Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

====Early actions to end conflict====
With Poland overrun, but France and the [[Low Countries]] yet to be attacked, Pius continued to hope for a negotiated peace to prevent the spread of the conflict. The similarly minded US President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] re-established [[Holy See–United States relations|American diplomatic relations with the Vatican]] after a 70-year hiatus and dispatched [[Myron C. Taylor]] as his personal representative.<ref name="docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu">{{cite web|url=http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/VATICAN1.HTML |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum – "The Vatican Files" |publisher=Docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> Pius warmly welcomed Roosevelt's envoy and peace initiative, calling it "an exemplary act of fraternal and hearty solidarity... in defence against the chilling breath of aggressive and deadly godless anti-Christian tendencies".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box51/a464g02.html |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum – "Letter from Pius XII to FDR, 7 January 1940" |publisher=Docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu |date=27 May 2004 |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> American correspondence spoke of "parallel endeavours for peace and the alleviation of suffering".<ref>[http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box51/a464k03.html Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum – ''The Vatican Files''] FDR letter to Pius XII; 14 February 1940</ref> Despite the early collapse of peace hopes, the Taylor mission continued at the Vatican.<ref name="docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu"/>

According to the Hitler biographer [[John Toland (author)|John Toland]], following the November 1939 assassination attempt by [[Johann Georg Elser]], Hitler said Pius would have wanted the plot to succeed: "he's no friend of mine".<ref>John Toland; ''Hitler''; Wordsworth Editions; 1997 Edn; p. 594</ref> In the spring of 1940, a group of German generals seeking to overthrow Hitler and make peace with the British approached Pope Pius XII, who acted as an interlocutor between the British and the abortive plot.<ref>Conway, Prof. John S., ''The Vatican, the Nazis and Pursuit of Justice''.<!-- ISBN missing --></ref> According to Toland, a lawyer from Munich named [[Josef Müller (CSU politician)|Joseph Muller]] made a clandestine trip to Rome in October 1939, met with Pius XII and found him willing to act as intermediary. The Vatican agreed to send a letter outlining the bases for peace with England and the participation of the Pope was used to try to persuade the senior German generals [[Franz Halder]] and [[Walther von Brauchitsch]] to act against Hitler.<ref name="John Toland p.760">John Toland; ''Hitler''; Wordsworth Editions; 1997 Edn; p. 760</ref>

Pius warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/holocaust/article-236596 Encyclopædia Britannica Online] – ''Reflections on the Holocaust''; web April 2013</ref> In Rome in 1942, U.S. envoy Myron C. Taylor, thanked the Holy See for the "forthright and heroic expressions of indignation made by Pope Pius XII when Germany invaded the Low countries".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/PSF/BOX51/A466I02.TXT |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum – "Statement by Myron C. Taylor to Pope Pius XII, 19 September 1942" |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> After Germany invaded the [[Low Countries]] during 1940, Pius XII sent expressions of sympathy to Queen [[Wilhelmina of the Netherlands]], King [[Leopold III of Belgium]], and [[Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg]]. When Mussolini learned of the warnings and the telegrams of sympathy, he took them as a personal affront and had his ambassador to the Vatican file an official protest, charging that Pius XII had taken sides against Italy's ally Germany. Mussolini's foreign minister [[Galeazzo Ciano]] claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience".<ref>Dalin, David G. ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis''. Regnery Publishing: Washington, D.C. 2005; {{ISBN|0-89526-034-4}}; p. 76</ref>

When, in 1940, the Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop led the only senior Nazi delegation permitted an audience with Pius XII and he asked why the Pope had sided with the Allies, Pius replied with a list of recent Nazi atrocities and religious persecutions committed against Christians and Jews, in Germany, and in Poland, leading ''[[The New York Times]]'' to headline its report "Jews Rights Defended" and write of "burning words he spoke to Herr Ribbentrop about religious persecution".<ref>{{cite web|last=Hume |first=Brit |url=http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/18/hitlers-pope/print |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027155520/http://www.spectator.org/archives/2006/08/18/hitlers-pope/print |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 October 2008 |title=Hitler's Pope? |publisher= The American Spectator|date=18 August 2006 |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> During the meeting, von Ribbentrop suggested an overall settlement between the Vatican and the Reich government in exchange for Pius XII instructing the German bishops to refrain from political criticism of the German government, but no agreement was reached.<ref>Conway, Prof. John S., "The Meeting between Pope Pius XII and Ribbentrop", ''CCHA Study Sessions'', volume 35 (1968), pp. 103–16 [http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1968/Conway.html archives from papers stored at the University of Manitoba] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235503/http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1968/Conway.html |date=3 March 2016 }}</ref>

[[File:Bernardinonogara.jpg|thumb|upright|The investments of [[Bernardino Nogara]] were critical to the financing of the papacy during World War II.]]

At a special mass at St Peters for the victims of the war, held in November 1940, soon after the commencement of the [[London Blitz]] bombing by the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'', Pius preached in his homily: "may the whirlwinds, that in the light of day or the dark of night, scatter terror, fire, destruction, and slaughter on helpless folk cease. May justice and charity on one side and on the other be in perfect balance, so that all injustice be repaired, the reign of right restored".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/PSF/BOX52/a467t01.html |title=Harold Taylor 9/30/42 |publisher=Docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu |date=27 May 2004 |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> Later he appealed to the Allies to spare Rome from aerial bombing, and visited wounded victims of the [[Bombing of Rome in World War II|Allied bombing of 19 July 1943]].<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/holocaust/article-236597 |title=Encyclopædia Britannica's Reflections on the Holocaust |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref>