What will scholars learn about Pope Pius XII, who had the misfortune of reigning during World War II, in the now-opened Vatican Archives? Will the new materials confirm what has been repeated since the early 1960s — that the wartime pope callously turned a blind eye toward the Holocaust and harbored pro-Nazi sympathies?
In 2003, the Vatican opened its archives up to 1939. One of the very first documents that emerged was a letter dated April 4, 1933 by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State and future Pope Pius XII, to the papal nuncio in Germany. Cardinal Pacelli instructed the nuncio to see what he could do to oppose Germany’s anti-Semitic policies.
Many critics such as Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in Los Angeles, allege that the pope refused to speak out against the Nazis because he looked to them to protect the Catholic Church from Soviet Communism. But documents long available in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential archive contradict this long-repeated thesis.
In response to diplomatic appeals made by President Roosevelt in the fall of 1941, Pius XII agreed that U.S. Catholics could support the extension of military aid, through the Lend-Lease program, to the Soviet Union after it was invaded by the Nazis. After receiving guidance in private from the Vatican, several U.S. Catholic bishops issued pastoral letters explaining that military aid to the Soviet Union could be morally justified because it helped the Russian people, who were the innocent victims of Nazi aggression. As a result, Catholic opposition to extending Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union quickly vanished, and, the Roosevelt Administration was able to provide the Russians with the desperate help they needed to beat back the German invasion.
In 1946, testimony at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials revealed that Pope Pius XII, in early 1940, acted as an intermediary between a group of German generals who wanted to overthrow Adolf Hitler and the British government. A 1944 report by the Office of Strategic Services, which was found in the National Archives two decades ago, reveals that the German Resistance provided the Vatican with knowledge of two other conspiracies against Hitler.
During World War II, the “silent” pope had a lot to say. His wartime speeches, encyclicals, and public letters fill seven thick volumes. Many critics arrive at the judgment that Pius XII was “silent” by simply ignoring how his words were actually interpreted at the time. For example, on October 27, 1939, the New York-based Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that “the unqualified condemnation which Pope Pius XII heaped on totalitarian, racist, and materialist theories of government in his [first] encyclical Summi Pontificatus caused a profound stir.”
In his 1939 Christmas address, Pius XII said, “Atrocities and the illegal use of violence even against noncombatants and refugees . . . cry out for the vengeance of God.” In the same speech, the pope articulated his conditions for a “just and honorable peace,” which included the protection of all “racial minorities,” a term that obviously referred to the Jews.
And unlike the pope’s critics, the Nazis clearly understood his speeches. Consider an analysis dated January 22, 1943 by the Reich Main Security Office on Pius XII’s explosive 1942 Christmas message. “In a manner never known before, the pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order,” the Nazi report states. “His speech is one long attack on everything we stand for.”
After quoting the pope’s words, the Nazi security office concluded that “he is virtually accusing the German people of injustice towards the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.” Every book published that has been critical of Pius XII has ignored this important report because it shatters the powerful narrative of a “silent” pope who refused to confront evil.
It remains too early to tell how the millions of pages of newly available documents will affect the debate over Pope Pius XII. However, now that the Vatican Archives are finally open, perhaps the pope’s critics can start proving his guilt with evidence instead of shifting the burden of proof and expecting the Vatican prove his innocence.
Dimitri Cavalli is a writer in New York City.
