VATICAN SECRETARY OF STATE
The Lateran Treaty of 1929 established formal
relations between Italy and the Vatican.
Following the example of Mussolini, Adolf
Hitler initiated a Concordat. This is a strictly defined
legal agreement between two governments intended
to preserve the freedom of the Church to teach and
minister to the faithful. Historically the Holy See has
signed many such agreements. There was nothing
unique about the Concordats with Italy in 1929 or with
Germany in 1933. In fact, Pacelli negotiated a concordat with Bavaria which was signed on March 29, 1924
and concluded one with Prussia on June 14, 1929.
Pacelli was then recalled to Rome and on December
16, received a Cardinal’s hat.
Soon after, February 7,
1930, he was appointed Secretary of State (succeeding
his former mentor Cardinal Pietro Gasparri) and
became archpriest of the Vatican Basilica.
Cardinal Pacelli negotiated with the Germans to
protect the rights of Catholics. The Holy See agreed
because the new German regime was determined to
tamper with the existing Concordats with Bavaria
and Prussia.
Vatican Secretary of State Pacelli signs the Concordat with Berlin
Opposed to Nazi ideology, the Church could yet
register protests and keep its independence. As long
as the German government guaranteed freedom of
religion, the Catholic Church could express its point
of view. However, the Holy See had to make concessions. Only party members were allowed to
engage in politics. The Catholic clergy could no
longer participate. Soon after, the official Protestant
Church came under Nazi influence and a
Reichsbischof was appointed.
President Hindenburg, who for many years had
refused to appoint Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, succumbed to the opposition on January 30, 1933. In
replacing Franz von Papen, a former Catholic
Center Party member, Hitler became the leader of
the largest party in the Reichstag.
Jewish descendants, even if baptized, were
deprived of their German citizenship. In 1934, when
the Nazis initiated their first large-scale massacre,
Cardinal Pacelli had the Vatican newspaper
unequivocally condemn the Nazi crimes.
“The Osservatore,” wrote French correspondent
Charles Pichon, “in three articles, proclaimed that
National Socialism better deserved the name of
‘national terrorism,’ and that like all movements
which resort to terrorism, it sprang from a gang
rather than from a party.”
In a letter dated March 12, 1935 to Cardinal Schulte of Cologne, Pacelli attacked the Nazis as "false prophets with the pride of Lucifer," labeling them "bearers of a new faith and a new gospel" who were attempting to create a "mendacious antimony between faithfulness to the Church and the Fatherland."
The following month, Cardinal Pacelli delivered an address before a quarter of a million people at Lourdes, April 25-28, 1935, where he
described the Nazis as “possessed by the superstition of race and blood” and declared that “the
Church does not consent to form a compact with
them at any price.” Describing the speech, the New
York Times headlined its story: “Nazis Warned at
Lourdes” (April 29, 1935). French newspapers at
the time were ecstatic over Pacelli’s visit and were
praising him as the most brilliant churchman in
memory.
CARDINAL PACELLI VISITS AMERICA
Cardinal Pacelli represented Pope Pius XI on many
occasions. He was sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina,
aboard the Conte Grande and presided as Papal Legate
at the International Eucharistic Congress, October 10-14, 1934. He was also Pope Pius XI’s delegate to
France for the closing days of the Jubilee Year honoring the nineteenth centenary of Redemption. In 1936
he visited the United States of America.
Cardinal Pacelli and Party en route to America
Cardinal
Pacelli made contact with every aspect of American
life. His first stop was to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in
Manhattan and the residence of Patrick Cardinal
Hayes. There he lunched with Nicholas Murray Butler,
President of Columbia University. He visited the
Empire State Building and admired the skyline of New
York and in Philadelphia he saw the Liberty Bell. He
had a whirlwind tour of the United States: Cleveland,
Chicago, Notre Dame, San Francisco, Boulder Dam,
Minneapolis, Kansas City. At Notre Dame University
Pacelli received an honorary LL.D. |  |
| At prayer in the chapel of Notre Dame University |
 |
On October 21 he
went to Baltimore and was welcomed by Archbishop
Michael Curley, as he visited the Cathedral of the
Assumption and St. Mary's Seminary, both the oldest in
the United States. The next day he went to Washington,
DC, and made the following stops: the Catholic
University, the National Catholic Welfare Conference,
and Georgetown University where he received the honorary degree of doctor of canon and civil law. At the
Library of Congress, he was interested in seeing the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and an
original score of Abbe Franz Liszt, the Hungarian
pianist and composer. He signed the guest register “E.
Card. Pacelli.” That same day he visited Mount Vernon,
the home and tombs of George and Martha Washington
where he placed memorial wreaths.
|
| Cardinal Pacelli admires Gutenberg Bible at Library of Congress |
Eugneio Pacelli was seen by more people and was
the most accessible Pope in the history of the papacy up
to his pontificate. Americans were awed into silence by
his presence. Thousands were able to greet him as he
traveled aboard United Airlines DC-3. Boarding at
Roosevelt Field, Long Island, Cardinal Pacelli criss-crossed the United States. He worked far into the night
inspiring one hostess to state: “He was the most considerate passenger I ever had. He was Christ-like.”
This was an “unofficial” trip covering some eight
thousand miles in seven days chiefly by chartered
plane of the United Airlines over congested cities,
rocky mountains and flat lands. In San Francisco he
blessed the Golden Gate Bridge.... The Vatican Secretary of State
made an in-depth study of the American Church. He
also appealed to the United States to throw open its
doors to Jewish refugees, but his request went
unheeded. On November 5, 1936, the eve of his return
to the Vatican, President Franklin D. Roosevelt—who
two days earlier had a landslide victory for a second
term—invited Cardinal Pacelli to a luncheon at his
home in Hyde Park, New York. He was given a warm
reception. On the return to New York City, Pacelli was
delighted when, visiting Ambassador Joseph
Kennedy’s family in Bronxville, five-year-old Teddy
climbed on his lap and had him open the medal case
which the Cardinal had given him. |  |
| Pacelli with Joseph P. Kennedy (left) and Marvin McIntyre (right), FDR's presidential secretary |
PAPAL ENCYCLICAL
In his encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, Pope Pius XI
condemned anti-Semitism: “None but superficial
minds could stumble into concepts of a national God,
of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the
frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits
of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King
and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity
they are ‘as a drop of a bucket’ (Isaiah XI. 15).”
The encyclical, prepared under the direction of
Cardinal Pacelli, then Secretary of State, was written
in German for wider dissemination in that country.
It was smuggled out of Italy, copied and distributed
to parish priests to be read from all of the pulpits on
Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937.
No one who heard the Pontifical document had
any illusion about the gravity of these statements or
their significance. Certainly the Nazis understood
their important message. An internal German memorandum dated March 23, 1937 stated that it was
“almost a call to do battle against the Reich government.” The encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, was
confiscated, printers arrested and presses seized.
The following day Das Schwarze Korps called it “the
most incredible of Pius XI’s pastoral letters: every
sentence in it was an insult to the new Germany.”
Cardinal Pacelli at Eucharistic Congress in Budapest
Cardinal Pacelli returned to France in 1937, as
Cardinal-Legate to consecrate and dedicate the new
basilica in Lisieux during the Eucharistic Congress
and made another anti-Nazi statement. He again
presided on May 25-30, 1938, at the International
44 Eucharistic Congress in Budapest.
