Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

====Summi Pontificatus====
''[[Summi Pontificatus]]'' was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, in October 1939 and established some of the themes of his pontificate. During the drafting of the letter, the Second World War commenced with the German/Soviet [[invasion of Poland]]—the "dread tempest of war is already raging despite all Our efforts to avert it". The papal letter denounced antisemitism, war, totalitarianism, the attack on Catholic Poland and the Nazi persecution of the church.<ref name="vatican.va">{{cite web|author=Pius XII |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |title="SUMMI PONTIFICATUS" – Section 106 |publisher=Vatican.va |date=11 December 1925 |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref>

Pius XII reiterated church teaching on the "principle of equality"—with specific reference to Jews: "there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html Pius XII, ''Summi Pontificatus''; 48; October 1939] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |date=3 July 2013 }}.</ref> The forgetting of solidarity "imposed by our common origin and by the equality of rational nature in all men" was called "pernicious error".<ref name="Pius XII">{{cite web|author=Pius XII |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |title=Pius XII, 0Summi Pontificatus"; 35; October 1939 |publisher=Vatican.va |date=11 December 1925 |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref> Catholics everywhere were called upon to offer "compassion and help" to the victims of the war.<ref name="http">{{cite web|author=Pius XII |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |title=Pius XII, "Summi Pontificatus"; 109; October 1939 |publisher=Vatican.va |date=11 December 1925 |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref> The Pope declared determination to work to hasten the return of peace and trust in prayers for justice, love and mercy, to prevail against the scourge of war.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html Pius XII, ''Summi Pontificatus''; 111; October 1939] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |date=3 July 2013 }}.</ref> The letter also decried the deaths of noncombatants.<ref name="Pius XII 1939"/>

Following themes addressed in ''[[Non abbiamo bisogno]]'' (1931); ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'' (1937) and ''[[Divini redemptoris]]'' (1937), Pius wrote against "anti-Christian movements" and needing to bring back to the church those who were following "a false standard&nbsp;... misled by error, passion, temptation and prejudice, [who] have strayed away from faith in the true God".<ref name="vatican">{{cite web|author=Pius XII |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |title="SUMMI PONTIFICATUS" – Section 6 & 7 |publisher=Vatican.va |date=11 December 1925 |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref> Pius wrote of "Christians unfortunately more in name than in fact" having shown "cowardice" in the face of persecution by these creeds, and endorsed resistance:<ref name="vatican"/>

{{blockquote|Who among "the Soldiers of Christ"&nbsp;– ecclesiastic or layman&nbsp;– does not feel himself incited and spurred on to a greater vigilance, to a more determined resistance, by the sight of the ever-increasing host of Christ's enemies; as he perceives the spokesmen of these tendencies deny or in practice neglect the vivifying truths and the values inherent in belief in God and in Christ; as he perceives them wantonly break the Tables of God's Commandments to substitute other tables and other standards stripped of the ethical content of the Revelation on Sinai, standards in which the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the Cross has no place?}}

Pius wrote of a persecuted Church<ref>108: "In the midst of this world which today presents such a sharp contrast to "The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ", the Church and her faithful are in times and in years of trial such as have rarely been known in her history of struggle and suffering".</ref> and a time requiring "charity" for victims who had a "right" to compassion. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote:<ref name="vatican.va"/>

{{blockquote|[This is an] "Hour of Darkness"...&nbsp;in which the spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind... The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the "beginnings of sorrows"...&nbsp;but even now there reigns in thousands of families death and desolation, lamentation and misery. The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace.}}

With [[Fascist Italy|Italy]] not yet an ally of Hitler in the war, Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Catholic Church. Pius avoided explicit denunciations of [[Hitlerism]] or [[Stalinism]], establishing the "impartial" public tone which would become controversial in later assessment of his pontificate: "A full statement of the doctrinal stand to be taken in face of the errors of today, if necessary, can be put off to another time unless there is disturbance by calamitous external events; for the moment We limit Ourselves to some fundamental observations."<ref>{{cite web|author=Pius XII |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |title="SUMMI PONTIFICATUS" – Section 28 |publisher=Vatican.va |date=11 December 1925 |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015921/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref>