Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

===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>