Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

====Widening conflict====
Pius attempted, unsuccessfully, to dissuade the Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] from joining Hitler in the war.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/holocaust/article-236596 Encyclopædia Britannica Online – ''Reflections on the Holocaust'']; web April 2013</ref> In April 1941, Pius XII granted a private audience to [[Ante Pavelić]], the leader of the [[Independent State of Croatia|newly proclaimed Croatian state]] (rather than the diplomatic audience Pavelić had wanted).<ref>Minutes of 7 August 1941. British Public Records Office FO 371/30175 57760</ref> Pius was criticised for his reception of Pavelić: an unattributed British [[Foreign Office]] memo on the subject described Pius as "the greatest moral coward of our age".<ref>Mark Aarons and John Loftus. ''Unholy Trinity'' pp. 71–72<!-- ISBN missing --></ref> The Vatican did not officially recognise Pavelić's regime. While Pius XII did not publicly condemn the expulsions and forced conversions to Catholicism perpetrated on Serbs by Pavelić,<ref>Israel Gutman (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'' vol 2, p. 739</ref> the Holy See did expressly repudiate the forced conversions in a memorandum dated 25 January 1942, from the Vatican Secretariat of State to the Yugoslavian Legation.<ref>Rychlak, Ronald. ''Hitler, the War, and the Pope'' pp. 414–15, note 61.</ref> The Pope was well informed of [[Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše]] regime, even possessing a list of clergy members who had "joined in the slaughter", but decided against condemning the regime or taking action against the clergy involved, fearing that it would lead to schism in the Croatian church or undermine the formation of a future Croatian state.<ref>Phayer, 2008, pp. 9–16</ref> Pius XII would elevate [[Aloysius Stepinac]]—a Croatian archbishop convicted of collaborating with the [[Ustaše]] by the newly established [[Yugoslav Communist regime]]—to the cardinalate in 1953.<ref>Phayer, 2008, pp. 10–15, 147, 150</ref> Phayer agrees that Stepinac's was a "show trial", but states "the charge that he [Pius XII] supported the Ustaša regime was, of course, true, as everyone knew",<ref name="phayerpav">Phayer, 2008, p. 151</ref> and that "if Stepinac had responded to the charges against him, his defense would have inevitably unraveled, exposing the Vatican's support of the [[genocide|genocidal]] Pavelić".<ref>Phayer, 2008, p. 152</ref> Throughout 1942, the [[Yugoslav government in exile]] sent letters of protest to Pius XII asking him to use all possible means to stop the massacres against the [[Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|Serbs]] in the Croat state, however Pius XII did nothing.<ref>{{cite book|last=Paris|first=Edmond|year=1961|pages=220|title=Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941–1945|publisher=King's|isbn=978-1258163464}}</ref>

In 1941, Pius XII interpreted ''[[Divini Redemptoris]]'', an [[encyclical]] of Pope Pius XI, which forbade Catholics to help Communists, as not applying to military assistance to the [[Soviet Union]]. This interpretation assuaged American Catholics who had previously opposed [[Lend-Lease]] arrangements with the Soviet Union.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

In March 1942, Pius XII established diplomatic relations with the [[Empire of Japan]] and received ambassador [[Ken Harada (diplomat)|Ken Harada]], who remained in that position until the end of the war.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777719,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802113247/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777719,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 August 2008|title=Religion: Rising Sun at the Vatican|magazine=Time|date=6 April 1942|access-date=17 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E15FE3D5E167B93C5AB1788D85F468485F9|title=Envoy to Vatican named; Tokyo Reports Choice of Harada Under De Facto Relations|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=17 December 2011|date=27 March 1942}}</ref>

In June 1942, diplomatic relations were established with the [[Nationalist government]] of China. This step was envisaged earlier, but delayed due to Japanese pressure to establish relations with the pro-Japanese [[Wang Jingwei regime]]. The first [[Embassy of the Republic of China to the Holy See|Chinese Minister to the Vatican]], Hsieh Shou-kang, was only able to arrive at the Vatican in January 1943, due to difficulties of travel resulting from the war. He remained in that position until late 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hsstudyc.org.hk/en/tripod_en/en_tripod_153_06.html|author1=Chen Fang-Chung|author2=Lou Tseng-Tsiang|title=A Lover of His Church and of His Country|publisher=Hsstudyc.org.hk|access-date=17 December 2011|archive-date=23 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323144055/http://www.hsstudyc.org.hk/en/tripod_en/en_tripod_153_06.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The pope employed the new technology of radio and a series of Christmas messages to preach against selfish nationalism and the evils of modern warfare and offer sympathy to the victims of the war.<ref name="britannica"/> [[Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address|Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address]] via [[Vatican Radio]] voiced concern at [[human rights abuses]] and the murder of innocents based on race. The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society; at the very end of the speech, Pius XII mentioned "the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline".<ref>Phayer, 2008, p. 53</ref> According to Rittner, the speech remains a "lightning rod" in debates about Pius XII.<ref>Rittner and Roth, 2002, p. 4</ref> The Nazis themselves responded to the speech by stating that it was "one long attack on everything we stand for.&nbsp;... He is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews.&nbsp;... He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals." ''The New York Times'' wrote that "The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas.&nbsp;... In calling for a 'real new order' based on 'liberty, justice and love',&nbsp;... the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism."<ref>Dalin, David G. "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/504iizii.asp?page=3 Pius XII and the Jews: A defense] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105063545/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/504iizii.asp?page=3 |date=5 January 2014 }}", Weekly Standard, Vol. 6, No. 23, 16 February 2001</ref> Historian Michael Phayer claims, however, that "it is still not clear ''whose'' genocide or ''which'' genocide he was referring to".<ref>Phayer, 2008, p. xii</ref> Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Pius's death in 2008, the German Pope [[Benedict XVI]] recalled that the Pope's voice had been "broken by emotion" as he "deplored the situation" with a "clear reference to the deportation and extermination of the Jews".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20081009_50-pio-xii_en.html Vatican Archive – Homily by Pope Benedict XVI]; 9 October 2008</ref>

Several authors have [[Alleged plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII|alleged a plot to kidnap Pius XII]] by the Nazis during their [[Operation Achse|occupation of Rome]] in 1943 (Vatican City itself was not occupied); the British historian [[Owen Chadwick]] and the Jesuit [[Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale|ADSS]] editor [[Robert A. Graham]] each concluded such claims were an intentional creation of the British [[Political Warfare Executive]].<ref>Chadwick, 1988, pp. 256–257.</ref><ref>Alvarez and Graham, 1997, pp. 86–88.</ref> However, in 2007, subsequently to those accounts, [[Dan Kurzman]] published a work in which he establishes that the plot was a fact.<ref name="kix">Kurzman, 2007, p. 12</ref>

In 1944, Pius XII issued a Christmas message in which he warned against rule by the masses and against secular conceptions of liberty and equality.<ref name=Pius1944>[https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/1944-christmas-message-8963 Pius XII. Christmas message. 1944].</ref>