(Author: Leon Reich, Vol. 67, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2012)
My motivation in penning this paper was the much-publicized debate regarding the proposed beatification of Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII.
As a Jew, I have been fascinated by the development of the Christian religion as an offshoot of Judaism. If one deducts monotheism, the Ten Commandments and what Christians call the Old Testament, from the Christian ethos, what really is left of Christianity? What is left of the concept of Jesus Christ as the Messiah without the Prophesy of Isaiah? An isolated concept of Christ as the Messiah without the Jewish content supporting it, cannot stand. I have been equally fascinated by the pivotal role which the Church played on the canvas of history over its two millennia existence.
Running parallel with the teaching orders of the Church and the contribution to knowledge and education are the medical services through the nursing orders, particularly during the Dark Ages from the 4th to 11th Centuries CE. Alongside these achievements, however, has been the persecution of, amongst others, the Jewish people, upon whose philosophy rests Christianity’s very foundations.
Throughout this process of impressive contribution to humanity on the one hand and the horrific persecution of non-believers on the other there have been immensely courageous individual dissidents standing out above the crowd. Throughout the ages, these unsung heroes risked exclusion for themselves and their families from their communities, even enduring suffering or death. For them the pursuit of justice, truth and their own integrity was more precious than life itself.
This fierce intellectual honesty and powerful dedication to their own integrity is what has driven the hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics and others who have saved Jews, often at the risk of their own lives. High upon this ladder of distinction is the scholar and writer John Cornwell, author of the book Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (1999). It is from this study of Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, that I have sourced the bulk of my information for this paper. Other sources used include Solomon Grayzel’s A History of the Jews, The Moral Reckoning (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, 2002), The Righteous (Martin Gilbert, 2002), Italians and the Holocaust (Susan Zuccotti, 1987), History of the Holocaust (Yehuda Bauer, 2002) and The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis (Rabbi David G. Dalin, 2005).
The Roman Catholic Church is comparable to Sodom and Gomorrah for the Jewish people. The courageous Catholics, who risked their lives to save Jews, represent the Ten Holy Men who (had they been found) would have saved those cities. Over the centuries, the individual Catholic heroes who swam against the stream of the majority redeemed the good name and the integrity of the Roman Catholic Church.
Under normal circumstances, I would never concern myself with whom the Vatican chose to beatify. These however, are abnormal circumstances. The reason, as will be argued, is that Eugenio Pacelli personally bore a great deal of responsibility for the commencement of World War I. He also bore responsibility for the demise of the Centre Party in Germany and the crushing of its media which influenced German attitudes, resulting in Germany becoming a dictatorship.1 Pacelli figuratively moved heaven and earth to secure Hitler’s accession, even while knowing that once he became a dictator, he would pursue his antisemitic policy as reflected in Mein Kampf. For that reason alone, he shared responsibility for the Holocaust, and it is important for all who seek the truth about his role to clearly understand this.
Pacelli is consistently accused of not trying hard enough to save Jewish lives during World War II. My belief is that this is so, but I would go further and assert that without Pacelli’s interventions, in the face of advice to act differently, both World Wars would not have taken place at all.
If the Catholic Church were to beatify Pacelli, it would signify its association with his nefarious contribution to human suffering. To my mind, both he and Hitler (himself Catholic-born) were psychopaths. Both manipulated millions of people, which led to untold suffering, in pursuance of their objectives. There is one difference however: Hitler was far cleverer than Pacelli – a smarter psychopath. He waited until the back of the Catholic Church was completely broken before he utilized the full force of his power against his enemies. Pacelli was naïve enough to believe that the Reichskonkordat of 1933, a signature on a sheet of paper, was enough to discipline Hitler. He was naïve enough to believe that as a Catholic, he would respect the Holy See.
Eugenio Pacelli was crowned Pope Pius XII on 12 March, 1939. Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 21 March, 1933. Confusion arises when studying Pacelli’s role whilst he was the Pope regarding his qualification for beatification. It must be remembered that Pacelli set Hitler up for dictatorship whilst he was Cardinal Secretary of State, which was years before he became Pontiff. After Pacelli was crowned and Hitler was carrying out his policy of mass murder, Pacelli was compliant because his compliance was his contribution in return for the control of schools.2 This was “part of the deal”.
Whilst the Church makes haste to honor those who are protagonists of their philosophy, i.e. the Christianization of planet earth, it never seeks to punish their sons with blood on their hands. Hitler was never excommunicated. Contrariwise, a special requiem was held for him on the day of his death. The antisemitic teachings of the Roman Catholic Church over the 2000 years of the Jewish dispersion, laid the foundations for the Holocaust. Pacelli was a worthy bearer of these teachings.
It is interesting to note that Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Portugal’s António de Oliveira Salazar and the Slovakian priest Josef Tiso (who headed the Slovak People’s Party, a Nazi satellite) were all Fascists and all Roman Catholics. However, neither Franco nor Mussolini was antisemitic. Franco is even strongly suspected of having been a Marrano.
In Pope Benedict XVI’s closing speech before his departure from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in May 2009, he spoke of Auschwitz “where so many Jews – mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and friends were brutally exterminated under a Godless regime that propagated an ideology of antisemitism and hatred. That appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten nor denied.” He goes on to say “Let it be universally recognized that the State of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders.”3
In a meeting with Menachem Begin, President Carter expressed his affirmation of Israel’s right to exist. In reply, the Israeli Prime Minister said that he appreciated the President’s affirmation. However, “the Hebrew Bible established our right over our land, millennia ago. That right was never abandoned or forfeited. I shall not negotiate my existence with anybody and I need nobody’s affirmation of it.”4 The same may be said of Pope Benedict’s closing speech.
Pope Benedict’s statement is a huge departure from the position of a Church that believed that Christ, the Messiah, will only return to earth when all the Jews have been either exterminated or converted. It certainly is a positive move towards peace on earth by a Pope that was compelled as a youth to first join the Hitler Jugend and then forced to graduate to the Wehrmacht. I do believe that “the winds of change”, in the words of former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, are blowing through the corridors of the Vatican.
Down the generations, all Jews of every generation were wrongfully held responsible for the crucifixion. Latterly, the opinion of Jews is being taken into consideration during the process of beatification. If not for Jewish pressure, Pacelli would have been beatified decades ago. Hopefully, this “wind of change” will assist in honoring the names of those who perished in the two terrible World Wars, rather than disgracefully insulting their memory.
Factors Influencing Pacelli
Christian hatred of Jews dating from the early Christian Church was borne out of the belief that the Jews had murdered Christ. They believed that the Jews had murdered G-d (one can only wonder how this might be possible). The early Fathers of the Church, the great Christian writers of the first six centuries of Christianity, showed striking evidence of antisemitism. Examples are the opinions of Origen who wrote that “the blood of Jesus falls not only on the Jews of that time, but on all generations of Jews up to the end of the world”.5 St John Chrysostom wrote, “The synagogue is a brothel, a hiding place for unclean beasts… Never has any Jew prayed to G-d…. They are possessed by demons.”6 The Gospel of St Mark speaks about “the hypocrites in the synagogues” to this very day.
The Emperor Constantine passed a series of imperial laws such as special taxes on Jews, a ban on new synagogues, outlawing intermarriage between Christians and Jews. During the 5th Century, Jews were regularly attacked during Holy Week; they were excluded from public office and synagogues were put to the torch. The reason that the Jews were not exterminated was epitomized in the early 13th Century by Pope Innocent III, which reflected the view of the Popes of the 1st millennium: “Their words – ‘may his blood be on us and our children’ – have brought inherited guilt upon the entire nation, which follows them as a curse where they live and work, when they are born and when they die.”7
It was during the Fourth Lateran Council convened by Pope Innocent III in 1215, that the requirements were laid down compelling Jews to wear distinguishing headgear. They were denied social equality, banned from owning land and excluded from public office and most forms of trade. As a result, they had no alternative but to engage in money-lending to earn a living, an occupation forbidden to Christians under Church law. They were licensed to lend at strictly defined rates and became cursed as ‘bloodsuckers’ and ‘usurers’ living off the debts of Christians.
Persecution of Jews during the Middle Ages was unprecedented. The Holy Crusades were unholy for the Jews. For Crusaders it was part of their mission to torment and kill Jews. There were enforced baptisms and conversions, particularly of Jewish boys. There was a dispute between the Franciscans and Dominicans over their ‘right’ to forcibly baptize Jewish children as an extension of their lordship over slaves within their domains.
During the 12th Century, the belief took root in England that the Jews abducted and sacrificed Christian children, using their blood for matzo at Passover. This was the infamous “blood libel”. The execution of Jews accused of such ritual murders was accompanied by the destruction of entire communities.
In the 16th Century, Pope Paul IV instituted the ghetto and the wearing of the yellow badge. Empress Catherine of Russia instituted the Jewish Pale of Settlement within the Russian Empire, locking Jews into a restricted area within which they were permitted to live. The Reformation saw the reduction of repressive laws in areas not under Papal control, such as Holland and England and Protestant areas in North America. The Papal States persisted in the ghetto system until the unification of Italy in 1848. The ghetto as a residential area of choice survived until the beginning of World War II.
The Spanish Inquisition
During the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, the Spanish Inquisition under the guidance of a Jesuit monk Tomas de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, Jews were given the choice of losing most of their possessions and expulsion or conversion. This was a most difficult decision since the Jews had been in the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. The aged and the very young had difficulty in traveling, particularly in those days. They frequently had nowhere to go and the conditions of the Inquisition had impoverished them. Many were too ill to travel. The mere prospect of leaving Spain forever was an unmitigated tragedy. It was far worse for them than mere poverty.
A delegation consisting of Abraham Senior and Isaac Abrabanel went to see Ferdinand and Isabella to plead their case, accompanied by a bag of gold. Torquemada, eyes ablaze with anger, a cross in hand, placed the Crucifix near the bag of gold pointing to the figure of Jesus on the cross he said “here he is, sell him”
Their quest failed. Senior and his family converted and Abrabanel and his family went into exile. The last day to leave Spain was 1 August 1492. The last boats leaving with the Spanish Jews departed the following day, which coincided with Tisha B’Av.
The Portuguese were unaffected by the Inquisition in 1492. The King of Portugal was prepared to admit the Jews temporarily and some 100 000 went there, at a very high price for admittance. Those who had nowhere to go, and who could not afford the admission price to Portugal had to choose between being sold into slavery or conversion to Christianity.
In 1495, a new king of Portugal, Manoel, ascended the throne. He wished to marry the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. This held out the possibility of his also inheriting the throne of Spain upon the demise of the Spanish royal couple, who had no sons. The Spanish monarchy would agree to the match conditional upon Manoel expelling all non-Christians from Portugal. Manoel recognized that the Jewish subjects were important to the country’s economic prosperity. He thus tried to forcibly retain them whilst ridding the country of all other nonChristians.
On the first night of Passover in 1497, all Portuguese Jewish children were forcibly dragged out of their homes from the seder tables. After being kept without food or water for several days, they were forcibly converted. Now that they were Christians, the King denied them permission to leave the country. Their parents were left with the choice of either leaving the country without them or likewise ‘converting’.
The numbers are uncertain, but a community of at least 250 000 Jews was destroyed in the Iberian Peninsula.8 Of those who remained under forced conversion, a small percentage managed to escape to other lands in Europe and the Americas. The name ‘Marranos’ given to these secret Jews means ‘swine’. The attempt to dehumanize Jews is not new. Once a person is no longer fully human and is equated to an animal such as a baboon then one is entitled to kill him as a “sub-human”. This was practiced in the early days of Berlin, where a tax was payable for animals entering the city. The only national group required to pay the same tax as an animal entering the city, were Jews. In Germany, even before Hitler got into power, there were signs on park benches and public buildings “Juden unt hunde verboten” – No Jews or dogs allowed. “Once, however, the victim became completely devoid of humanity in the perpetrator’s eye, he could be killed. Annihilation followed.”9 Moslem extremists today speak of Jews as pigs and monkeys.
The series of events leading to the expulsion from Spain commenced in 1391, although the final expulsion took place in 1492, there were already a large number of “New Christians” who were secretly Marranos by 1480. A number of prominent new Christians at the time were caught having a Seder during Passover. Thus were established the torture chambers in which thousands of Jews were beaten, tortured, terrorized and starved to death. The fires were kindled to burn down the centuries, right until the end of the 18th century, for Jews who were burned alive.
The name of the Public Execution was known as the Auto-da-Fe or Act of Faith. It was the occasion for a popular holiday, with spectators crowded from every roof and window of a public square, decorated appropriately. Those who confessed to practicing Judaism secretly, but now recognized the error of their ways were first strangled by the executioners. A prominent dignitary or perhaps the king himself, would set fire to the pyre. This took place in front of the other prisoners who were already bound awaiting their fate. The tolling of the bells mingled with the shrieks of the dying and the cheers of the populace and the cries of Shema Yisrael floated above the tumult.
In the whole of the Inquisition’s 350 year existence, victims numbered 341 000.10 Of these, in excess of 32 000 were burned alive, 18 000 were burned after execution and 291 000 suffered lesser punishments such as penance, lashes, confiscation, imprisonment or a combination of these. Benzion Netanyahu, the late father of the current Israeli Prime Minister, argues that the Inquisition was instituted against the Marranos, as a result of growing economic power of the conversos (Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism), who numbered just over 7% of the Spanish population.
The historian Cecil Roth comments that although the great age of Spain came about after its establishment, the Inquisition “was pressing slowly on the vital arteries of Spanish intellectual life and the cumulative effect was felt at last… By the middle of the 18th Century, it was possible to see the result – a country drained of its inspiration, of its genius, of its wealth, in fact of everything but its orthodoxy and its pride”.
Anti-Judaism survived right into the reign of Pope Leo XIII (1878 -1903). The main thrust of this was the concept that the Jews were obstinate and failed to see the error of their ways. For this reason they rejected Christianity.
Pacelli’s schoolmaster, Signore Giuseppe Marchi, constantly harped on this theme whilst Pacelli was at school. In the very street in which Pacelli was born, Via Monte Gordiano, it was the custom over many centuries for a newly elected Pope in a procession en route to the Basilica of St John Lateran to perform an anti-Jewish ceremony. The Pontiff would halt the procession to receive a copy of the Pentateuch from the Chief Rabbi of Rome in the presence of the procession. The Pope returned the Pentateuch to the Chief Rabbi with the text upside down together with 20 pieces of gold. This was intended to indicate that despite the fact that the Pope respected the Law of Moses, it was the stubbornness of the Jews that prevented them from opening their hearts to see the error of their ways and convert. The concept was included in Catholic rituals performed on Good Friday, when the congregants prayed that the “perfidious Jews” would acknowledge “our Lord Jesus Christ”. This was only abolished by Pope John XXIII at the second Vatican Council in 1962.
This culture of antisemitism over the centuries made it easy for fascists like Salazar, Tiso, Franco and Hitler, to foster the belief that Jewish stubbornness made the Jews responsible for, and thus deserving of, their own misfortunes.
Eugenio Pacelli was born in 1876. In the years 1881-2, Giuseppe Oreglia de San Stefano wrote a series of articles in Civilià Cattolica, a leading Jesuit journal, claiming that the killing of children for the Paschal Feast was “all too common”. The use of blood of a Christian child was a general law “binding on the conscience of all Hebrews”. Every year the Jews “crucify a child”. In order that the blood be effective, “the child must die in torment”. He further asserted that “by their cunning”, the Jews had instigated the French Revolution in order to achieve equality. This would assist them to gain key positions in most economies enabling them to control and to establish “virulent campaigns against Christianity”. The Jews were “the race that nauseates”, and “an idle people who neither work nor produce anything; who live off the sweat of others.”
The journal reflected the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church and called for the abolition of “civic equality” for Jews, which commenced with the Reformation and for the segregation of Jews from the rest of the population. Small wonder indeed that Pacelli, who grew up in such an atmosphere, found comfort in later years as Cardinal Secretary of State in assisting Hitler to crush Catholic liberal opinion in the form of its media, its many courageous enlightened Bishops and Chancellor Brüning and his Centre Party.
In the autumn of 1964, Pope Paul VI announced at a meeting of the progressive fathers of Vatican II that the Congregation for Saints was to commence formal beatification processes for both Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII. Father Paul Molinari and Father Peter Gumpel from the Jesuit order were tasked in 1965 with the particular responsibility for the process regarding Pope Pius XII.
A huge volume of documentation has been assembled and scrutinized; hundreds of people have been asked to give evidence. The key figure, Father Peter Gumpel, is described as a man of great intelligence and very knowledgeable regarding Pacelli. However, the material that he favors is very selective and ignores scholars like Klaus Schulder, as well as Robert Katz, Guenter Lewy and Saul Friedlander who, he assets, should “realize that they are trampling on the sensibilities of Catholics and in doing so they hinder efforts to build better relations between the Catholics and the Jews”.Cornwell regards Gumpel as a Pacelli apologist.
Pacelli’s Personal Background
“Thou art Peter and upon this rock shall my Church be built. Whatsoever shall be bound by thee on earth shall be bound in Heaven.
Whatsoever shall be loosed by thee on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”
This is the exhortation of Jesus of Nazareth to his disciple, Peter. He and his successors are forever to be the successors of the Master on earth. The successors of St Peter are the Popes of Rome. By their cession of their powers to the Cardinals, Bishops and Priests down the line of command, “whatsoever shall be bound by them on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever shall be loosed by them on earth shall be loosed in heaven” inherited these rights and titles. This is the credo of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope and his representatives, namely the clergy, had ultimate power over the lives of their adherents and this power was endorsed in heaven.
Eugenio Pacelli’s grandfather, Marcantonio Pacelli, was a Vatican lawyer. He was a key official in the service of Giovanni Maria MastouFerretti who was crowned Pope Pius IX – Pio Nino – in 1846. In 1861, Marcantonio helped to found the Vatican daily newspaper, L’ Osservatore Romano. It exists to this day and is published daily in seven languages.
Marcantonio, was loyal to Pio Nino when The Papal Territories were temporarily lost during the 1848 revolution in Italy. He fled with him to the seaside fortress of Gaeta in the neighboring kingdom of Naples in November of that year and returned with him to Rome the following July. The help of French bayonets and a loan from the well-known, Jewish Rothschild family facilitated Pope Pius IX’s return. He repaid the Jewish community for their assistance by forcing them back into the ghetto; compelling them to wear the infamous yellow badge (later taken over by Hitler,) and made them pay for having supported the revolution. He also became involved in the kidnapping by Papal Police of a six year-old Jewish child, Edgardo Mortara, in 1858. The child was forcibly baptized. Despite world outrage (including no less than twenty editorials in the New York Times), the pleas of the parents and the entreaties of both Emperor Franz Josef of Austria and Napoleon III of France, the child was never returned. Instead, he was forcibly cloistered in a monastery and eventually ordained as a priest.
During the period of the First Vatican Council, was convened by Pio Nino in late 1869 and lasting until 20 October 1870, the decree of Papal Infallibility was passed (18 July, 1870). Initially only half the Bishops supported the decree. Eventually, it was passed in the presence of 433 Bishops with two dissensions. An additional decree announcing the Pope’s supreme jurisdiction over his Bishops, both individually and collectively, was also accepted. The Pope was anti-democratic as a result of the loss of his Papal lands during the unification and democratization of Italy. In 1868, he had forbidden Italian Catholics from taking part in democratic politics.
Pacelli’s parents were married in 1871. His mother Virginia Graziosi, one of thirteen children, hailed from Rome and was “a pious daughter of the Church”. Two of her siblings became priests and two became nuns. His father, Fillippo, performed pastoral work in the parishes of Rome. The family considered themselves a part of the Black Nobility,11 who opposed and rejected the ‘usurpation’ of King Vittorio Emanuel. The meager remuneration earned by both Marcantonio and Fillipo, was indicative of their loyalty to the papal cause rather than of an aristocratic lifestyle.
Eugenio Pacelli was born on 2 March, 1876, two years before the death of Pio Nino. He was born into a culture where the Pope was regarded as infallible and as G-d’s Vicar on earth and whose decisions were automatically endorsed in heaven. Jews were seen as being deserving of any cruelty or punishment meted out to them due to their stubbornness in refusing to accept Christ as the Messiah. They were no less than slaves and it was quite in order to kidnap their children and convert them against their parents’ will. There was no clash of integrity in utilizing any financial benefit that they were able to offer, whether through loans or confiscation of assets, and immediately thereafter betraying them.
A person raised in this type of morality, which was extremely anti-democratic and where Jews were thus regarded, was indeed a candidate to be an ally of fellow Catholic Fascists such as Tiso, Franco, Salazar, Mussolini or indeed Adolf Hitler. As will be shown, there was in addition a great commonality of attitude in their joint hatred and fear of Communism. How much more did one need to bind together the Catholics and the Fascists in an allegiance? Both hated Jews, democracy and Communism.
In 1901, Pacelli was recruited by Monsignor Pietro Gaspari, the undersecretary in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs (the equivalent to the Foreign Office in the Secretariat of State). A few days after his recruitment, he was appointed an ‘apprendista’ (apprentice) in the Department. He rose rapidly from part time lecturer in Canon Law in 1902 to a part time lecturer in the Academy for Nobles and Ecclesiastes, where he taught civil and Canon law. In 1904, he obtained his doctorate. His thesis dealt with the nature of Concordats, the term for special treaties between the Vatican and nation states, monarchies and empires, and the function of Canon Law, when a Concordat falls into abeyance. The importance of this qualification will be seen later in discussions regarding the First World War and the rise of Hitler.
That same year, Pacelli was promoted to the post of minutante, which involved writing digests of reports dispatched to the Secretariat from all over the world. He was also awarded the title of Monsignor, with the rank of Papal Chamberlain. In 1905 he was awarded the title of Domestic Prelate and two years later he was selected to accompany the Cardinal Secretary of State to a Eucharistic Congress in London.
Anti-Democracy and Papal Diplomacy
Pope Leo XIII reigned from 1878-1903. He believed that the Papal Diplomatic Service had a crucial role to play in the implementation of internal Church discipline and the conduct of Church/State relations, and had himself been trained in diplomacy. The permanent mission of the Vatican increased from eighteen to twentyseven diplomats, during his watch. On his death, he was succeeded by Pope Pius X. This inaugurated an era known as anti-Modernism, also called anti-Americanism. The modernists tried to bring the Catholic Church in line with democracy, and the movement was primarily driven by a disparate modernizing group in North America. ‘Americanism’ experienced almost immediate demise after the Papal denunciation.
The ‘poison’ of European Modernism spreading throughout the Church was identified as early as 1870 by Professor Louis Duchesne at the Institut Catholique in Paris. The man appointed to eradicate it by Pope Pius X was Umberto Benigni. He worked in the mornings in the Vatican in the same office of Pacelli. During the afternoons, evenings and weekends, he conducted the Secret Service known as the Sodalitiums Pianum (Sodality of Pius). Experienced in running a Catholic newspaper and news service, he used the most modern and up-to-date skills in running an internal espionage service to find ‘culprits’ who might be suspected of being Modernist or of having Modernist or democratic views.
Without recourse to the audi alterem partem (hearing the other view) rule, numerous seminarians, curates, priests, teachers, bishops and even princes of the Church were ‘delated’ or reported. The Cardinal Archbishops of Vienna and Paris and the entire Dominican Community of Fribourg University in Switzerland were affected and sentenced without an opportunity to defend themselves.
A comment made en passant in a refectory, being seen in the company of a suspected modernist, a sermon with unorthodox undertones were enough to result in destruction of a career, and banishment to a remote region. No one could be trusted and even students and old friends secretly reported each other. Pope Pius X, himself approved, blessed and encouraged this intellectual constriction, which spied on the hierarchy itself. In July, 1907 he published the decree Lamentabili condemning 65 modernist Propositions (meaning ‘viewpoints’). Two months later, he published Pascendi, an encyclical on Modernism. This establishes for all time that intellectual questions are not a matter for scholarly or intellectual discussion but must be resolved by Papal authority. One accepted not only what the Pope proposed, but also how he interpreted it. This is contrary to all Catholic teaching of conscience and is a form of thought control that was unrivalled even by Communist and Fascist regimes.
Thirty years after the Lamentabili, Pius X published a directive known as the “AntiModernist” oath. This required acquiescence to all papal teachings. All ordinands and all priests in administrative teaching posts must to this day take an oath in a modified form, denouncing Modernism and supporting the Lamentabili. The oath also includes Pascendi. This fear of the modern world and the fear of loss of total papal control were approved of by Pacelli, even though his mentor Gaspari vehemently disapproved.
It was Pacelli who canonized Pope Pius X on 29 May 1954, describing him as a “glowing flame of charity and shining splendor of sanctity”. Clearly, he adopted the anti-Modernist philosophy of his predecessor. This made it easier for him to associate himself with the principle of “Ein weld, ein volk, ein führer” (one world, one nation, one leader) of Adolf Hitler.
In 1904, in strictest secrecy, the Codification of Canon Law was begun. The project took forty years to commence from the inception by Pio Nino in 1864, and was to be applied universally without local discretion or opinion. It was eventually published in 1917 and is probably the most important event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in modern times. It finally cemented total power control, unequal and unprecedented to the Papacy of the Church. The principle architects and team leaders were Gaspari and Pacelli.
According to a distinguished Protestant canon lawyer, Ulrich Stutz, the Code gave “supreme and most complete jurisdiction” of the Church by the Pope, unlike anything that the Church had possessed in its 2000-year existence.12 It was in many ways a unilateral declaration of total power, since there were many concordats between the Vatican and various governments over the centuries. Points of dissension between the Code and the Concordats had to be ironed out. It was Pacelli’s principle task to eradicate obstacles, starting with Germany, the most powerful Catholic population in the world.
Pius X was opposed to co-operating with political parties. He did not care for them since he was unable to control their thought processes. This was the case particularly in France where, as a result of successive revolutions commencing in 1789, the monarchy had been replaced by a republican form of government, whilst the Vatican favored a more monarchist, anti-democratic approach. When the Jewish officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was found guilty of selling national secrets in 1895, the Jesuit monthly Civilia Catholica proclaimed that “the Jew was created by G-d to act as a traitor everywhere.” When Dreyfus was later exonerated, the Vatican came under attack by the anti-clerical Socialist Party in France because of the article.
Influenced by Pope Pius X and political events which occurred in both France and Italy, Pacelli believed in the infallibility of leadership in the case of the Church as well as in the Fascist form of Government. According to Carlo Falconi: “First he believed the mixture of politics and religion to be the most dangerous possible for the Church, secondly because at that time the Catholic Parties fostered the participation of priests in politics, and lastly because he thought them useless, for Catholics could always seek support for their religious claims from lay parties favorable to the Church or at least not hostile to it.”13
Pacelli espoused the same view when, as Cardinal Secretary of State, he collaborated on behalf of a docile, quiescent church with the Nazi Party. He preferred to help to crush the Catholic Centre Party, which consisted of loyal Catholics but was the final obstacle on Hitler’s path to dictatorship. In order to achieve control, he chose Hitler as a Chancellor, rather than Brüning who was both a Catholic and a democrat.
The Cause of World War I
Father Denis Cardon, as described by Cornwell, was “a corpulent bustling, meddlesome cleric skilled in several languages including SerboCroatian.14 One evening in Belgrade, he met a minister of the Serbian government to whom he suggested that a concordat between the Vatican and Serbia would be mutually beneficial. The minister expressed his doubts that the Roman Catholic Church would welcome the concept, due to the expected resistance of the Austrian government. Cardon assured the minister that he (Cardon) could introduce him to the correct personality in the Church who would welcome the concept and indeed steer it to fruition.
The minister was so impressed with this relatively unknown priest that he forthwith proceeded to appoint him as Serbian Special Agent to the Holy See. Thus it was that Cardon went to the Vatican and put the proposal to Pacelli. Never before had there been any question of the Vatican having such discussions with Serbia.
During the Colonial era, it was a familiar feature for a Catholic country to act as a Protector of Catholics in a non-Catholic country. The Catholic Austro-Hungarian Empire was therefore the protector of Catholics in non-Catholic Serbia, which numbered only 7000 at the time of the 1st Balkan War in 1912. As a result of Serbia’s military success in that war, the Serbian Empire now encompassed 40 000 Catholics within its newly extended borders.
Pacelli’s proposal in essence was that control of the Catholic Church in Serbia be moved from Vienna to Rome. In terms of the treaty, Rome would nominate Bishops and educate priests in the Latin rite, a right previously held by Austria. The negotiations between Serbia and the Vatican were conducted in the greatest of secrecy for a whole year, despite Austrian representations and several approaches to the Vatican. On 15 February 1913 Archbishop Rafaele Scapinelli, the Vatican’s nuncio in Vienna, wrote to Pacelli:
“Austria….appears determined to deal harshly with Serbia and it is widely believed that there could be a war with that country in the spring, further complicating matters in the extreme. Would it not be better to leave the concordat negotiations for now, rather than take risks in an uncertain and perilous set of circumstances, that can only lead to military humiliation for Serbia?”15
Pacelli, however, was determined to end the protectorate status of the Austrians in the interests of Rome. His drive for control was the overriding factor which caused him to ignore all warnings and pleas and his initiative led to increased tension between Austria and Serbian which escalated into World War I. On 7 June, 1914, a final meeting of cardinals was held in the Secretariat of State where Gaspari re-echoed Archbishop Rafaele Scapinelli’s warnings. Gaspari understood that the Church had been led into the trap by Pacelli’s desire to exercise direct control over Catholics at the local level and thus had become involved in the complexities of local Balkan politics.
It may be argued that Pacelli could never have foreseen the implications of the papacy becoming a player on the world stage. However, the pressure cooker which was initiated and escalated by his irresponsible and self-serving conduct was sufficient indication of the price that Europe and the world paid for the meddling of amateurs in world affairs.
On 24 June 1914, the concordat with the Vatican and the Serbian government was signed. Only four days later, Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated at Sarajevo. The uncompromising position of Serbia and Rome, the volatile emotions, the Austrian outrage and the assassination made war inevitable.
Pope Pius X died on 20 August, it was said of a broken heart after realizing the role that his being manipulated by Pacelli had played in the commencement of the war. Pacelli remained alive with his heart intact. The new pope, Benedict XV, was elected on 3 September. He immediately dismissed the Secretary of State, Merry del Val, and replaced him with Gaspari. Pacelli was promoted to Secretary in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs.
Pacelli, Between the World Wars
Pacelli was tasked with dealing with the vast populations of prisoners of war, on both sides and “of all religions”. He is recorded as having done an outstanding job wherein, inter alia, 65 000 prisoners were liberated and generous parcels containing food and medication were distributed amongst many of the hapless prisoners awaiting release. He also provided religious solace, working tirelessly for three years without a day’s vacation.
He assisted in searching for news of the missing and the dead and managed funds for the relief work provided by the Holy See.
Pacelli’s concern for the POWs certainly attests to his humanity and compassion. In his regular reports to Gaspari, however, he never neglected to reflect his activities in the best possible light (in which regard he was eminently skilled and experienced). His skill in taking care of his own interests extended to his arrangements when he left Rome’s Stazione Termini en route to Munich to commence his term of duty in Germany in the interests of the POWs. He commandeered his own railway compartment plus an additional sealed carriage containing sixty cases of groceries pressing four ministries into service at a cost of 80 000 lire to the Holy See. This contained an enormous quantity of embargoed goods and all station masters were placed on alert from Rome to the Swiss border to ensure the safe and unhindered progress of his war rations.
Following the sudden death of Archbishop Aversa of Munich in May 1917, Pacelli was consecrated as Archbishop of Sardi by Benedict XV in the Sistine Chapel. It was a private ceremony, attended by, amongst others, Achille Ratti, the Vatican Diplomat and librarian who would become Pius XI five years later. During Pacelli’s time in Germany, he vigorously set about promoting Benedict XV’s peace plan. The Holy Father was indeed tormented by Christians waging war against each other and by Catholics killing Catholics.
On 30 June 1920, Pacelli presented his credentials to the Reich, as ambassador of the Holy See. He was the first diplomat to do so under the Weimar Republican Government and performed his duties with both charm and distinction.
Pacelli came to a Germany shamed and embarrassed by military defeat and whose economy was on the brink of collapse. It was inflation ridden and leaderless, and vulnerable to revolution and civil war. Here was an opportunity for a cunning strategist to wring out a benefit for the Vatican. It could appeal for moderate demands, lower compensation rates and lower interest charges. It could encourage re-establishment of diplomatic links between former enemies and recommend more agreeable borders for Germany.
Before the war, Germany had donated more funds to the Holy See than all the other Catholic communities of the world put together. The sooner Germany re-established its economy, the greater the fiscal benefit would be to the Church. The Catholic population in Germany had reached 23 million by 1930. This was approximately 35% of the nation, and was despite the fact that Germany had lost a considerable portion of its territory as a result of the war that had been heavily populated by Catholics. The German Catholic community was energetic and creative. During the 1920s, for example, monastic foundations increased from 366 to 640, members of religious orders from 7000 to 14 000 and members of women’s religious orders from 60 000 to 77 000. There were some 400 daily Catholic newspapers and 420 periodicals. Two Catholic news and feature services syndicated material nationwide and a Catholic cinema review Film-Rundschau. Rallies of Catholic workers, scouts and other groups were frequently held. Catholicism was by far the largest single social group in the country. The Catholic Centre Party had much to do with the strength and unprecedented growth of Catholicism in Germany, and during the 1920s, provided five out of the country’s ten Chancellors.
Adolf Hitler recognized at an early stage the potential for Catholic resistance to National Socialism. In Mein Kampf, he stated that a confrontation with the Catholic Church would be disastrous, and knew he could never succeed without the Church’s cooperation.
There was considerable antagonism towards the Nazis. How was it, then, that the much-feared confrontation between the Church and Nazism never materialized? Hitler was cunning enough to realize that what the Catholic Church had in common with the Nazi philosophy of dictatorship was its Code of Canon Law. Skillfully structured by Gaspari and Pacelli in the years 1904-1917, it effectively accorded the Pope total control, with the power to make decisions over the heads of both clergy and laity without consultation. The trick was to establish common cause with the Papacy; this would create co-operation and eliminate resistance.
Pacelli’s Role in Hitler’s Rise to Power
Pacelli took up his position as Cardinal Secretary of State on 7 February 1930. The power of decision in the Church then rested with Pope Pius XI. However, the Pope was plagued by illness and increasingly entrusted more and more of his major decisions to the Cardinal Secretary of State in matters concerning international relations. This was perfectly natural as the portfolio of Cardinal Secretary of State is equivalent to that of a Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The crux of the whole discussion was what would be benefit to the Church. What, in other words, was to be the price of the latter’s silence? The terms of Article 21 of the Reichskonkordat signed between the Roman Catholic Church and the National Socialist Party on 20 July 1933 included the concordat’s provision on Catholic education. This was the most important area of the treaty for the Church. Hitler was to protect and underwrite the cost of educating Catholic pupils and students in every kind of institution from the commencement of primary level to the end of the secondary level. The Catholic diocesan authorities were granted the right to examine religious instruction in schools and to appoint and dismiss teachers. The Church therefore gained control of education and the taxpayers, who constituted two-thirds Protestants and one-third Catholic, picked up the tab. The concordat was signed by Franz von Papen on behalf of the Nazis and by Pacelli representing the Church.
It should be borne in mind how Pacelli had maneuvered control of the Serbian Church, with the tab being picked up by the government of Serbia. Now he had maneuvered control of education for the whole of Germany, at the expense of the German taxpayer. In both cases the Catholic Church gained control free of charge.
According to Article 23 – and this was even more important – Catholic parents could demand the provision of Catholic schooling where it did not exist, depending on local conditions. This demand for Catholic schooling did not only apply to Catholic pupils, but to those of any religious persuasion.
It is for these supposed benefits that Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli sold the reputation of a mighty Church, with all its dedicated pastors, thinkers, academics and fighters for justice and democracy, by acquiescing in the program of a fascist murderer,
On 25 July 1933, five days after the signing of the concordat, the Law Against Overcrowding of German Schools and universities aimed at reducing the number of Jews studying at these institutions was passed. The law – known as the Numerus Clausus Act – laid down a strict quota for Jews of 1½% of school and university enrolments. Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, had negotiated favorable rights for Catholics with the self-same government that was simultaneously trampling on the rights of the Jewish minority. The Holy See and the German Catholic Church were thus drawn into complicity with a racist, antisemitic government. Three months before the signing of the concordat, thousands of priests across Germany had already begun supplying details of blood purity through marriage and baptism registries for purposes of the Numerus Clausus Act. The information was later used to enforce the Nuremberg Laws and ultimately for sending Jews to the death camps.
The Protestant Churches also co-operated in supplying this information. However, in the case of the Catholic Church, the culpability was far greater because of the centralized application of Canon Law, so skillfully crafted and enforced by Pacelli. The excuse of not believing in active politics as Catholics, but using concordats with political parties to advance their cause seemed the perfect excuse. Just as Cardinal Tomas de Torquemada acted to ensure that the punishment in the Spanish Inquisition were performed by the Civic Authority, so too did Eugenio Pacelli act during the Holocaust. The history of the Church enjoys a distinction for its macabre consistency. The Church is the manipulator, whilst the civic authority, either Ferdinand and Isabella or Adolf Hitler are the murderers.
There were indeed courageous priests who tried to thwart the Nazis. One had to be extremely brave to do so and they were in the minority. The story of how the mighty Catholic Church was silenced and instead helped in catapulting Hitler to power with Pacelli’s assistance will be told in the second part of this paper.
Leon Reich is a Johannesburg businessman with a long record of Jewish communal service. A popular speaker on Jewish communal platforms, he has served on the Executive of the SA Zionist Federation and was for many years President of the Grahamstown Hebrew Congregation.
Notes
- Cornwell, J, Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (Penguin, 1999), pp 131-9, 142-7
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat. Cornwell, p146.
- http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/ 2 0 0 9 / m a y / d o c u m e n t s / h f _ b e n xvi_spe_20010515_farewell-tel-aviv_en.html
- www.yourish.com/2006/06/14/1433
- Rosen, D, ‘The Legacy of Pope John Paul II’, American Jewish Committee, 2 February 2004, http://www.ajc.org/ site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKo G&b=6390861&ct=1084013
- http://www.nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm
- com/online/reviews/films/article_45.shtml
- Grayzel, S, A History of the Jews, p366
- Bauer, Y, A History of the Holocaust, Institute of Contemporary Jewry Hebrew, University of Jerusalem, with the assistance of Nili Keren, New York: Franklin Watts, c1982, 2001, p92
- Sources “Inquisition” Encyclopedia Judaica. “The Spanish Inquisition Gates to Jewish Heritage”
- The Black Nobles were a small group of self-elected aristocrats who had continued to support the Pope, following the loss of their extensive lands in the struggle for the state of Italy
- Quoted by Cornwell, p42
- Quoted in C. Falconi, Popes in the Twentieth Century, English translation, London 1967, p76; Cornwell, p47.
- Cornwell, p51
- Ibid, p53
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