Pope Pius XII: A Man of Peace?

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that journalists, statesmen, and historians claim that, during World War II, the Pope remained impassive and silent, despite the fact that he knew about the atrocities committed by the Germans. The author reports that, years after he died, it was discovered that the Pope was close to publishing a major encyclical on racism; but the question remains if it was just lost within the bureaucracies, or if it was purposely lost by Pacelli or someone else who did not want to rock the boat. The paper stresses that, finally, on Christmas Eve 1944, when the outcome of the war was decided, the Pope made a statement condemning the war, but not the atrocities.

From the Paper:

"When he assumed the highest office, Pope XII had to decide what to do with the prior pope's encyclical. "The decision was momentous, because Humani Generis Unitas would finally, and publicly, have the church defend the hounded Jews by explicitly condemning the Nazis' anti-Semitism and calling for the cessation of the German prosecution of the Jews". Within the report, Pope Pius XI said, "It becomes clear that the struggle of racial purity ends by uniquely the struggle against the Jews. Save for its systemic cruelty, this struggle is no different in true motives and methods from prosecutions everywhere carried out against the Jews since antiquity.""

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