Pius XII and Totalitarianism

By Roberto de Mattei

The "black legend"
By temperament and vocation, Pius XII was a man of peace. The very name he chose, Pius, evokes the yearning for that Christian peace which is not neutral indifference but, according to the renowned definition of Saint Augustine, "tranquillity of order."

The Western democracies of his time were not strong enough to restore the true peace Pius XII sought. In Yalta, for example, with the endorsement of Western governments, Soviet communism became the absolute master of Eastern Europe and started an aggressive policy of ideological imperialism aimed at seizing the entire free world.

National Socialism and Communism, the most violent expressions of contemporary totalitarianism, reached their greatest historical expansion during Pius XII's pontificate. He opposed both of them with the doctrinal Magisterium and administrative action, which made the twentieth century Papacy still the radiant "candle upon the candle-stick," the standard unfurled among nations, signum levatum in nationes, the civitas supra montem posita, "a city set on a hill," against whose foot the fury of seawaves breaks down.¹

The smear campaign against the memory of Pius XII started just a few years after his death on October 9, 1958. It was occasioned by the appearance of Rolf Hochuth's play The Deputy (Der Stellvertreter), first staged in 1963 in Germany.

Hochuth's thesis is that Pius XII made insufficient efforts to save European Jews and refused to speak out about the Holocaust despite detailed knowledge of the scale of Jewish suffering. Hochuth's work, though devoid of any historic value, became internationally known thanks to massive media coverage.

In view of these accusations, which implicated not only Pius XII but the Catholic Church as a whole, Pope Paul VI opened the Vatican diplomatic archives to shed full light on the Holy See's activity during the Second World War. Three Jesuit Church historians, Pierre Blet, Angelo Martini, and Burkhart Schneider, assumed the burden of research. Joining them later was the American Robert A. Graham.

The labors resulted in the twelve volumes of the Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, published by the Vatican Press between 1965 and 1981.² These volumes contained details on every aspect of Vatican diplomacy before and during the Second World War and revealed that the Vatican, under Pius XII's direction, had done a great deal to assist Jews attempting to flee Nazi persecution. In the words of the historian Eamon Duffy, the Acts and Documents "decisively established the falsehood of Hochuth's specific allegations."³

But the accusations against Pius XII did not subside. They were recently rekindled by Cornwell's book, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII.

Cornwell distances himself from Hochuth, calling his book "historical fiction based on scant documentation." He presents himself as a historian who has had access to "crucial" and "unseen" material in Rome, and even claims to have changed his mind while his work was underway, having first intended to defend Pius XII. His slandering purpose, however, does not differ from that motivating Hochuth's work and, in fact, is meant to be more far-reaching and radical than all those thus far waged against Pius XII.

The real target of Cornwell's accusations, in reality, is not Pius XII, nor even John Paul II, who surprisingly surfaces in the last pages of the book as a sort of "Pius XII redivivus." The Catholic Church is severely indicted for Her rule and Magisterium, the "centralized," "pyramidal" and "monolithic" "Church model," which Cornwell summarizes in the formula "Papal power." The pontificate of Pius XII, especially in the postwar period, was "the apotheosis of that power."⁴

From an academic point of view, Cornwell's book would warrant no answer. Thanks to the mass media, however, his basic thesis pervades public opinion, even Catholic public opinion.

Cornwell is not a professional historian, but a journalist, having no academic degrees in history, law, or theology. He is known for volumes that are anything but "scientific," such as A Thief in the Night (1989) and the novel Strange Gods (1993). Even less can he be called a Catholic historian. Even though he was formerly a seminarian at the English College in Rome, his earlier works invariably cast Catholic morality and ecclesiastical structures in a bad light. In face, he calls himself a "Catholic agnostic."

Before publication of Hitler's Pope, Cornwell claimed in an article in the Sunday Times to be the only person ever granted permission to visit the archive of the Vatican Secretariat of State. He said he had worked there for months on end and had discovered previously unknown documents. An official and authoritative Vatican statement published in L'Osservatore Romano on October 13, 1999, denounces all these claims as false.

Pius XII - silent?
On the alleged silence of Pius XII, the Vatican Actes et Documents summarized by Father Blet speak definitively. His reconstruction of events suggests that no other head of State or religious leader of the 1930s or 1940s did as much as Pius XII to aid Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution.

"The degree of communication between the Holy See and the Jewish community in these years," observed Father Graham, "can be said to have no parallel in history."⁵ The Holy See was constantly present in the unfolding drama. The Secretariat of State instructed his nuncios and apostolic delegates to intervene with governments and national episcopates to undertake relief actions whose efficacy was acknowledged at the time with repeated gratitude by Jewish organizations.

"Pius XII's attention," writes Father Blet, "extended to the War in all its breadth and under all its aspects. Countries under military occupation, countries suffering from starvation, the civilian population, the elderly, the women and the children who perished by the thousands during the bombing of German cities, the Poles who were destroyed, the Jews who were deported and murdered, the combatants who fell on the first line of battle on both sides of the front, prisoners separated from their spouses and children, mothers, married couples, and children separated from these captives - all were the objects of his concern and, insofar as he could do something for them, of his tender care. To all these evils Pius XII wanted to bring the remedy of peace."⁶

However, as Father Gumpel observes, "many Jews were among those who counseled Pius to refrain from a public denunciation…. Hundreds of Jews who had fled Berlin and other German cities arrived in Rome and came to the Vatican to persuade Pius XII to refrain from making any protest. The same advice came from German bishops."⁷

The Church in Holland learned this at great cost when the Nazis stepped up their barbaric outrages following an episcopal statement of condemnation. When the Dutch bishops publicly protested in July 1942 against the deportation of their fellow Jewish citizens, deportations were accelerated and extended to Jews who had become Catholics.⁸ Pius XII said, "If the Dutch bishops' protest cost the lives of 40,000 people, what would my denunciation, which is sharper than theirs, cost?"

Mit brennender Sorge:
the Vatican condemnation of Nazism
During its twelve-year tenure in Germany, National Socialism was never challenged as radically as by Pius the XI's 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("with burning concern").

This encyclical has fallen into near oblivion today. Yet it was one of the most important documents ever published against Nazism, not only by virtue of the supreme authority from which it came, but for its profound refutation of the doctrinal foundations of Nazism.

Cornwell devotes just three pages to the encyclical, downplays its significance, and contrasts Pius XI's document with the subsequent silence of Pius XII, thus contradicting his basic thesis that Pacelli had instigated all the Vatican's international moves that took place while he was Secretary of State.⁹

History shows that Cardinal Pacelli's role in drafting and propagating the document was pivotal. In this regard, Father Martini says: "The encyclical certainly represents the highlight of his diplomatic-religious activity towards National Socialist Germany in his capacity as Secretary of State of Pius XI."¹⁰

It was Secretary of State Pacelli who on January 16, 1937, while Pius XI was seriously ill, summoned to Rome in utmost secrecy five of the most distinguished German prelates: Cardinals Faulhaber of Munich, Bertram of Breslau, and Schulte of Cologne, and Bishops Preysing of Berlin and Galen of Münster. Despite his illness, Pius XI wanted to receive them in his room and encourage their work.

A first draft by Cardinal Faulhaber was revised, partially re-written, and supplemented by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pacelli, who changed its title from Mit grosse Sorge to Mit brennender Sorge for more impact.

The encyclical, dated March 14, was published seven days later, on Palm Sunday of 1937. The Secretary of State secretly instructed that the text be simultaneously read that very Sunday from every pulpit in Germany. The bishops had the document printed, and it was rapidly disseminated nationwide. In the diocese of Münster alone, 120,000 copies were distributed. The encyclical, issued in German in a very clear and forceful style, was "one of the most severe condemnations of a national regime ever made by the Vatican."¹¹

Mit brennender Sorge, for its clarity, for its invoking of the truths of the Catholic Faith and their opposition to Nazi neopaganism, for its condemnation of racism and the totalitarian State, caused a violent shock to Germany and in international public opinion. The surprised Führer exploded in frightful anger. But the encyclical had the effect of a threat.¹² The encyclical rekindled German resistance to Nazism, which was carried out by Catholics, and, indeed, all Christians.

One may not pretend that Mit brennender Sorge did not exist or that Cardinal Pacelli did not play a crucial role in its promulgation. The truth of the matter is that this encyclical is an uncomfortable, politically incorrect document, like Divini Redemptoris against communism, since it proves that the Church raised its voice, with a doctrinal strength unknown to liberal democracies, against the double-headed monster of the twentieth century. These two documents confirm that Catholicism's incompatibility with Nazism and Communism is total and absolute. These documents should suffice to overthrow Cornwell's thesis. Not only was there no connivance between Pius XII and Hitler, between the Catholic Church and Nazism, but in the twentieth century there was no greater resistance to Nazi and Communist totalitarianism than that of the Catholic Church.

Pius XII's Magisterium: family, State, Church
A point that should be highlighted is that Pius XII's opposition to Nazism and totalitarianism is not premised on diplomatic ploys or his concrete help to the downtrodden, but rather on his Magisterium, intrinsically anti-totalitarian and therefore intrinsically anti-Nazi and anti-Communist.

The guidelines of this vision are set forth in his encyclical Summi Pontificatus, on the State in the modern world), of October 20, 1939, with which he opened his pontificate. This encyclical underscores the darkness brewing over the earth on the eve of the Second World War. The root and ultimate cause of the imminent war and evils, which Pius XII deplores, in modern society "is the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well for individual and social life as for international relations; We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God, Almighty Creator and Father of all, supreme and absolute Law-giver, all-wise and just Judge of human actions. When God is hated, every basis of morality is undermined; the voice of conscience is stilled or at any rate grows very faint, that voice which teaches even to the illiterate and to uncivilized tribes what is good and what is bad, what is lawful, what forbidden, and makes men feel themselves responsible for their actions to a Supreme Judge."

This excerpt summarizes the guidelines of Pius the XII's Magisterium: the refusal of a universal norm of morality leads to barbarity and totalitarianism.

There can be no effective battle against totalitarianism outside the natural and divine law, outside an absolute order of principles. This order is reflected in what we could call an absolute order of institutions.

What are these institutions? Pius XII saw the family and the State as the two main pillars of human society.¹³ Within all States, the family is the primary and essential cell. Like the cells making up the human body, families in the social body are interconnected. Everything that destabilizes the family threatens the stability of the State.

Besides the domestic society of the family and the political society of the State, however, there exists a third society, the ecclesiastical society embodied in the Church.

The Church alone is able to dispel the darkness of barbarity and totalitarianism, bringing the peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ to the world. We can today repeat what Pius XII said in 1945: "One can say that the entire world must be rebuilt; the universal order must be re-established. The material order, the intellectual order, the moral order, the social order, the international order - all must be remade and set back in a regular, constant motion. That tranquil order that is peace, that is the only true peace, cannot be reborn and endure except by building human society upon Christ, so as to gather, recapitulate, reunite everything in Him: Instaurare omnia in Christo" (Eph. 1:10).¹⁴

Totalitarianism
and anti-totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is much talked about today, but what does it consist of?

When one thinks of totalitarianism, Auschwitz or the Soviet gulags come reflexively to mind. But what is the specific essence of totalitarianism?

The real question is whether there exists a common totalitarian dimension in these various ideological systems, a core, a seed of totalitarianism, so to speak, that is bound to produce different and seemingly opposite results.

The multitude of answers to this central question can be reduced to two basic positions.

The first thesis says that totalitarianism's essence lies in its pretense of imposing a truth, a system of absolute values. Communism and Nazism are said to be totalitarian for their pretense of imposing an absolute truth in terms of a "religion" based on class or blood.

In this light, the Catholic Church is the totalitarian society par excellence. She is totalitarian to the extent that She professes to impose a universal faith, through an absolute government, using tools such as Canon Law and Her hierarchy. This is Cornwell's thesis and that of Catholic progressivists in general.

In this view, the only antithesis to a totalitarianism which claims to impose a truth is a relativism which dissolves any truth: anopen society and a religion in which truth is demoted to opinion and all opinions are welcomed in a polytheistic system of values, as is in a pantheon.

Complete relativism implies the denial of natural and permanent institutions such as the family, private property, the State. These bear a germ of totalitarianism inasmuch as they claim to be stable and permanent.

By the same token, relativism implies the denial of natural law, of divine revelation, of a true religion. Ultimately, what is not compatible with relativism is not so much the idea of God, the Church, or religion, but the idea of a true God, a true Church, a true religion, namely the metaphysical idea of truth based on the principle of identity and non-contradiction, which is the foundation of the creation of the universe.

Now, if this is true, if real anti-totalitarianism consists of this relativism which dissolves any truth, how then can it be explained that philosophical and moral relativism constitutes the essence of the two major totalitarianisms of the twentieth century, National Socialism and Communism? If this common point indeed exists between Nazism and Communism, as it does, how do we explain that it is precisely relativism?

Auschwitz is an evident fruit of Nazism, but Nazism was social Darwinism, evolutionist and relativist. The Gulags were a fruit of Communism, but Communism was historical and dialectical materialism, evolutionist and relativist. But why, when speaking of relativism, evoke Auschwitz and the gulags but forget, for example, about the massacres of unborn children in the second half of the twentieth century?

Abortion is the fruit of a democratic and liberal civilization. Hedonism and secularism - once again, philosophical and moral relativism - are the ideological foundations of our democratic and liberal civilization, born of the French Revolution, like Nazism and Communism.

Among the recent and most stringent critics of "totalitarian democracy" is John Paul II himself, who says that its origin lies precisely in its ethical relativism.

In truth, an absolute system of values constitutes an objective limitation on the abuse and violence that are the core of totalitarianism. If certain juridical and social norms, such as the precepts not to kill and not to steal, are rooted in a system of absolute principles, this clearly constitutes a much greater limit to abuse than a merely conventional foundation, as may be the case with parliamentary majority decisions.

This is the second interpretation of totalitarianism, our thesis, Pius XII's thesis, John Paul II's thesis.

The essence of totalitarianism lies in relativism. The only real antithesis to relativism is the objective order of principles, the primacy of being, truth and good, the transcendent vision of history.

Only an absolute order of values can curb the lust for power of an individual, a group, a state, a class, a race, a tribe, a lobby. Without a system of absolute principles, society is bound to become a hotbed of conflicts and a global disorder - like our contemporary society, which is no less totalitarian than Nazi and Communist societies. Contemporary society is bogged down in chaos, and chaos is the supreme expression of totalitarianism. Chaos is a social hell.

Relativism is a philosophical and moral principle which denies the existence of an objective truth and good and wants all to be subordinated to the whims and will of the power of the individual. The core of relativism is the individual's self-determination apart from any natural and moral norms.

On the spiritual and moral level, the opposite of self-determination is submission to a moral law, namely the spirit of sacrifice. The spirit of sacrifice can only be drawn from meditation on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and most of all, the implications of that terrible night which preceded His Resurrection.

Pius XII invites us to do this in one of his last speeches, his Easter message of April 21, 1957.

"The night prior to Jesus's resurrection was a night of desolation and weeping, a night of darkness…. Jesus is in the tomb. His body lies on the cold stone and is still scourged; his lips are silent."

This silence appears to imply an immense tragedy. "A real night," Pius XII continues, "a night of passion, anguish, and darkness, yet a blessed night: 'vere beata nox,' because He alone deserved to know the time when Christ resurrected from death, but most of all because it was written about it: the night will shine like the day: 'et nox sicut dies illuminabitur.' A night which was preparing the dawn and the splendor of a brightening day: an anguish, a darkness, an ignominy, a passion which was preparing joy, light, resurrection.

"The night of the world," Pius XII proclaimed, "bears the clear signs of a dawn to be."

These are the words we repeat with him, beholding Mary as the person who in that terrible night of the Passion was the burning flame, the unfailing lamp, the star which, as Pius XII recalled, enlightened darkness.

It was she who, at Fatima, enlightened the darkness of the twentieth century, the century of totalitarianism, and announced the dawn of the twenty-first century, the century of the reign of Mary and, we believe, of the restoration of the natural and Christian order.