Two Popes, One Holocaust Rather than canonize the controversial Pius XII, perhaps the church should be honoring his more courageous predecessor Pius XI By Kevin J. Madigan URING THE FIRST four years is a posthumous recognition that designates one who, of his pontifi cate, Pope Bene- in his lifetime, achieved acts of heroic virtue. Yet even dict XVI put the beatifi cation if one puts aside the contentious debate over what he proceedings of the controversial did or did not do for Jews being deported during the World War II–era pope, Pius XII, war, Pius XII’s reign was, in fact, conspicuous for its in abeyance. It was, Benedict an- lack of heroism. Seen in that light, Benedict’s declara- nounced, a time for “refl ection”— tion of Pius XII as venerable made one wonder how dif- not yet the time to grant sainthood. At the end of last ferent, in his relationship with the Jewish community, D year, however, the pope apparently decided that the Benedict XVI would be from his beloved predecessor time for “refl ection” should draw to a close. In a Mass John Paul II. commemorating the 50th anniversary of the wartime As it happens, there are interesting questions pontiff’s death, Benedict moved Pius XII closer to involving Pius XII and his immediate predecessor, canonization by declaring him “blessed” and “vener- Pius XI. Born Achille Ratti, the elder Pius served able.” Born Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII presided over the as pope from 1929 to 1939. New research by Father church from 1939 until his death in 1958. In the myste- Hubert Wolf, a distinguished church historian at the rious, intramural language of the Vatican, venerabilis University of Münster, in the Vatican Secret Archives and those of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Kevin J. Madigan is the Winn Professor of Faith has cast new light on the two popes who found Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School and themselves having to cope with the rise of fascism in the co-author, with Jon D. Levenson, of Resurrection: Western Europe and Marxism-Leninism to the East. The Power of God for Christians and Jews, published These materials, released only in 2006 and described by Yale University Press. in Wolf’s Pope and Devil: The Vatican’s Archives and Commentary 27 Pius XI’s story is one of moral evolution, from acceptance of dangerous anti-Semitic stereotypes to decisive, vigorous denunciation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. the Third Reich*, are, as he observes, “informative par- he was quite friendly. In 1933, for example, he invited ticularly as they relate to the person of Eugenio Pacelli” a delegation of distinguished Jewish religious and in- both in his diplomatic and early papal offi ces. They tellectual leaders to the Vatican to express his disgust also allow us to wonder whether the right Pope Pius is with the persecution by Hitler of Germany’s Jews. Pius being considered for canonization. XI’s anti-Communism did not entirely blind him to the In terms of his attitudes to Jews and Judaism, dangers of racism, which he perceived to be contrary Pius XI was, at the start of his service to the Vatican, to the Catholic faith—that is, a dogmatic heresy—and certainly no saint. In traditional Christian hagiogra- thus a danger, by defi nition, to the claims of the Catho- phy, saints are often depicted as exceptionally holy lic magisterium. It has been plausibly argued that from birth—even sometimes in utero. Pius XI does Pius’s position on racism initially may have dissuaded not fi t this canonical model. His is a story of moral Mussolini from pursuing a racial policy analogous to evolution, from an initial, unrefl ective acceptance of that engineered by the Nazis (though such laws would common but deplorable and dangerous anti-Semitic eventually be promulgated in Italy during the last stereotypes to profound refl ection on, and rejection of, years of his papal reign). his early opinions, and, fi nally, to decisive, vigorous de- Like Ratti, the future Pius XII also made his nunciation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. That is, name in the church as a nuncio—in his case, per- he began, with respect to his attitudes toward Jews, as haps fatefully, in Munich from 1917 to 1925 and then a moral mediocrity; but he ended his life, with respect in Berlin from 1925 to 1929. Pacelli, in his time in to those self-same views, as a heroic if not prophetic Munich, consistently linked Jews and Communism and saintly critic—and one whose heroism is to this and, as Father Wolf observes, even credited notions day largely unknown by Jews and Catholics alike. of a “Jewish-Bolshevik world conspiracy.” These, of Pius XI served as papal nuncio to Poland from course, played a poisonous and then deadly role in the 1919 to 1921, once the Polish state had been re-created propaganda of the German Reich. Exuberance for his after having disappeared from the map of Europe Mercedes-Benz is not all Pacelli took back with him since the late 18th century. Ratti initially tolerated from Germany to Rome when he became Pius XI’s car- some of the crude anti-Semitic stereotypes of the day. dinal secretary of state in 1930. Among other things, As nuncio, he shrank from direct condemnation of vio- he feared a revived Kulturkampf, the “culture war” in lence against Polish Jews by a Catholic population that late-19th-century Germany engendered by German largely took its cues from the church. Like many others Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s fears about the extent in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, he saw a direct link of Catholic political and social infl uence, which led to between the Bolsheviks and the Jews. Later, as pope, severe discrimination against the church and its ad- he concluded concordats with fascist regimes that had herents. This historical lesson led Pacelli to conclude openly anti-Jewish aims: in 1929 with Italy and in 1933 that the church must avoid political involvement at all with Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Critics have argued that costs and that it should, if need be, as Father Wolf puts these concordats legitimized racist, expansionist, des- it, “withdraw completely from society into the sac- potic governments and, fi nally, in the case of Germany, risty.” He was also deeply affected by the prescient but a genocidal power. His motivation for these decisions failed appeal for peace in the middle of World War I can be found in that, like many associated with the by the sitting pope, Benedict XV, who urged all parties Vatican, Pius XI was convinced that liberalism had led in May 1917 to “avoid the suicide of civilized Europe.” to socialism, which, in the ecclesiastical mind of the Benedict’s failure to alter the trajectory of the war day, led ineluctably to “Judaeo-Bolshevism.” persuaded the future Pope Pius XII that direct papal Even after he became pope, Pius XI still clung intervention in or speeches on international confl ict to many of his anti-Jewish biases while distinguishing or tragedy would achieve little or nothing in the way of Jews in general from Italian Jews, with many of whom social and humanitarian consequence. While Pacelli was still nuncio in Germany, * Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 336 pages. a furious debate unfolded within the Vatican over 28 Two Popes, One Holocaust : December 2010 Some cardinals argued against Pius XI’s declaration because they wanted to leave room for an anti-Semitism that was “permissible” or even “necessary.” the Catholic Good Friday liturgy, which contained For his part, del Val tried to place Pax Super Israel a particularly ugly anti-Semitic prayer. In 1926, an on the Index of Forbidden Books. He also rejected the organization called “Friends of Israel” (Amici Israel) Friends’ recommendation that the “perfi dious Jews” was established. The Amici was a philo-Semitic sodal- language be purged from the liturgy, arguing that in ity that included, by 1928, around 20 cardinals, 300 Matthew 27:25 the Jews had explicitly accepted re- bishops and archbishops, and 3,000 priests among its sponsibility for Christ’s crucifi xion and dismissed the members. Its main objective was to achieve good rela- Friends’ petition as “nonsensical.” For del Val, this Jew- tions with Jewish communities and organizations. A ish people were simply stiff-necked as well as cursed. second aim was to supply a counter-voice to the openly As Father Wolf acutely observes of del Val’s anti-Semitic stance of the secretary of Pius XI’s Holy response, “echoes of a völkisch interpretation are obvi- Offi ce, Merry del Val (1865-1930), a Spanish cardinal ous” and would become “even sharper as the opinion whose beatifi cation process is also ongoing. proceeded.” Indeed, he argues that some of the argu- Liturgically speaking, the Friends’ aim was ulti- ments advanced by del Val’s colleagues in the Holy mately to purge the Catholic rite of elements that were Offi ce about “the Jewish peril” could well have been fl agrantly anti-Semitic. They had also agreed to avoid lifted from the writings of racial anti-Semites of the all anti-Semitic expressions and practices not only in time. As the Nazis would later state, del Val suggested the liturgy but also in their everyday lives. In context, that just as Jews had secretly infi ltrated all modern so- this meant refusal to refer to Jews as deicides or to cieties, they were now attempting to do the same with Jerusalem as the city of God-killers.