Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

==Church career==

===Priest and monsignor===
[[File:Pacelliordenado.jpg|thumb|upright|150px|Pacelli on the day of his ordination: 2 April 1899]]
While all other candidates from the Rome diocese were ordained in the [[Basilica of Saint John Lateran]],<ref name="Gerard Noel, p.9">Noel, p. 9</ref> Pacelli was [[Holy Orders|ordained]] a priest on [[Easter]] Sunday, 2 April 1899, alone in the private chapel of a family friend the [[Vicegerent]] of Rome, [[Francesco di Paola Cassetta]]. Shortly after ordination he began postgraduate studies in canon law at Sant'Apollinaire. He received his first assignment as a [[curate]] at [[Santa Maria in Vallicella|Chiesa Nuova]].<ref name="marchione193">Marchione, 2000, p. 193</ref> In 1901, he entered the [[Section for Relations with States (Roman Curia)|Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs]], a sub-office of the [[Secretariat of State (Vatican)|Vatican Secretariat of State]].<ref>O'Shea, p. 82</ref>

[[Pietro Gasparri]], the recently appointed undersecretary at the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, had underscored his proposal to Pacelli to work in the "Vatican's equivalent of the Foreign office" by highlighting the "necessity of defending the Church from the onslaughts of secularism and liberalism throughout Europe".<ref name="Gerard Noel, p. 10">Noel, p. 10</ref> Pacelli became an ''apprendista'', an apprentice, in Gasparri's department. In January 1901 he was also chosen, by Pope Leo XIII himself, according to an official account, to deliver condolences on behalf of the Vatican to King [[Edward VII]] of the United Kingdom after the death of [[Queen Victoria]].<ref name="marchione9">Marchione, 2004, p. 9</ref>
[[File:MarrydelValpacelli.jpg|thumb|left|upright|150px|The Serbian Concordat, 24 June 1914. Present for the Vatican were [[Cardinal Merry del Val]] and next to him, Pacelli.]]
By 1904 Pacelli received his doctorate. The theme of his thesis was the nature of [[concordats]] and the function of canon law when a concordat falls into abeyance. Promoted to the position of ''minutante'', he prepared digests of reports that had been sent to the Secretariat from all over the world and in the same year became a [[papal chamberlain]]. In 1905 he received the title [[Domestic Prelate|domestic prelate]].<ref name="marchione193"/> From 1904 until 1916, he assisted Cardinal Pietro Gasparri in his codification of [[Canon law (Catholic Church)|canon law]] with the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs.<ref name="marchione10">Marchione, 2004, p. 10</ref> According to [[John Cornwell (writer)|John Cornwell]] "the text, together with the [[Anti-Modernist Oath]], became the means by which the Holy See was to establish and sustain the new, unequal, and unprecedented power relationship that had arisen between the papacy and the Church".<ref>Cornwell, ''Hitler's Pope'', p. 42</ref>

In 1908, Pacelli served as a Vatican representative on the [[International Eucharistic Congress]], accompanying [[Rafael Merry del Val]]<ref>Cornwell, p. 32</ref> to London,<ref name="marchione9"/> where he met [[Winston Churchill]].<ref>Dalin, 2005, p. 47</ref> In 1911, he represented the Holy See at the [[coronation of George V and Mary]].<ref name="marchione10"/> Pacelli became the under-secretary in 1911, adjunct-secretary in 1912 (a position he received under [[Pope Pius X]] and retained under [[Pope Benedict XV]]), and secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in February 1914.<ref name="marchione10"/> On 24 June 1914, just four days before [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria]] was assassinated in [[Sarajevo]], Pacelli, together with Cardinal Merry del Val, represented the Vatican when the Serbian Concordat was signed. [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]]'s success in the [[First Balkan War]] against [[Ottoman Empire|Turkey]] in 1912 had increased the number of Catholics within greater Serbia. At this time Serbia, encouraged by [[Russian Empire|Russia]], was challenging [[Austria-Hungary]]'s sphere of influence throughout the [[Balkans]]. Pius X died on 20 August 1914. His successor Benedict XV named Gasparri as secretary of state and Gasparri took Pacelli with him into the Secretariat of State, making him undersecretary.<ref>O'Shea, pp. 86, 88</ref> During World War I, Pacelli maintained the Vatican's registry of [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] and worked to implement papal relief initiatives. In 1915, he travelled to [[Vienna]] to assist [[Raffaele Scapinelli di Léguigno|Raffaele Scapinelli]], [[nuncio]] to Vienna, in his negotiations with Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]] regarding Italy.<ref>Levillain, 2002, p. 1211</ref>

===Archbishop and papal nuncio===
{{Main|Nunciature of Eugenio Pacelli}}
[[File:PioXIIgernamia1917.jpg|thumb|right|170px|Pacelli at the Headquarters of [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]]]]
Pope Benedict XV appointed Pacelli as [[Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria|nuncio to Bavaria]] on 23 April 1917, consecrating him as [[titular bishop|titular]] [[See of Sardis|Archbishop of Sardis]] in the [[Sistine Chapel]] on 13 May 1917, the same day as the [[Our Lady of Fátima|first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary]] in [[Fátima, Portugal|Fatima, Portugal]]. After his consecration, Eugenio Pacelli left for [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]]. As there was no nuncio to [[Prussia]] or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the [[German Empire]].

Once in [[Munich]], he conveyed the papal initiative to end the war to German authorities.<ref>Fatoni, 1992, pp. 45–85</ref> He met with King [[Ludwig III of Bavaria|Ludwig III]] on 29 May, and later with Kaiser [[Wilhelm II]]<ref name="marchione11">Marchione, 2004, p. 11</ref> and Chancellor [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]], who replied positively to the Papal initiative. However, Bethmann Hollweg was forced to resign and the [[Oberste Heeresleitung|German High Command]], hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until 20 September.

Sister [[Pascalina Lehnert]] later recalled that the Nuncio was heartbroken that the Kaiser turned a "deaf ear to all his proposals". She later wrote, "Thinking back today on that time, when we Germans still all believed that our weapons would be victorious and the Nuncio was deeply sorry that the chance had been missed to save what there was to save, it occurs to me over and over again how clearly he foresaw what was to come. Once as he traced the course of the [[Rhine]] with his finger on a map, he said sadly, 'No doubt this will be lost as well'. I did not want to believe it, but here, too, he was to be proved right."<ref>Lehnert (2014), pages 5–6.</ref>

For the remainder of the Great War, Pacelli concentrated on Benedict's humanitarian efforts<ref>Rychlak, 2000, p. 6</ref> especially among Allied [[Prisoners of war in World War I|prisoners of war]] in German custody.<ref>Lehnert (2014), 6–7.</ref> In the upheaval following the Armistice, a disconcerted Pacelli sought Benedict XV's permission to leave Munich, where [[Kurt Eisner]] had formed the [[Free State of Bavaria]], and he left for a while to [[Rorschach, St. Gallen|Rorschach]], and a tranquil Swiss sanatorium run by nuns. Schioppa, the ''uditore'', was left in Munich.<ref>Cornwell, p. 73</ref>

"His recovery began with a 'rapport{{'"}} with the 24-year-old Sister Pascalina Lehnert – she would soon be transferred to Munich when Pacelli "pulled strings at the highest level".<ref>Noel, p. 34</ref>

When he returned to Munich, following Eisner's assassination by the Bavarian nationalist [[Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley|Count Anton von Arco auf Valley]], he informed Gasparri-using Schioppa's eye-witness testimony of the chaotic scene at the former royal palace as the trio of [[Max Levien]], [[Eugen Levine]], and [[Tobias Akselrod]] sought power: "the scene was indescribable [-] the confusion totally chaotic [-] in the midst of all this, a gang of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like the rest of them hanging around [-] the boss of this female rabble was Levien's mistress, a young Russian woman, a Jew and a divorcée [-] and it was to her that the nunciature was obliged to pay homage in order to proceed [-] Levien is a young man, also Russian and a Jew. Pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, vulgar, repulsive ..." John Cornwell alleges that a worrying impression of anti-Semitism is discernible in the "catalogue of epithets describing their physical and moral repulsiveness" and Pacelli's "constant harping on the Jewishness of this party of power usurpers" chimed with the "growing and widespread belief among Germans that the Jews were the instigators of the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik revolution]], their principal aim being the destruction of Christian civilization".<ref>Cornwell, p. 75</ref> Also according to Cornwell, Pacelli informed Gasparri that "the capital of Bavaria, is suffering under a harsh Jewish-Russian revolutionary tyranny".<ref>{{cite book|author=John Cornwell|title=Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFHKrYwv87sC&pg=PA78|year=2000|publisher=Penguin|page=78|isbn=9780140296273}}</ref>
[[File:PacelliBavaria1922a.JPG|thumb|right|145px|Pacelli in Bavaria, 1922]]

According to Sister Pascalina Lehnert, the Nuncio was repeatedly threatened by emissaries of the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]]. Once, in a violation of international law, the Bavarian Revolutionary Government attempted to confiscate the Nunciature's car at gunpoint. Despite their demands, however, Pacelli refused to leave his post.<ref>Lehnert (2014), pages 7–8.</ref>

After the Bavarian Soviet Republic was defeated and toppled by ''[[Freikorps]]'' and ''[[Reichswehr]]'' troops, the Nuncio focused on, according to Lehnert, "alleviating the distress of the postwar period, consoling, supporting all in word and deed".<ref>Lehnert (2014), page 8.</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00535, Bamberg, 900 Jahr-Feier der Stadt.jpg|thumb|left|Nuncio Pacelli in July 1924 at the 900th anniversary of the City of [[Bamberg]]]]
Pacelli was appointed [[Apostolic Nuncio to Germany]] on 23 June 1920, and – after the completion of a [[Bavarian Concordat (1924)]] – his nunciature was moved to Berlin in August 1925. Many of Pacelli's Munich staff stayed with him for the rest of his life, including his advisor [[Robert Leiber]] and Sister Pascalina Lehnert—housekeeper, cook, friend, and adviser for 41 years. In Berlin, Pacelli was [[Doyen|Dean of the Diplomatic Corps]] and active in diplomatic and many social activities. He was aided by the German priest [[Ludwig Kaas]], who was known for his expertise in Church-state relations and was a full-time politician, politically active in the Catholic [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]], a party he led following [[Wilhelm Marx]]'s resignation in October 1928.<ref>Volk, 1972; Cornwell, p. 96</ref> While in Germany, he travelled to all regions, attended [[Katholikentag]] (national gatherings of the faithful), and delivered some 50 sermons and speeches to the German people.<ref>Kaas, 1930.</ref> In Berlin he lived in the [[Tiergarten (Berlin)|Tiergarten]] quarter and threw parties for the official and diplomatic elite. [[Paul von Hindenburg]], [[Gustav Stresemann]], and other members of the Cabinet were regular guests.

[[File:Future Pope Pius XII visits Dorstfeld Mines in 1927 Germany.jpg|thumb|Nuncio Pacelli visits the coal mine Dorstfeld on the occasion of the ''[[Katholikentag]]'' in [[Dortmund]], Germany, in 1927.]]

In post-war Germany, in the absence of a nuncio in Moscow, Pacelli worked also on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the [[Soviet Union]]. He negotiated food shipments for Russia, where the Catholic Church was persecuted. He met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister [[Georgi Chicherin]], who rejected any kind of religious education, the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican.<ref>Stehle, 1975, pp. 139–41</ref>
[[File:Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, in 1927.jpg|thumb|219x219px|Eugenio Pacelli in 1927]]
Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until [[Pius XI]] ordered them to be discontinued in 1927. Pacelli supported German diplomatic activity aimed at rejection of punitive measures from victorious former enemies. He blocked French attempts for an ecclesiastical separation of the [[Saar (League of Nations)|Saar region]], supported the appointment of a papal administrator for [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]] and aided the reintegration of German priests expelled from [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]].<ref>Morsey, p. 121</ref> A [[Prussian Concordat]] was signed on 14 June 1929. Following the [[Wall Street crash of 1929]], the beginnings of a world economic slump appeared, and the days of the [[Weimar Republic]] were numbered. Pacelli was summoned back to Rome at this time—the call coming by telegram when he was resting at his favourite retreat, the Rorschach convent sanatorium. He left Berlin on 10 December 1929.<ref>Cornwell, pp. 103–04</ref> [[David G. Dalin]] wrote "of the forty-four speeches Pacelli gave in Germany as papal nuncio between 1917 and 1929, forty denounced some aspect of the emerging Nazi ideology".<ref name="The Pius War 2010, p. 17">''The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII'', David G. Dalin, Joseph Bottum, Lexington Books, 2010, p. 17</ref> In 1935 he wrote a letter to [[Karl Joseph Schulte]], the archbishop of Cologne, describing the Nazis as "false prophets with the pride of Lucifer". and as "bearers of a new faith and a new Evangile" who were attempting to create "a mendacious antimony between faithfulness to the Church and the Fatherland".<ref>''Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler'', Ed Frank J. Coppa, Catholic University of America Press, P. 173, {{ISBN|081320920X}}</ref> Two years later at [[Notre Dame de Paris]] he named Germany as "that noble and powerful nation whom bad shepherds would lead astray into an ideology of race".<ref name="The Pius War 2010, p. 17"/>

===Cardinal Secretary of State and Camerlengo===
[[File:Correio da Manhã AN 448.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Secretary of State Pacelli with Brazilian president [[Getúlio Vargas]] (at Pacelli's right shoulder) and other dignitaries in [[Rio de Janeiro]], 1934]]
Pacelli was made a [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal-Priest]] of [[Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio]] on 16 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and within a few months, on 7 February 1930, Pius XI appointed him [[Cardinal Secretary of State]], responsible for foreign policy and state relations throughout the world. In 1935, Pacelli was named [[Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church]].

As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed concordats with a number of countries and states. Immediately on becoming Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli and Ludwig Kaas took up negotiations on a [[Concordats with individual states of Germany|Baden Concordat]] which continued until the spring and summer of 1932. Papal fiat appointed a supporter of Pacelli and his concordat policy, [[Conrad Gröber]], the new [[Archbishop of Freiburg]], and the treaty was signed in August
1932.<ref>Kent, 2002, p. 24</ref> Others followed: [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] (1933), Germany (1933), [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] (1935) and Portugal (1940). The [[Lateran treaties]] with [[Fascist Italy|Italy]] (1929) were concluded before Pacelli became Secretary of State. Catholicism had become the sole recognized religion; the powerful democratic [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Catholic Popular Party]], in many ways similar to the Centre Party in Germany, had been disbanded, and in place of political Catholicism the Holy See encouraged [[Catholic Action]]. It was permitted only so long as it developed "its activity outside every political party and in direct dependence upon the Church hierarchy for the dissemination and implementation of Catholic principles".<ref>Cornwell, p. 115</ref> Such concordats allowed the Catholic Church to organize youth groups, make ecclesiastical appointments, run schools, hospitals, and charities, or even conduct religious services. They also ensured that [[canon law]] would be recognized within some spheres (e.g., church decrees of [[Nullity (conflict)|nullity]] in the area of marriage).<ref>Fahlbusch, Erwin (ed.). Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (trans.) (2005). ''The Encyclopedia of Christianity''; {{ISBN|0-8028-2416-1}}</ref>

As the decade began Pacelli wanted the Centre Party in Germany to turn away from the socialists. In the summer of 1931 he clashed with Catholic Chancellor [[Heinrich Brüning]], who frankly told Pacelli he believed that he "misunderstood the political situation in Germany and the real character of the Nazis".<ref>Cornwell, p. 121</ref> Following Brüning's resignation in May 1932 Pacelli, like the new Catholic chancellor [[Franz von Papen]], wondered if the Centre Party should look to the Right for a coalition, "that would correspond to their principles".<ref>Cornwell, p. 128. Pacelli, quoted in Scholder's ''The Churches and the Third Reich'', p. 157</ref> He made many diplomatic visits throughout Europe and the Americas, including an [[Eugenio Pacelli's 1936 visit to the United States|extensive visit to the United States in 1936]] where he met President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], who appointed a personal envoy—who did not require Senate confirmation—to the [[Holy See]] in December 1939, re-establishing a diplomatic tradition that had been broken since 1870 when the Pope lost [[Temporal power (Papal)|temporal power]].<ref>Dalin, 2005, pp. 58–59</ref>

[[File:Pacelli in Argentina 01.jpg|thumb|right|280px|A smiling Pacelli with Argentine president [[Agustín P. Justo]]]]

Pacelli presided as [[Papal Legate]] over the [[International Eucharistic Congress]] in [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina on 10–14 October 1934, and in [[Budapest]] on 25–30 May 1938.<ref>Marchione, 2002, p. 22</ref> At this time, [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] laws were in the process of being formulated in [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1946)|Hungary]]. Pacelli made reference to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today".<ref>''Christian responses to the Holocaust: moral and ethical issues: Religion, theology, and the Holocaust'', [[Donald J. Dietrich]], p. 92, Syracuse University Press, 2003; {{ISBN|0-8156-3029-8}}</ref>{{Disputed inline|Alleged reference|date=April 2022}} This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed in ''[[Nostra aetate]]'' issued during the [[Second Vatican Council]].<ref>''A dictionary of Jewish-Christian relations'', Edward Kessler, Neil Wenborn, p. 86, Cambridge University Press, 2005; {{ISBN|0-521-82692-6}}</ref> According to [[Joseph Bottum (author)|Joseph Bottum]], Pacelli in 1937 "warned A. W. Klieforth, that [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] was 'an untrustworthy scoundrel and fundamentally wicked person', to quote Klieforth, who also wrote that Pacelli 'did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, and ... fully supported the German bishops in their anti-Nazi stand'. This was matched with the discovery of Pacelli's [[anti-Nazi]] report, written the following year for President Roosevelt and filed with Ambassador [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]], which declared that the church regarded compromise with the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] as 'out of the question'."<ref name="bottum">Joseph Bottum. April 2004. [http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/12/001-the-end-of-the-pius-wars-1 "The End of the Pius Wars"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610005209/http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/12/001-the-end-of-the-pius-wars-1 |date=10 June 2011 }}, ''First Things''; retrieved 1 July 2009.</ref>

Historian Walter Bussmann argued that Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI – who was nearing death at the time<ref>Phayer, 2000, p. 3</ref>—from condemning the ''[[Kristallnacht]]'' in November 1938,<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Bussmann |first1 = Walter |year = 1969 |title = Pius XII an die deutschen Bischöfe |journal = Hochland |volume = 61 |pages = 61–65}}</ref> when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin.<ref name="gutman1136">Gutman, Israel, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, p. 1136</ref>

The draft [[encyclical]] ''[[Humani generis unitas]]'' ("On the Unity of the Human Race") was ready in September 1938 but, according to those responsible for an edition of the document<ref>Passelecq, Suchecky pp. 113–137</ref> and other sources, it was not forwarded to the Holy See by the Jesuit General [[Wlodimir Ledóchowski]].<ref name="tablet">Hill, Roland. 1997, 11 August. [http://www.thetablet.co.uk/articles/6576/ "The lost encyclical"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630070259/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/articles/6576/ |date=30 June 2017 }}, ''The Tablet''.</ref><ref>On 28 January 1939, eleven days before the death of Pius XI, a disappointed Gundlach informed LaFarge, the encyclical's author, "It cannot go on like this". The text had not been forwarded to the Vatican. He had talked to the American assistant to Father General, who promised to look into the matter in December 1938, but did not report back. Passelecq, Suchecky. p. 121</ref> The draft encyclical contained an open and clear condemnation of [[colonialism]], racial persecution and [[antisemitism]].<ref name="tablet"/><ref>Humani generis unitas</ref>{{full citation needed|date=August 2018}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/nostra_aetate.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_4|title=Nostra aetate: Transforming the Catholic-Jewish Relationship: Jewish-Catholic Relationship Transformed|publisher=Adl.org|access-date=6 May 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030133305/http://www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/nostra_aetate.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_4|archive-date=30 October 2012}}</ref> Historians Passelecq and Suchecky have argued that Pacelli learned about the existence of the draft only after the death of Pius XI and did not promulgate it as Pope.<ref>On 16 March four days after coronation, Gundlach informed LaFarge that the documents had been given to Pius XI shortly before his death, but that the new Pope had so far had no opportunity to learn about it. Passelecq, Suchecky. p. 126</ref> He did use parts of it in his inaugural encyclical ''[[Summi Pontificatus]]'', which he titled "On the Unity of Human Society".<ref>Encyclical of Pope Pius on the unity of human society to our venerable brethren: The Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other ordinaries in peace and the communion with the Apostolic see (AAS 1939).</ref> His various positions on church and policy issues during his tenure as Cardinal Secretary of State were made public by the Holy See in 1939. Most noteworthy among the 50 speeches is his review of Church-State issues in Budapest in 1938.<ref>Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli. ''Discorsi E Panegirici 1931–1938''; Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1939</ref>

A year before his papal election, on 26 January 1938, the Cardinal Secretary of State officiated at the baptism of the [[Infante of Spain|Infante]] [[Juan Carlos I|Juan Carlos]] ([[King of Spain]] from 1975 to 2014), in a ceremony held at the [[Palazzo Malta]] in [[Rome]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=25 January 2023 |title=85 años del bautizo de Juan Carlos de Borbón (y el tenso reencuentro de los reyes Alfonso XIII y Victoria Eugenia) |url=https://www.revistavanityfair.es/articulos/alfonso-xiii-victoria-eugenia-bautizo-juan-carlos-i |access-date=17 November 2023 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=es-ES}}</ref>

===''Reichskonkordat'' and ''Mit brennender Sorge''===
{{See also|Reichskonkordat|Mit brennender Sorge}}
[[File:PioXI et Pacelliinaugurazioneradiovaticana.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Pius XI (center) with Cardinal Pacelli (front left), the radio transmission pioneer [[Guglielmo Marconi]] (back left) and others at the inauguration of [[Vatican Radio]] on 12 February 1931]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R24391, Konkordatsunterzeichnung in Rom.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Pacelli ''(seated, center)'' at the signing of the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' on 20 July 1933 in Rome with ''(from left to right)'': German prelate Ludwig Kaas, German Vice-Chancellor [[Franz von Papen]], Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs [[Giuseppe Pizzardo]], [[Alfredo Ottaviani]], and Reich minister [[Rudolf Buttmann]]]]

The ''Reichskonkordat'' was an integral part of four [[concordat]]s Pacelli concluded on behalf of the Vatican with German States. The state concordats were necessary because the German [[federalism|federalist]] Weimar constitution gave the German states authority in the area of education and culture and thus diminished the authority of the churches in these areas; this diminution of church authority was a primary concern of the Vatican. As Bavarian nuncio, Pacelli negotiated successfully with the [[Bavarian Concordat (1924)|Bavarian authorities in 1924]]. He expected the concordat with Catholic Bavaria to be the model for the rest of Germany.<ref name="Volk">Ludwig Volk, Die Kirche in den deutschsprachigen Ländern in: ''Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Band VII'', p. 539</ref><ref>Donald J. Dietrich, p.&nbsp;92, Syracuse University Press, 2003; {{ISBN|0-8156-3029-8}}</ref> [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]] showed interest in negotiations only after the Bavarian concordat. However, Pacelli obtained less favorable conditions for the church in the [[Prussian Concordat]] of 1929, which excluded educational issues. A concordat with the German state of [[Republic of Baden|Baden]] was completed by Pacelli in 1932, after he had moved to Rome. There he also negotiated a concordat with [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] in 1933.<ref>Volk, pp. 539–544</ref> A total of 16 concordats and treaties with European states had been concluded in the ten-year period 1922–1932.<ref>They included: [[Concordat of 1922|Latvia 1922]], Bavaria 1924, [[Concordat of 1925|Poland 1925]], [[French Third Republic|France]] I., 1926, France II. 1926, Lithuania 1927, [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] 1928, Portugal I 1928, Italy I 1929, Italy II 1929, Portugal II 1929, Romania I 1927, Prussia 1929, Romania II 1932, Baden 1932, Germany 1933, [[Concordat of 1933|Austria 1933]]. See P. Joanne M.Restrepo Restrepo SJ. ''Concordata Regnante Sanctissimo Domino Pio PP.XI. Inita'' Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, Roma, 1934.</ref>

The ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'', signed on 20 July 1933, between Germany and the Holy See, while thus a part of an overall Vatican policy, was controversial from its beginning. It remains the most important of Pacelli's concordats. It is debated, not because of its content, which is still valid today, but because of its timing. A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state, because he had hoped to strengthen the legal position of the church. Pacelli, who knew German conditions well, emphasized in particular protection for Catholic associations (§31), freedom for education and Catholic schools, and freedom for publications.<ref>Ludwig Volk, "Die Kirche in den deutschsprachigen Ländern" in: ''Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Band VII'', pp. 546–547</ref>

As [[nuncio]] during the 1920s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between 1930 and 1933 he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but the opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim. In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of 1932.<ref>Ludwig Volk ''Das Reichskonkordat vom 20. Juli 1933'', pp. 34f, 45–58</ref><ref>Klaus Scholder ''The Churches and the Third Reich'' volume 1: especially Part 1, chapter 10; part 2, chapter 2</ref>

[[Adolf Hitler]] was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of the church and the Catholic [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]]. He sent his vice chancellor [[Franz von Papen]], a Catholic nobleman, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat.<ref>Volk, pp. 98–101</ref><ref>Feldkamp, pp. 88–93</ref> On behalf of Pacelli, Prelate [[Ludwig Kaas]], the outgoing chairman of the Centre Party, negotiated first drafts of the terms with von Papen.<ref>Volk, pp. 101, 105</ref> The concordat was finally signed, by Pacelli for the Vatican and von Papen for Germany, on 20 July and ratified on 10 September 1933.<ref>Volk, p. 254</ref> Bishop [[Konrad von Preysing]] cautioned against compromise with the new regime, against those who saw the Nazi persecution of the church as an aberration that Hitler would correct.<ref>Krieg, Robert A., ''Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany'', p. 112</ref>

Between 1933 and 1939, Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the ''Reichskonkordat''. Most notably, early in 1937, Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal [[Michael von Faulhaber]], to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the ''Reichskonkordat''; this was to become Pius XI's 1937 encyclical, ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]''. The encyclical was written in German and not the usual [[Latin]] of official Catholic Church documents. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and read from every German Catholic Church pulpit on [[Palm Sunday]], it condemned the [[paganism]] of the [[Nazism|Nazi]] ideology.<ref name="Vidmar327">Vidmar, pp. 327–31</ref> Pius XI credited its creation and writing to Pacelli.<ref name="Pham45">Pham, p. 45, quote: "When Pius XI was complimented on the publication, in 1937, of his encyclical denouncing Nazism, ''Mit brennender Sorge'', his response was to point to his Secretary of State and say bluntly, 'The credit is his.{{'"}}</ref> It was the first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organization and resulted in persecution of the church by the infuriated Nazis who closed all the participating presses and "took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy".<ref name="Bokenkotter389">Bokenkotter, pp. 389–92, quote "And when Hitler showed increasing belligerance toward the Church, Pius met the challenge with a decisiveness that astonished the world. His encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge'' was the 'first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize Nazism' and 'one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican'. Smuggled into Germany, it was read from all the Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday in March 1937. It exposed the fallacy and denounced the Nazi myth of blood and soil; it decried its neopaganism, its war of annihilation against the Church, and even described the Führer himself as a 'mad prophet possessed of repulsive arrogance'. The Nazis were infuriated, and in retaliation closed and sealed all the presses that had printed it and took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy."</ref> On 10 June 1941, the Pope commented on the problems of the ''Reichskonkordat'' in a letter to the [[Bishop of Passau]], in Bavaria: "The history of the Reichskonkordat shows, that the other side lacked the most basic prerequisites to accept minimal freedoms and rights of the Church, without which the Church simply cannot live and operate, formal agreements notwithstanding".<ref>74.A l'Eveque de Passau, in "Lettres de Pie XII aux Eveques Allemands 1939–1944, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1967, p. 416</ref>

===Relations with the media===
Cardinal Pacelli gave a lecture entitled "La Presse et L'Apostolat" at the [[Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas|Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'']] on 17 April 1936.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/22560/1/EC55868.PDF| title = Accessed 4 December 2014; "La Presse et L'apostolat: discours prononce au College Angelique le 17 Avril, 1936" Paris : Bonne Presse, 1936| access-date = 5 December 2014| archive-date = 4 March 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190413/http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/22560/1/EC55868.PDF| url-status = dead}}</ref>