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A Pope is Born
Pope Pius XII was born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli in Rome, Italy. This is the youngest image of the then-future pontiff that could be found. His parents were Filippo Pacelli (1837–1916) and Virginia (née Graziosi) Pacelli (1844–1920). -
Priesthood
At the age of 18, Pacelli began sudying theology at Rome's Tridentine Collegio Capranica Seminary, where he began his studies to enter the priesthood. He was ordained a priest on Easter Sunday, He excelled in all of hist studies - philosophy, natural sciences, Latin, etc. - and this helped his ascension through the Catholic hierarchy. -
Elevation to Bishop and Archbishop
On this day, Pope Benedict XV Consecrated Pacellie Bishop and then immediately Archbishop; after which, Pacelli left for Bavaria. As there was no nuncio - or representative - in Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was essentially the Archbishop for all of the German Empire. -
Elevation to Cardinalate and Vatican Secretary of State
On this date, Then-Pope Pius XI named Pacelli Cardinal Secretary of State, meaning that he was now responsible for the Vatican state's foreign policy and international relationships. -
The Reichskonkordat
On 20 July 1933, the Reichskonkordat was signed by Pacelli and others, which hoped to be a treaty calling for and end to persecutions on the Catholic Church in Germany at the hands of the National Socialists (Nazis), There would be many violations of this agreement well into Hitler's elevation to Chancellor earlier that year. -
Mit Brennender Sorge
As a result of a documented 55 violations agains the agreement, Cardinal Pacelli wrote a document entitled "Mit brennender Sorge," which would become an encyclical letter dispatched by Pope Pius XI. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and proclaimed in every German Catholic Church on Palm Sunday of that year, it condemned the paganism and superstition of the Nazi party's philosophy, angering Nazi officials. -
_Papal Coronation
Clip of Coronation CeremonyOn this date, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name Pius XII, out of admiration for his immediate predecessor. Indeed, before Pope Pius XI had died, he predicted Pacelli's well-deserved ascension: "[if] today the Pope dies, you'll get another one tomorrow, because the Church continues. It would be a much bigger tragedy, if Cardinal Pacelli dies, because there is only one. I pray every day, God may send another one into one of our seminaries." -
Summi Pontificatus
The Full Text of "Summi Pontificatus"On this date, the Vatican published one of Pope Pius XII's most famous documents, the encyclical "Summi Pontificatus." While writing the letter, the Nazi's had already begun invading Poland. Thepublished letter letter clearly denounced racism, anti-semitism, war, totalitarianism, the invasion of Poland and the Nazi's persecution of the church. -
Here is an archive of a variety of sources that detail Pope Pius XII's Actions during World War II and his opposition to the Nazi persecution of Jewish people.
