Pope Pius XI (Latin: Pius PP. XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May
31, 1857 February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope from February 6, 1922 and
sovereign of Vatican City from 1929 until February 10, 1939. He issued the
encyclical Quas Primas establishing the feast of Christ the King, and took
as his papal motto "Christ's peace in Christ's kingdom." This indicates the
central idea of his pontificate: that the Catholic religion must permeate
all areas of human living: the home, the city, politics, economics, art etc.
Rather than allowing religious belief to be reduced to a merely private
matter, or withdrawing the Church from involvement in the outer world, Pius
XI thought Catholics must work to create a truly Catholic society: Christ
must be king over every aspect of life.
Early life and career
Achille Ratti was born in Desio, Province of Milan in 1857, the son of the
prosperous owner of a silk factory. He was ordained as a priest in 1879 and
embarked on academic career within the Church. He obtained three doctorates
(in philosophy, canon law and theology) at the Gregorian University in Rome,
and then from 1882 to 1888 was a professor at the seminary in Padua. His
great scholarly speciality was as an expert paleographer, a student of
ancient and medieval Church manuscripts. This led him leave seminary
teaching to work full time at the Ambrosian Library (the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana) in Milan, where he remained from 1888 to 1911. During this time,
he edited and published a scholarly edition of the Ambrosian Missal (the
rite of Mass used in Milan), and researched and wrote much on the life and
works of St. Charles Borromeo, as well as writing many other books and
articles on his manuscript studies. He became chief of the Library in 1907,
and undertook an impressively thorough programme of restoration and
re-classification of the Ambrosian's collection. The scholar was also an
avid mountaineer in his spare time, reaching the summits of Monte Rosa, the
Matterhorn, and Mont Blanc. In 1911, at Pope Pius X's invitation, he moved
to the Vatican to become Vice-Prefect of the Vatican Library, and in 1914
was promoted to Prefect.
Ratti's career took a sharp turn in 1918. His years of study had left him
with a gift for langauges, inspiring Pope Benedict XV to ask him to leave
the Library and take on a vital diplomatic post: apostolic visitor, (that is,
papal representative), in Poland, a state newly restored to existence, but
at that time still under effective German and Austro-Hungarian control. The
Central Powers' defeat, however, saw Poland become fully independent, though
it was immediately threatened by the Soviets. Ratti performed his diplomatic
work in this difficult environment well, was given a higher rank as papal
nuncio, and was consecrated as a titular archbishop in October 1919. He
showed personal courage, refusing to flee from Warsaw when the Red Army was
approaching it in August 1920.
In June 1921 Ratti was recalled to Italy to become Archbishop of Milan.
Benedict XV made him a Cardinal at the same time. His had been a fast rise
in the world of practical Church affairs after his long years of scholarship.
But even greater was to come very soon indeed. In January 1922 Benedict XV
died. At the ensuing conclave, Ratti was elected Pope on February 6th as a
compromise candidate in the fourteenth ballot, taking the name Pius XI. His
first act was to revive the traditional public blessing given from the
balcony 'urbi et orbi', 'to the city and to the world'. His immediate
predecessors had refused to do so ever since the loss of Rome from papal
hands to the Italian state in 1870. It was an indicator of what was to come
- a Pope and a Church determined to influence powerfully the broader world
rather than to withdraw from it.
Public teaching: "Christ's Peace in Christ's Kingdom"
Pius's first encyclical as as pope was directly related to his aim of
Christianising all aspects of increasingly secular societies. Ubi arcano,
promulgated in December 1922, inaugurated the "Catholic Action" movement.
The idea was to involve lay men and women in an organisation, under the
close supervision of the bishops, actively involved in spreading Catholic
values and political ideas throughout society. Pius also gave his approval
to specialised movements like the Jocists, associations of young Catholic
industrial workers who aimed to Christianise the workforce, and provide a
Catholic alternative to Communist and socialist trade unions. Similar goals
were in evidence in his encyclical Divini illus magistri (1929), making
clear the need for Christian over secular education, and Casti Connubii
(1930), praising Christian marriage and family life as the basis for any
good society, and condemning contraception.
In contrast to some of his predecessors in the nineteenth century, who had
favoured monarchy and dismissed democracy, Pius XI took a pragamatic
approach toward the different forms of government. In his encyclical
Dilectissima Nobis (1933), in which he addressed the situation of the Church
in Republican Spain, he proclaimed, that the Church is not "bound to one
form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God
and of Christian consciences are safe", and specifically referred to "various
civil institutions, be they monarchic or republican, aristocratic or
democratic". [1]
Pius also argued for a reconstruction of economic and political life on the
basis of religious values. His most well-remembered encyclical today is
probably on this subject: Quadragesimo Anno (1931). As indicated by its
title, it was written to mark 'forty years' since Leo XIII's great social/economic
encyclical Rerum novarum, and restated that encyclical's distaste for both
socialism and unrestrained capitalism. Pius instead envisioned a truly
Christian economy based on co-operation and charity. He reaffirmed the
natural right to private property, but emphasised it must be used with
Christian charity. He also endorsed workers' rights to organise, though
preferably in purely Catholic organisations under the direction of the local
bishop. In place of either pure capitalist individualism or socialist
statism he endorsed subsidiarity: small-scale, voluntary organisations (the
local Church, trade union or club), local communities, and of course the
family were the fundamental units of society, and were best equipped to help
the needy. In a truly Christian society, employer and employee should both
put aside selfishness and do their Christian duty to each other: the worker
should work hard for his employer, and the employer should pay a fair wage
on which a man could decently support a family.
Pius was the first Pope to utilise the power of modern communications
technology in evangelising the wider world. He established Vatican Radio in
1931, and was the first Pope to broadcast on radio.
Internal Church Affairs and Ecumenism
In his management of the Church's internal affairs Pius mostly continued the
policies of his predecessor. Like Benedict XV, he put a great emphasis on
spreading Catholicism in Africa and Asia and on the training of native
clergy in these "mission territories". He ordered every religious order to
devote some of its personnel and resources to missionary work.
Pius XI also continued Benedict XV's moderate-conservative approach on the
issue of how to deal with the threat of modernism in Catholic theology. Pius
was thoroughly orthodox theologically and had no sympathy with modernist
ideas that relativised fundamental Catholic dogmas. He condemned modernism
in his writings and addresses. At the same time, as a scholar himself he was
aware of the danger of accusations of 'modernism' being used to tar unjustly
academic work which was in fact compatible with orthodoxy and not truly
modernist, and quietly discouraged such an approach. (For an explanation of
the distinction between real, heretical modernism and scholarship which
wrongly accused of being modernist see Fr. John Parsons' article [2]). Pius
was interested in supporting serious scientific study within the Church,
establishing the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences in 1936.
Pius strongly encouraged devotion to the Sacred Heart in his encyclical
Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928). He canonised some important saints:
Bernadette Soubirous, Therese of Lisieux, John Vianney, and John Bosco. He
also named several new Doctors of the Church: John of the Cross, Albert the
Great, Peter Canisius and Robert Bellarmine.
Pius XI was the first Pope to directly address the Christian ecumenical
movement. Like Benedict XV he was interested in achieving reunion with the
Eastern Orthodox. (Failing that, he determined to give special attention the
Eastern Catholic churches). He also allowed the dialogue between Roman
Catholics and Anglo-Catholics which had been planned during Benedict XV's
pontificate to take place at Malines. However, these enterprises were firmly
aimed at actually reuniting with the Roman Catholic Church other Christians
who basically agreed with Catholic doctrine, bringing them back under Papal
authority. To the broad pan-Protestant ecumenical movement his attitude was
very different. He condemned in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium Animos the
idea that Christian unity could be attained by establishing a broad
federation of many bodies holding varying doctrines (the widespread view
among Protestant ecumenists); rather, the Catholic Church was the one true
Church, all her teachings were objectively true, and Christian unity could
only be by achieved by Protestants rejoining the Catholic Church and
accepting all the Catholic doctrines they had rejected. Catholics were
ordered not to attend ecumenical conferences with Protestants.
Diplomacy
Pius' reign was one of busy diplomatic activity for the Vatican. The Church
made advances on several fronts in the 1920s, improving relations with
France and, most spectacularly, settling the Roman question with Italy and
gaining recognition of an independent Vatican state. However the Church also
faced the great difficulty of how to deal with new totalitarian governments,
Communist, socialist, fascist and Nazi.
Relations with France
France's republican government had long been strongly anti-clerical. The Law
of Separation of Church and State in 1905 had expelled most religious orders
from France, declared all Church buildings to be government property, and
had led to the shutting down of most Church schools. Since that time
Benedict XV had sought a rapprochement, but it was not achieved until the
reign of Pius XI. In Maximam Gravissimamque (1924) many areas of dispute
were tacitly settled and a bearable coexistence made possible. In 1926 Pius
condemned Action Francaise, the reactionary monarchist movement which had
until this time operated with the support of a great many French Catholics.
Pius judged that it was folly for the French Church to continue to tie its
fortunes to the unlikely dream of a monarchist restoration, and found the
movement's tendency to defend the Catholic religion in merely utilitarian
and nationalistic terms, as a vital contributing factor to the greatness and
stability of France, unorthodox. Although the condemnation caused great
heartache for many French Catholics, most obeyed and Action Francaise never
really recovered.
Relations with Italy and the Lateran Treaties
Pius aimed to end the long breach between the papacy and the Italian
government and to gain recognition once more of the sovereign independence
of the Holy See. Most of the Papal States had been seized by the forces of
King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont in 1860 at the foundation of the modern
unified Italian state, and the rest, including Rome, in 1870. The Papacy and
the Italian Government had been at loggerheads ever since: the popes had
refused to recognise the Italian state's seizure of the Papal States,
instead withdrawing to become prisoners in the Vatican, and the Italian
government's policies had always been anti-clerical. Now Pius thought a
compromise would be the best solution. To bolster his own new regime,
Mussolini was also eager for an agreement. After years of negotiation, in
1929, the pope supervised the signing of the Lateran Treaties with the
Italian government. According to the terms of the first treaty, Vatican City
was given sovereignty as an enclave of the city of Rome in return for the
Vatican relinquishing its claim to the former territories of the Papal
States. Pope Pius thus became a head of state (albeit the smallest state in
the world), the first pope who could be termed as such since the Papal
States fell after the unification of Italy in the 19th century. A second
treaty, the concordat with Italy, recognised Roman Catholicism as the
official state religion of Italy, gave the Church power over marriage law in
Italy (ensuring the illegality of divorce), and restored Catholic religious
teaching in all schools. In return, the clergy would not take part in
politics. A third treaty provided financial compensation to the Vatican for
the loss of the Papal States. During the reign of Pope Pius XI this money
was used for investments in the stock markets and real estate. To manage
these investments, the Pope appointed the lay-person Bernadino Nogara, who
through shrewd investing in stocks, gold, and futures markets, significantly
increased the Catholic Church's financial holdings. However contrary to myth
it did not create enormous Vatican wealth. The compensation was relatively
modest, and most of the money from investments simply paid for the upkeep of
the expensive-to-maintain stock of historic buildings in the Vatican which
previously had been maintained through funds raised from the Papal States up
until 1870.
The signing of the Lateran Treaties was the high point of the Vatican's
relationship with Mussolini's government. It deteriorated drastically in the
following years as Mussolini's totalitarian ambitions began to impinge more
and more on the autonomy of the Church. For example, the church's youth
groups were dissolved in 1931 to allow Mussolini's fascist youth groups
complete dominance. As a consequence Pius issued the encyclical Non Abbiamo
Bisogno in 1931, in which he criticised the idea of a totalitarian state and
Mussolini's treatment of the Church. Relations with Mussolini continued to
worsen throughout the remainder of Pius' pontificate.
Relations with Germany and the Concordat of 1933
Pius was eager to negotiate concordats with any country that was willing to
do so, thinking that written treaties were the best way to protect the
Church's rights against governments increasingly inclined to interfere in
such matters. Twelve concordats were signed in all in Pius' reign with
various types of governments, including some German state governments and
with Austria. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933
and asked for a concordat, Pius was therefore inclined to assume his
sincerity and accept. Negotiations were conducted on his behalf by Cardinal
Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. The Reichskonkordat was
signed by Pacelli and by the German government in June 1933, and included
guarantees of liberty for the Church, independence for Catholic
organisations and youth groups, and religious teaching in schools.
Hitler, however, never intended to honour the agreement. He had merely
wanted to neutralise potential Church opposition in the vital early months
and years of his government to make his establishment of a dictatorship
easier. As the years went by, Hitler's totalitarian ambitions, much greater
even than Mussolini's, were made clear. The Church was a rival for people's
total devotion and therefore would be slowly squeezed out of existence.
Clause after clause of the concordat was broken - Catholic youth groups were
abolished and all youth were forced into the Hitler Youth; religious
education in schools was cut back and finally abolished; show trials of
priests were held to discredit the clergy; vandalism of churches by Hitler
Youth members was tacitly encouraged; seminaries were interfered with and
closed.
Pius XI responded by issuing in 1937 the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge
condemning the Nazi ideology of racism and totalitarianism and Nazi
violations of the concordat. Copies had to be smuggled into Germany so they
could be read from the pulpit.
As the extreme nature of Nazi racial anti-semitism became obvious, and as
Mussolini in the late 1930s began imitating Hitler's anti-Jewish race laws
in Italy, Pius made his position clear, both in Mit Brennender Sorge and in
a public address in the Vatican to Belgian pilgrims in 1938: "Mark well that
in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism
is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a
movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to
you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is
inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of
Abraham. Spiritually, we [Christians] are all Semites." These comments were
subsequently published worldwide.
The Soviet Union and Communism
Pius watched with horror the unceasing Communist persecution of Christianity
in the Soviet Union, which was beyond that seen anywhere else. He made clear
the Church's total philosophical opposition to Communism as inherently
atheistic and totalitarian. Nevertheless, he made repeated attempts to get
the Soviet Government to soften its attitude. (Stalin's contemptuous reply
was "The Pope - how many divisions has he got?", and the persecution
continued unabated). In 1937 he issued his encyclical Divini Redemptoris
which was a scathing condemnation of Communism and the Soviet regime as "intrinsically
perverse."
Mexico and Spain
The socialist government of Mexico in the 1930s embarked on severe
anti-clerical measures. In the state of Tabasco the Church was in effect
outlawed altogether. Pius condemned the Mexican government in his 1933
encyclical Acerba Anima. By the end of his reign the situation had improved
somewhat.
The republican government which had come to power in Spain in 1931 was also
strongly anti-clerical, secularising education, expelling the Jesuits from
the country, and allowing mobs to burn down churches without any attempt to
stop them. This encouraged Catholics to support the military coup against
the Republican government in 1936 led by General Francisco Franco. The
Republicans responded by murdering many thousands of priests and nuns, and
as time passed the Republican government became dominated more and more by
Communists. It was therefore unsurprising that Pius gave fairly unequivocal
support to Franco and the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War of
1936-39. Pius distinguished Franco from the totalitarian, anti-religious
fascists like Hitler and Mussolini (whom he by this stage basically opposed),
seeing him as an old-fashioned authoritarian Catholic conservative. In any
case, Pius concluded a Nationalist victory was necessary if the Church was
to survive in Spain at all.
Death
Pope Pius XI, who had been in declining health for some years, died in
February 1939.
Rumours he was murdered A prominent French cardinal, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, made a sensational
claim in his personal diary. The Pope had been scheduled to deliver a blunt
strongly worded address attacking fascism and anti-semitism on February 11.
According to Tisserant, twenty-four hours before delivering this address,
the Pope was given an injection by Dr. Francesco Petacci, who worked as the
medical practitioner for the Vatican, and whose daughter was the longterm
mistress of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. As a result of the
injection, the Pope supposedly died hours before delivering his historic
attack on Mussolini and European fascism.
While it is known that the Pope was planning to deliver a major attack on
fascism in a speech to cardinals, and the text of the speech disappeared
after his death, the claim that he was killed by Mussolini's mistress's
father, to stop him attacking fascism in general and Mussolini in particular
is not widely believed.
Whereabouts of the anti-fascist speech
The whereabouts of his draft speech remains a mystery, though papal policy
traditionally dictated that planned policies and proposed speeches not
executed at the moment of a pope's death lapse automatically. It is possible
that the speech was misfiled within the vast Vatican Archives after his
death, that it became lost among the move of all his private papers from the
Papal Apartments, or that some curial official, as has been done in past
papacies, simply incinerated all draft speeches, undelivered speeches and
uncompleted documents of the late pontiff.
The Apostolic Palace in the Vatican
Pope Pius XI died here in controversial circumstances in February 1939.Such
destruction had been carried out in the past for fear that a new pope could
be pressured into following the policies of his predecessor, were some of
the late pope's plans to be made public by late pope's supporters if they
thought that the new pope "would not be true to the memory of the late Holy
Father". Confusion over the private papers of dead popes is a regular
occurrence. The whereabouts of the wills of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul
I, and the whereabouts of documents associated with Pope Pius XII and Pope
John Paul II became a cause of controversy immediately after their death.
Coat of Arms of Pope Pius XIIn all cases either the documents were later
found, having been misfiled, were discovered to have been destroyed quietly
on the late pope's orders, or in the aftermath of a papal death an aide had
kept the document as a memento of the late pope, not realising its
importance. Amid the multitude of papal secretaries, papal aides, members of
the papal court and family members who have the task of removing possessions
of a late pope after his death, confusion over who took what is all too
regular and does not in itself prove, in the case of the proposed papal
speech on fascism, either that the speech was destroyed to hide its
existence, or that there was necessarily something suspicious in the timing
of the pope's death.
Burial
Pope Pius XI was buried in the crypt at St. Peter's Basilica, in the main
chapel, close to the tomb of St. Peter.
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