PIUS XII
(L'Osservatore Romano)
The Pope appealed as a neutral force. In reality however, the Vatican had much at stake if war broke out. There were many German Catholics, some of whom might have been victimized by the Nazis and others who were Nazis. The independence of the Vatican itself was at stake as Italy had gone fascist. The war put the Pope in a very difficult political position which some argued colored his moral judgment and public statements. Most documents of the time are sealed by the Vatican.
This letter was written in response to the murder of Dutch Jews by the Nazis in retaliation for the public condemnation of Nazi persecution of the Jews by Dutch Catholic bishops.
On the United States’ prosperity:
In the history of the Papacy. at different times, Popes have specified Catholic superpowers as the civic leader of the God’s world. However, this was the first time that a Pope had designated a majority Protestant country in this manner. Many see this quotation as striking support for the concept of American Exceptionalism.
This is a classic example of institutional reluctance to examine history in the light and morality of the present. Nations have difficulties coming to grips with their pasts just as Churches and other institutions do.
Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on 2 March 1876 in Rome into a family of intense Catholic piety with a history of ties to the papacy (the "Black Nobility"). His parents were Filippo Pacelli (1837–1916) and Virginia (née Graziosi) Pacelli (1844–1920). His grandfather, Marcantonio Pacelli, had been Under-Secretary in the Papal Ministry of Finances and then Secretary of the Interior under Pope Pius IX from 1851 to 1870 and helped found 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 Roman Rota; and his brother, Francesco Pacelli, became a lay canon lawyer and the legal advisor to Pope Pius XI, in which role he negotiated the Lateran Treaty in 1929 with Benito Mussolini, bringing an end to the Roman Question.
