Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

==Post–World War II==
{{Further|Pope Pius XII foreign relations after World War II|Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII|Pope Pius XII and Russia|Pope Pius XII and China|Pope Pius XII and Poland|Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše|Ratlines (World War II aftermath)}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F007416-0008, Bahnhof Bonn, Verabschiedung Apostolischer Nuntius.jpg|thumb|right|Bishop [[Aloisius Joseph Muench]], Pius XII's post-war liaison to the [[Office of Military Government, United States]]]]

After World War II, Pope Pius XII focused on material aid to war-torn Europe, an internal internationalization of the Catholic Church, and the development of its worldwide diplomatic relations. His encyclicals, ''[[Evangelii praecones]]'' and ''[[Fidei donum]]'', issued on 2 June 1951 and 21 April 1957, respectively, increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture.<ref>Audience for the directors of mission activities in 1944 A.A.S., 1944, p. 208</ref><ref>''[[Evangelii praecones]]''. p. 56</ref> Though his language retained old conceptions&nbsp;– Africa, for example, merited special attention since the church there worked 'to forward her work among the heathen multitudes' – in 1956 he expressed solidarity with the 'non-Europeans who aspire to full political independence'.<ref>Robert Ventresca, ''Soldier of Christ'', pp. 282–283.</ref>

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Pius XII [[Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII in 1946|elevated a number]] of high-profile resistors of Nazism to the [[College of Cardinals]] in 1946, among them the German bishops [[Joseph Frings]] of Cologne, [[Clemens August Graf von Galen|Clemens von Galen]] of Münster and [[Konrad von Preysing]] of Berlin. From elsewhere in the liberated [[Greater Germanic Reich]] Pius selected other resistors: the Dutch archbishop [[Johannes de Jong]]; the Hungarian bishop [[József Mindszenty]]; the Polish archbishop [[Adam Stefan Sapieha]]; and the French archbishop [[Jules-Géraud Saliège]]. In 1946 and 1953, respectively, he named as cardinals [[Thomas Tien Ken-sin]] of China and [[Valerian Gracias]] of India&nbsp;– the first indigenous Catholics of their respective nations to sit in the College of Cardinals.<ref>Robert Ventresca, ''Soldier of Christ'', p. 284.</ref> The Italian papal diplomat Angelo Roncalli (later [[Pope John XXIII]]) and Polish Archbishop [[Stefan Wyszyński]] were others among those [[Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII in 1953|elevated in 1953]].

A German contingent dominated his inner circle at this period&nbsp;– the German Jesuits [[Robert Leiber]], Wilhelm Hentrich and Ivo Zeiger. His personal confessor Augustin Bea was a German Jesuit and Mother Pascalina Lehnert and the other German speaking sisters of the papal household added to this element. The American bishop [[Aloisius Muench]] wrote in November 1948 that Pius XII was 'more interested in affairs of the [[Catholic Church in Germany|Church in Germany]] than in any other part of the Church' and resolved to make the postwar German crisis a top priority – 'its refugee crisis, poverty, hunger and disease, the fate of prisoners-of-war and accused war criminals, the disruption to the internal organization and communal life of German Catholicism, and Germany's uncertain political future'.<ref>Robert Ventresca, ''Soldier of Christ'', p. 240.</ref>

He was concerned too about the potential spread of Communism in Western Europe and the Americas. As he sought to secure resources from abroad to aid post-war recovery, believing deprivation fuelled political agitation, so he also sought to influence Italian politics. In January 1948, Luigi Gedda, of Italy's [[Catholic Action]] movement, was called to the Vatican as the [[1948 Italian general election|election campaign for the first parliament]] of Italy's post-fascist republic was underway.<ref>Robert Ventresca, ''Soldier of Christ'', p. 242.</ref>

Pius XII was rather distrustful of [[Alcide de Gasperi]] and [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Italy's Christian Democrats]], considering the party indecisive and fractious&nbsp;– reformist currents within it particularly, which tended to the moderate Left&nbsp;– represented by the Sicilian priest [[Luigi Sturzo]] for example&nbsp;– he considered too accommodating to the Left. On the eve of the 1952 local elections in Rome, in which again the Communist and Socialist parties threatened to win out, he used informal connections to make his views known. Pius XII stated that the war against Communism was a holy war and excommunicated members of the [[Italian Communist Party]]. Having decided to encourage the Christian Democrats to consider a political alliance with the Rightist parties as part of an anti-left coalition, he asked the Jesuit, Father Riccardo Lombardi, to speak with de Gasperi to consider such an alliance&nbsp;– an electoral alliance with those even of monarchist and neo-fascist tendencies -including the [[Italian Social Movement]]. Adopting a domino theory he warned that, if "the Communists win in Rome, in Italy, it will cast a shadow on the entire world: France would become Communist, and then Spain and then all of Europe."<ref>Robert Ventresca, ''Soldier of Christ'', p. 246.</ref>