The Pope at War, page 64
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Osborne to Foreign Office, London, December 24, 25, NAK, FO 371, 33410, 20–23. The Foreign Office reported on the content of the German Foreign Ministry newsletter. Osborne had asked for instruction as to whether at his upcoming New Year’s audience he should offer words of encouragement to the pope regarding the papal Christmas address. A series of marginal comments on the document by different members of the Foreign Office expressed their disapproval, ending with the January 25, 1942, note by the deputy undersecretary, Orme Sargent, “I agree. The Pope must be content with the approval which has been expressed by Farinacci and the German Foreign Office!”
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Osborne to Foreign Office, December 29, 1941, NAK, FO 371, 33410, 7–10; Osborne annual report for 1941, NAK, AR 1941, p. 1. The text of Churchill’s speech to Congress is at https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/churchill-address-to-congress.html.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
This account is based on the Notes de la Secrétairerie d’État, January 6, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 191. Had the pope seen the actual text of the Duce’s remarks, he would have been even more alarmed. “Factions in the Catholic world are opposing the Axis…. Moreover they are preaching pacifism…. All these tendencies of pacifism…must be identified, isolated, and denounced by the Party. The police will take care of the rest.” http://bibliotecafascista.blogspot.com/2012/03/discorso-al-direttorio-nazionale-del_4.html. See Moro 1988, p. 81.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Borgongini Duca to Maglione, January 9, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 195.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
“We are pastors,” the bishop concluded, “and we must unmask the wolf, we must defend the flock even at the cost of our lives.” “Allocuzione antibolscevica del Vescovo di Trieste,” PI, January 15, 1942, p. 6; Attolico to Ciano and Ministry of Popular Culture, January 23, 1942, tel. 246/88, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 164.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Italian embassy to the Holy See to Ciano and Ministry of Popular Culture, January 23, 1942, tel. 246/88, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 164. A couple of weeks earlier, Cardinal Salotti had sent Attolico a letter thanking him for his assistance in having a priest who worked under him freed after the priest had made remarks judged unpatriotic by the police. “It is my duty,” wrote Cardinal Salotti, “to warn the above-mentioned priest, so that he is more cautious in the future to avoid in his speeches any phrases or expressions that can be misunderstood. We are at a moment in which everyone must try to keep Italians’ morale high, awaiting the longed-for victory.” Italian embassy to Holy See to Ciano, January 12, 1942, tel. 155/40, with copy of the January 10 letter by Cardinal Carlo Salotti (prefect, Congregation of Rites) to Attolico, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 58.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Osborne sent a long report on the article to London. One of the Foreign Office officials added a note: “This Jesuit paper champions the rights of the ‘have nots’ to share with the ‘haves’ & as Mr Osborne remarks comes very near to supporting the Axis claim to vital space.” Osborne to Foreign Office, February 5, 1942, NAK, FO 371, 33411, 37–39.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Pietro Fedele to Mussolini, January 16, 1942, ACS, Archivi di famiglie e di persone, Clara Petacci, b. 5, fasc. 84.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Maestro di Camera di Sua Santità, December 14, 1941, and typed memo, January 10, 1942, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte 1, Germania, posiz. 826, ff. 2r, 5r.
“They hardly have any illusions here,” reported the French ambassador, “about the fate that would be reserved for the church in the case where the success of their arms would give the Germans full freedom of maneuver. That Hitler’s regime shows such little regard for the Christian denominations in the Reich is considered in the Vatican as an indication of the radical measures that would be taken in the aftermath of victory.” Bérard to Foreign Ministry, Vichy, January 21, 1942, MAEC, Guerre Vichy, 551. Bérard elaborated on this same theme of the pope’s fear of what would happen to the church in the case of a Nazi victory in his report to Pétain on February 2, 1942. MAEC, Guerre Vichy, 551.
The pope’s fear of what a Nazi victory would mean for the church had become so great that, following many months in which he had allowed no criticism of Germany’s anti-church policies to appear in the Vatican paper, it published a front-page article titled “The Religious Situation in Germany.” Although its language was diplomatic, its message was clear enough: “Certain newspapers,” it began, “have published reassuring news about the situation of the Catholic Church in Germany. We are very sorry to be obliged to state that unfortunately we cannot share or confirm these views.” Osborne sent the clipping to London with an approving note. A note from the Foreign Office recommended that it be brought to the attention of the BBC for broadcast to Italy, Spain, and South America. Osborne to Foreign Office, January 22, 1942, NAK, FO 371, 33410, 91. La Civiltà Cattolica also quoted extensively from the January 22 OR story. “Cronaca contemporanea,” CC, 93 I, Quaderno 2199 (February 1942), pp. 240–41.
The German ambassador to the Holy See sent an unusually long report to Berlin on the state of relations between Germany and the Holy See, highlighting the pope’s fears about German postwar plans regarding the church, but also citing the pope as the only member of the church in Italy who was not naturally hostile to Germany, identified by Italy’s prelates as the land of the Reformation. Bergen to Foreign Ministry, Berlin, February 21, 1942, PAAA, GPA, Beschränkung der diplomatischen Beziehungen zwischen dem Reich und dem Vatikan auf das Altreich, R261178, 02-20.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
Notes du père Salza, February 8, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 243.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Ciano 1980, pp. 588–89, diary entry for February 9, 1942; Rossi 2005, p. 359; Bérard to Darlan, Vichy, February 12, 1942, MAEN, RSS 576, PO/1, 1183; Harold Tittmann to U.S. secretary of state, February 13, 1942, NARA, RG 59, CDF 1940–44, 701.6566A, p. 2.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
Guariglia 1950, pp. 490–92; Babuscio Rizzo to Lanza d’Ajeta, capo gabinetto Ministero degli Affari Esteri, February 13, 1942, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 152; De la Flotte, Foreign Ministry, Vichy, to Bérard, March 18, 1942, MAEC, Guerre Vichy, 546.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Guariglia memo, February 26, 1942, n. 644/233, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 152.
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Guariglia to Ciano, March 23, 1942, n. 907, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 58.
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The pope’s meeting with Father Scavizzi is noted in AAV, Prefettura Casa Pontif., Udienze, b. 50.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Scavizzi, “La questione ebraica,” in Manzo 1997, pp. 132–36, 215–16.
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Manzo 1997, pp. 137–39, 229–32.
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Le chargé d’affaires à Presbourg Burzio au cardinal Maglione, March 9, 1942, ADSS, vol. 8, n. 298. Cardinal Maglione, notified by the nuncio in Budapest of the impending deportation of the Slovakian Jews and the request by the chief rabbi of that city that the pope act to prevent it, summoned the Slovakian ambassador to the Holy See and asked him to contact his government immediately with a Vatican request that the action be nullified. Le nonce à Budapest Rotta au cardinal Maglione, March 20, 1942, and Montini notes, March 24, 1942, nn. 317, 322. It was also in March that the pope received a detailed report prepared by the Swiss representative of the Jewish World Congress, forwarded to Rome by the nuncio in Bern, documenting many cases of mass executions of Jews in Poland, Romania, and other parts of German-controlled Europe. Chenaux 2003, p. 284. On Tiso as priest, politician, and Nazi collaborator, see Ward 2013. It was in March 1942 as well that the mass deportation of French Jews eastward to the death camps began. Herbert 2019, p. 372.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 25
Tacchi Venturi to Maglione, March 26, 1942, ADSS, vol. 8, n. 331. Cardinal Maglione himself had met with Buffarini on March 6 to argue that baptized Jews should not be subject to the racial laws, again voicing no objection to the application of the laws to Jews who had not renounced their religion. Colloquio tra l’Emo Card. Maglione e l’on. Buffarini, memo prepared by Tacchi Venturi, March 6, 1942, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, Asterisco Italia, posiz. 1054*, f. 983.
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Chapter 23: Best to Say Nothing
Rome’s Catholic daily had announced the pope’s election with a huge picture of Pacelli and the banner headline, “God has given the Church Pius XII and given the world the Pastore Angelico,” followed on the first anniversary of his election with the headline “The World Salutes in the pastor angelicus the Prince of Peace.” Novus (Imolo Marconi), “Dio ha dato alla Chiesa Pio XII e al mondo il Pastore Angelico,” AR, March 4, 1939, p. 1; “Il Mondo saluta nel ‘pastor angelicus’ il Principe della Pace,” AR, March 5, 1940, pp. 3–4.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
“Il terzo anno di Pontificato di Sua Santità Pio XII,” OR, March 12, 1942, pp. 1, 3–4; Remo Branca, “Vita e arte nel ‘Pastor Angelicus,’ ” and M.M., “Per meglio apprezzare la visione,” OR, December 13, 1941, p. 4. On April 27, 1942, the Italian embassy would alert Ciano and the Ministry of Popular Culture to the fact that filming of the movie had begun the previous month and that plans were being made to have it distributed throughout the world. N. 1316/495, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 64.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
On Mussolini’s contribution, see the documentation dated April 1 and 5, 1942, at ACS, PCM 1940–43, b. 2937, ff. 2–5.
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Father Scavizzi’s third report, May 12, 1942, based on his observations aboard the military hospital train in April, is found at Manzo 1997, pp. 233–40.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Attolico to Ciano, February 27, 1941, tel. 642/300, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 148; Attolico’s report was then forwarded to Italy’s ambassador in Berlin (Alfieri), tel. 05264, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 52.
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The Italian diplomat concluded his report remarking that the nuncio “spoke in a serene and elevated tone without any acrimony, indeed saying he was not afraid of being considered an optimist.” Ministero degli Affari Esteri to Italian embassy, Holy See, report of Italian embassy secretary, Berlin, June 20, 1942, tel. 14751, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 148. Not even the bishop of Berlin seems to have been happy with the job Orsenigo was doing, as he had sent a letter of complaint about him directly to the pope the previous April. Konrad von Preysing to Pius XII, April 5, 1940, AAV, Segr. Stato, 1940, Diocesi, posiz. 306, f. 93r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
Tacchi Venturi to Maglione, June 17, 1942, ADSS, vol. 8, n. 399.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
“Giudaismo. Roberto Farinacci illustra il problema,” PI, July 5, 1942, p. 3; Roberto Farinacci, “Cattolici e cattolici,” RF, July 14, 1942, pp. 1–2.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
“20.000 ebrei rastrellati a Parigi,” L’Italia, July 18, 1942; Cointet 1998, p. 222. According to Cointet, the number of Jews seized in the July 16–17 roundup in Paris was 12,884, composed primarily of women and children.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
De Felice 1996b, p. 757; Ciano 1980, pp. 626, 631, diary entries for June 2 and June 21; Roberts 2018, pp. 738–40.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Osborne to Howard, London, July 12, 1942, NAK, FO 371, 33426, 2–4. The pope had over the previous few months been engaged in a battle of wills with the British government over their request that the Italian prelate who served as apostolic delegate to Egypt and Palestine be replaced, as the British viewed him as compromised by his Italian allegiances. This had led in March 1942 to a request made by Maglione to the nuncio in Washington to “see if it is not opportune to have a word about this with [the American] government.” Maglione to Cicognani, March 28, 1942, AAV, Segr. Stato, 1941, Stati, posiz. 73, f. 14r. It was yet another example of how the pope found the American government more kindly disposed to the Vatican than the British government.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
“It is however distressing,” wrote Tardini in his notes of the visits, “to see this coalition of diplomats who are guests of the Holy See, who are treated exceedingly well, who can see every day the superiority of the Holy See’s action, all in agreement and all stubborn in a belief and an attitude that is as false as it is offensive for those who are so good and so kind to them.” Tardini notes, July 20, 21, 24, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 414.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Osborne to Tardini, July 21, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 416. After delivering the letter, Osborne reported back to its author, Douglas Howard, at the Foreign Office in London, saying it had been his intention to give it personally to the pope, but, as his audience had been delayed, he decided to give it to Tardini to deliver to the pontiff. Tardini had told him he should take the matter up directly with the pope. “This I shall do,” Osborne pledged. “Several of my colleagues are also speaking on the same lines at the Vatican,” he informed London, “but I cannot say that I look forward with confidence to any results.” Osborne to Howard, July 22, 1942, NAK, FO 371, 33412, 60–61.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Osborne to Pius XII, July 30, 1942, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte 1, Germania, posiz. 847, ff. 48r, 49r–50r. At the same time Orsenigo responded to the Secretariat of State’s latest request for information on the fate of the Jews who were being deported from Germany and Austria. Characteristically, Orsenigo’s long response repeatedly referred to Jews as “non-Aryans,” while explaining that it had become dangerous for people to ask about where they were being taken or what had happened to them. “Unfortunately,” he wrote, “one hears reports, difficult to verify, of disastrous trips and even massacres. Even every intervention in favor only of Catholic non-Aryans has so far been rejected with the usual response that baptismal water does not change Judaic blood and that the German Reich is defending itself from the non-Aryan race, not from the religious confession of the baptized Jews.” Orsenigo to Maglione, July 28, 1942, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte 1, Germania, posiz. 742, ff. 30r–31r.
Around the same time, Monsignor Godfrey, the apostolic delegate in London, sent a message to the Vatican asking if it could confirm reports appearing in the British press that the pope had protested the deportation of Jews under way in France. Maglione replied saying that he had no basis for confirming such a report. Godfrey to Maglione, August 8, 1943, and Maglione to Godfrey, August 11, 1942, AAV, Segr. Stato, 1942, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 301, fasc. 19, ff. 2r, 3r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Osborne’s diary entry for July 31 is quoted in Chadwick 1984, pp. 452–53.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Ciano 1980, p. 380, diary entry for December 30, 1939.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
Monsignor Tardini’s diary describes Maria José’s papal audience, accompanied by her husband, on May 6, at which the pope told her that he had it on good authority that the Germans were planning to invade both her own natal land and the Netherlands within the next few days. “This evening at 9,” Tardini wrote on May 8, “I see from American radio that the alarm in the Netherlands was caused by a letter that the Princess of Piedmont apparently wrote to a woman in Belgium after her visit to the Vatican.” Pagano 2020, pp. 184–85.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Montini notes, September 3, 1942, ADSS, vol. 5, n. 454; Di Nolfo and Serra 2010, pp. 18–19; Regolo 2002, 2013. In a June 21, 1943, handwritten note at the British Foreign Office, Denis Laskey observed “The Crown Princess is probably the most forceful member of the Royal Family and there have been many reports that she is working against the regime—though there has so far been nothing to substantiate this.” To this, Pierson Dixon added his own comment the same day: “We have heard for so long & so regularly that the Crown Princess is working against the régime that we can safely discount the value of her efforts.” NAK, FO 371, 37556.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
Osborne to Eden, September 8, 1942, NAK, FO 371, 33412, 96–105.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Andrea Szeptzyckyj, Metropolita ruteno di Leopoli, to Pius XII, August 29, 1942, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte 1, Germania, posiz. 742, f. 11r.
