archdiocese of Zamboanga, Philippines
issues	}}

Although Pius X's canonisation took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than what the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read ''Pius Papa X'', "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.

Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonisation began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".

On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination. Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.

Following this, the process towards beatification began, and thus investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (S.C.R.) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X subsequently took place. The S.C.R. would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Sr. Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved Sr. Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.

Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his ''De Tuto'', declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of the Venerable Pope Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.

Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.

On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the S.C.R.'s recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a fatal pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of the Blessed Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The Canonization mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first Pope to be canonized since Pius V was canonized in 1712.

His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC affiliates.

Prayer cards often depict the sanctified Pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament," St. Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.

The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly due to the fact that he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 50s was during a period of time following world war II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.

Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar (incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII, whose continued use as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is authorized under the conditions indicated in the motu proprio ''Summorum Pontificum'') the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).

The confraternity of christian doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly due to the fact that he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.

After the pope's canonization, another miracle supposedly took place when a christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretta at Webster College in St Louis Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the pope's intercession as well.

Papal coat of arms

The papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.

The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is ''per fess''. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893–1903. It consists of the lion of St. Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE in the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page. ''Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus'' is the motto of Venice and is Latin for ''Peace to you, Mark my evangelist''. This motto refers to Venice as the final resting place of Saint Mark. The display of the Arms of the Patriarchate of Venice in the Papal Coat of Arms of Popes who were Archbishops of that city is traditional, and therefore the same ''chief'' can be seen in the Arms of other Popes, such as John XXIII and John Paul I, also Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.

The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by ''Hebrews'' 6:19, which states that the hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Pius X, then Bishop Sarto, stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."

Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: ''instaurare omnia in Christo'' (Latin for "To restore all things in Christ"). These words were the last he spoke before he died.

Sources

* Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val, Pope Pius X, Rome, Vatican 1920

* Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X, Il Sabato, 1999

* The Catechism of St.Pius http://www.stjamescatholic.org/ebooks/catechism_st_pp_pius_x.pdf

In fiction

Pope Pius X appears in Flann O'Brien's satirical novel "The Hard Life", where the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.

Literature

During the pope's lifetime: Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz. Life of Pius X (New York: The American Catholic Publication Society, 1907). Monsignor Hartwell De La Garde Grissell. Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903 (Oxford: James Parke and Co., 1903) Monsignor Anton de Waal. Life of Pope Pius X, trans. Joseph William Berg (Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Company, 1904) Edward Schmidlin. Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons)

After the Pope's death: Mother Frances Alice Forbes, Life of Pius X (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1918, 2nd ed. 1924) (Merry del Val(see above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him) Rene Bazin. Pius X. (St Louis. B. Herder Book Co., 1928) Katherine Kurt Burton. The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. (Longmens Press, 1950) Father Francis Beauchesne Thornton. The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X (Benziger Brothers, 1952) This priest was the editor for Burton's book. Teri Martini. The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. (St Anthony Guild Press, 1954)

See also

St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines

Society of St. Pius X

List of Encyclicals of Pope Pius X

Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X

References

Bibliography

F. A. Forbes, ''Pope St. Pius X'', London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd 1918/TAN Books and Publishers, Inc (revised 1954)

J.O. Smit & G. dal Gal. ''Beato Pio X'', Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd 1951 (translated by J.H. van der Veldt as ''St. Pius X Pope'', Boston, Mass.: Daughters of St. Paul 1965)

G.A. Bavoux, ''Le porteur de lumière'', Paris: Pygmalion 1996

Chiron, Yves, ''Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church'', Angelus Press, Kansas City-MI, 2002 ISBN 1892331101

External links

Giuseppe Sarto - Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X`s personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.

"Pope Pius X" from the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''

The Life, Writings and Encyclicals of Pope St. Pius X: Saint of the Catholic Church

Full text of official documents including encyclicals at the Holy See

Information about the life of Pius X at Museo San Pio X

video recording of canonization ceremony of Pius X (in German)

Category:1835 births Category:1914 deaths Category:People from the Province of Treviso Category:Popes Category:Italian popes Category:Patriarchs of Venice Category:19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops Category:Modernism (Roman Catholicism) Category:Papal saints Category:Roman Catholic saints Category:Bishops of Mantua Category:19th-century Italian people Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Beatifications of Pope Pius XII Category:Pope Benedict XV Category:20th-century Christian saints Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica

ar:بيوس العاشر an:Pío X be:Пій X, Папа Рымскі br:Pi X bg:Пий X ca:Pius X cs:Pius X. cy:Pab Pïws X da:Pave Pius 10. de:Pius X. et:Pius X es:Pío X eo:Pio la 10-a eu:Pio X.a fa:پیوس دهم fr:Pie X ga:Pápa Pius X gl:Pío X, papa ko:교황 비오 10세 hr:Pio X. io:Pius 10ma id:Paus Pius X it:Papa Pio X jv:Paus Pius X pam:Papa Pius X ka:პიუს X sw:Papa Pius X la:Pius X lt:Pijus X hu:X. Piusz pápa mk:Папа Пиј X mr:पोप पायस दहावा nl:Paus Pius X ja:ピウス10世 (ローマ教皇) no:Pius X oc:Piu X pl:Pius X pt:Papa Pio X ro:Papa Pius al X-lea ru:Пий X sco:Pape Pius X sk:Pius X. sl:Papež Pij X. sr:Папа Пије X sh:Пије X. ta:பத்தாம் பயஸ் (திருத்தந்தை) fi:Pius X sv:Pius X tl:Pío X th:สมเด็จพระสันตะปาปาปิอุสที่ 10 uk:Пій X vi:Giáo hoàng Piô X war:Papa Pío X yo:Pope Pius X zh:庇護十世