1. NEWLY AVAILABLE SOURCES ON CHURCH HISTORY Vatican Secret Archive holdings for the reign of Pius XI (1922-1939), made accessible in 2003-06; Personal papers of the American Vatican diplomat, Bishop Joseph Hurley; Personal papers of the American Vatican diplomat, Bishop Aloysius Muench; Personal papers of Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen; Wartime and postwar records of the OSS and other government records from France, Italy, Great Britain, and the USA.

2. Pope Pius XII (1939-58): Born in 1876 into an aristocratic Roman family, ordained in 1899, a highly trained canon lawyer and diplomat.

3. The young Nuncio Pacelli conveys the peace proposals of Benedict XV to Imperial German headquarters in 1917. The dismal failure of this mission left him pessimistic about the Vatican’s scope for action in time of war….

4. Young Nuncio Pacelli’s residence in Munich, which was invaded by Red Guards in March 1919, and his Benz limousine, which was requisitioned by them

5. Abbot Benedikt Gariador, whose “Friends of Israel” included 3,000 priests, 19 cardinals, and 287 bishops in January 1928

6. Abbot Ildefons Schuster of the Congregation of Rites, who supported the petition to reform the Good Friday liturgy, and Cardinal Raffael Merry del Val, head of the Holy Office, who forced him to renounce his “errors”

7. Pius XI (1922-39) inaugurates the Vatican Radio in 1931 with his Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli

8. The Vatican found Mussolini’s bark to be much worse than his bite and hoped at first that the same was true of Hitler….

9. But Vatican City covers less than ¼ of a square mile and depends on Rome for water and power….

10. “The Final Blow!” (Nazi campaign poster from July 1932 to denounce the alliance of Catholic clergy and Social Democratic labor bosses that allegedly controlled the Weimar Republic)

11. Edith Stein, the Carmelite nun who wrote Pius XI in April 1933 “as a child of the Jewish people” to implore him to speak out against the persecution of Jews

12. Pacelli’s notes on his conference with Pius XI on 1 April 1933: “Write the Berlin Nuncio that more Jewish dignitaries have reported to the Holy Father on the danger of anti-Semitic excesses in Germany, and it is said that they have occurred in many places. He should inquire whether and how something can be done. [There could come a time in which one must be able to say that one did something about this matter. Such action also counts among the good traditions of the Holy See.]”

13. Papal Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo is greeted by Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and Adolf Hitler at the New Year’s Reception in the Reich Chancellery, 12 January 1939

14. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is flanked by the German officials Franz von Papen and Rudolf Buttmann at the signing of the Reich Concordat, July 20, 1933

15. “A solemn moment at the ground-breaking for the House of German Art. The Papal Nuncio Vasallo di Torregrossa has just said to the Führer: ‘For a long time I did not understand you. I have tried to for a long time. Today I do understand you.’ Today every German Catholic understands Adolf Hitler as well and will therefore vote ‘YES!’ on November 12” (referendum campaign poster, fall 1933)

16. Father Charles E. Coughlin, Detroit’s “Radio Priest” and founder of the “Christian Front”

17. “Pacelli Lunches with Roosevelt,” New York Times, November 6, 1936

18. Cardinal Adolf Bertram, Prince-Bishop of Breslau (b. 1859), who demanded respect for Hitler as the lawful head of state

19. Clemens August Graf von Galen, born 1878, Bishop of Münster (1933-1946), who delivered three public sermons in 1941 to condemn the Third Reich for murder

20. “This congenitally ill patient will cost the National Community 60,000 marks in his lifetime. Comrades, this too is Your Money” (Nazi poster from 1937): This campaign climaxed with the mass “euthanasia” action of 1940/41

21. Konrad von Preysing became Bishop of Berlin in 1935 and led the movement to denounce abuses of human rights

22. German paratroopers occupy Rome on 10 September 1943 (near the Castello San Angelo)

23. Hitler wanted to bring the Pope to Berlin in a cage, but Ambassador Ernst von Weizsäcker and SS General Karl Wolff agreed on the need to avoid conflict with the Vatican

24. General Mark Clark and the U.S. Army enter Rome on June 4, 1944. Soon thereafter Pius XII publicly denounced the deportation of Jews from Hungary

25. Pius XII as depicted in Rolf Hochhuth’s The Deputy (Berlin premier in 1963)