Pacelli was born in Rome on 2 March 1876 as Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Eugenio Pacelli, into a noble family. He was a nephew of Marcantonio Pacelli, founder of L’Osservatore Romano. He was ordained in April 1899 and from 1904 to 1916 served as assistant to Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, who shaped the Holy See’s foreign policy during the pontificate of Pius XI. Pope Benedict XV appointed him apostolic nuncio in Bavaria in 1917 and in Germany, then the Weimar Republic, in 1920. Pius XI made him a cardinal on 16 December 1929 and Secretary of State on 7 February 1930. From 1922 to 1935 he negotiated concordats with Latvia, Bavaria, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Prussia, Baden, Austria, Germany, and Yugoslavia. After Pius XI’s death, he was elected pope as Pius XII on 2 March 1939. His foreign policy was set out in his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus, issued that year, which strongly attacked every form of totalitarianism. During the Second World War he maintained neutrality, as Benedict XV had during the First World War. This position is often explained as an effort to preserve the Church’s work in different states, but critics fault Pius XII for not taking a firm public stand against Nazi crimes. During the conflict, the Church protected victims of racial persecution, particularly Jews, and helped refugees escape.
After Pius XI’s death, he was elected pope as Pius XII on 2 March 1939. His foreign policy was set out in his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus, issued that year, which strongly attacked every form of totalitarianism. During the Second World War he maintained neutrality, as Benedict XV had during the First World War. This position is often explained as an effort to preserve the Church’s work in different states, but critics fault Pius XII for not taking a firm public stand against Nazi crimes. During the conflict, the Church protected victims of racial persecution, particularly Jews, and helped refugees escape. After the war, Pius XII opposed the atheism of Communist ideologies. In Italy’s first free elections, he used Catholic Action to encourage lay people to support the Christian Democracy party; in 1949 he excommunicated members of the Italian Communist Party. In response to persecution of Catholics in Eastern Europe, he excommunicated the heads of government of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland. He died on 9 October 1958 and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII. In the 1990s he was declared venerable, the first step in the beatification process proposed by Pope John Paul II.
During the Second World War he maintained neutrality, as Benedict XV had during the First World War. This position is often explained as an effort to preserve the Church’s work in different states, but critics fault Pius XII for not taking a firm public stand against Nazi crimes. During the conflict, the Church protected victims of racial persecution, particularly Jews, and helped refugees escape.
After the war, Pius XII opposed the atheism of Communist ideologies. In Italy’s first free elections, he used Catholic Action to encourage lay people to support the Christian Democracy party; in 1949 he excommunicated members of the Italian Communist Party. In response to persecution of Catholics in Eastern Europe, he excommunicated the heads of government of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland. He died on 9 October 1958 and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII. In the 1990s he was declared venerable, the first step in the beatification process proposed by Pope John Paul II.
Pius XII died on 9 October 1958 and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII. In the 1990s he was declared venerable, the first step in the beatification process proposed by Pope John Paul II.