Pius XII, Pope

PIUS XII, Pope. - Eugenio Pacelli, born in Rome on 2 March 1876 to the lawyer Filippo (v. PACELLI, family) and to Virginia Graziosi, received his formation in Rome itself: after classical studies at the Royal Ginnasio-Liceo Visconti (completed with the licenza ad honorem), he entered the Collegio Capranica and studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University; he continued his priestly formation at the Pontifical Athenaeum of the Roman Seminary at the Apollinare, where he obtained with the highest marks his doctorate in theology and in utroque iure. Ordained a priest on 2 April 1899, he immediately entered the service of the Holy See in the Secretariat of State in the Congregation for Extraordinary Affairs, in which he was named undersecretary by Pius X (1911) and then secretary (1914). Meanwhile he developed his predilection for canon law, teaching at the Athenaeum of the Roman Seminary and at the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, collaborating with Cardinal Gasparri in the preparation of the Code and publishing among other things the historical-juridical study: La personalità e la territorialità delle leggi, specialmente nel Diritto canonico. To his office duties and study he joined the priestly ministry, distinguishing himself especially in preaching.

Monsignor Pacelli continued his work in the Secretariat of State (he prepared the Concordat with Serbia in 1914), when the death of the nuncio in Bavaria at the most difficult moment of the war induced Benedict XV to appoint him apostolic nuncio to that government, which alone in wartime Germany had diplomatic relations with the Holy See. Elevated on 20 April 1917 to the titular archiepiscopal see of Sardis and consecrated by the same Pontiff (13 May), he immediately reached his see in Munich, in order to carry out a delicate action with the government of the Reich in favor of the Pope's efforts for peace. During the war he visited prisoner-of-war camps and after the German defeat he helped the populations and conducted himself with exemplary firmness in the face of the Bolshevik revolution in Munich (1919). Appointed in 1920 first nuncio to the Reich in Berlin, retaining the see of Munich until 1925, his principal aim was to establish on new concordatory foundations the relations between Church and State in Germany; since it was not possible to reach a Concordat for the Reich, he worked to conclude agreements with the individual German states. The fruit of his labors were the Concordat with Bavaria (1925), that with Prussia (1929), to which was added in 1932 that with Baden: they guaranteed the Church many positive rights. At the same time the nuncio Monsignor Pacelli devoted himself in those years of post-war Germany to raising the prestige of the Holy See in Germany and to favoring the reflowering of the German Church, participating in Catholic demonstrations and giving speeches.

Named cardinal by Pius XI (16 Dec. 1929) and called to succeed Cardinal Gasparri as Secretary of State, for 9 years he collaborated faithfully in the work of the great Pontiff in that most high office, more burdensome during the last period when the Pope was very ill; he was chiefly occupied with the defense of the Church against National Socialism in Germany after the Concordat with the Reich (1933), the conclusion of other concordats, and the application of the Italian one. Pius XI sent him as his legate to the important Eucharistic Congresses of Buenos Aires (1934) and Budapest (1938), as well as to the celebrations of Lourdes (1935) and Lisieux (1937), and in those missions (to which should be added the journey to the United States in 1936) he distinguished himself for his oratory and uncommon knowledge of languages, admired equally in congresses and commemorations held in Rome.

Upon the death of Pius XI and the opening of the Conclave on 1 March 1939, Cardinal Pacelli was elected pope the following day, taking the name of Pius XII. His greatest preoccupation was immediately the imminent danger of the Second World War, and from his first allocution to the world (3 March) he invited peoples and men of government to peace. These efforts followed one another incessantly from March to Sept. 1939, publicly with appeals and special prayers and through diplomatic channels. At the beginning of May the Pope made, through his own diplomatic representatives, a step with the heads of state of the major European powers; on 24 Aug., after the German-Russian Agreement that determined the partition of Poland and the outbreak of war, he addressed a supreme appeal, warning that «conquests and empires not founded on justice are not blessed by God», and that «nothing is lost with peace and everything can be lost with war». Again on 31 Aug. a diplomatic note to the governments of Germany, Poland, England, France and Italy implored «in the name of God» that everything possible be done to avoid the beginning of hostilities.

Once the conflict opened on 1 Sept. 1939, the action of Pius XII turned to three principal aims: the prompt reestablishment of a just and honorable peace for all, the limitation of the conflict, and aid to the victims of the war. In his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus (20 Oct. 1939), Pius XII indicated the ways and ends of a peaceful coexistence of peoples, pointing out the causes and remedies of the evils, and making a significant reference to invaded Poland; in the Christmas allocution he recalled the principles of natural law that the belligerents were bound to respect, condemning aggression against small peoples, atrocities and the use of unlawful means of destruction, and contempt for human dignity, freedom and life. Uninterrupted throughout the period of the war there followed the invitations to prayer for peace, the favor shown to every initiative that could lead to peace (for this reason he welcomed with pleasure, at the beginning of 1940, the sending to the Holy See of a personal representative of the President of the United States, Myron C. Taylor), and the exposition of juridical and moral principles for a true and solid ordering among the nations in Europe and in the world (v. especially the Christmas messages).

Likewise Pius XII made every effort so that the conflict would not extend to other countries, in particular to save Italy from the war, which on 1 Sept. 1939 had declared its «non-belligerence». He first solicited the mediation of the Italian government between Germany and Poland, and afterward made every attempt to prevent Italian participation in the war: he spoke of the peace of Italy in the encyclical Summi pontificatus, insisted on it in public speeches, at the end of Dec. 1939 addressed himself directly to the Sovereign (visit to the Quirinal, 28 Dec. 1939); he continued his efforts in the first months of 1940, insisting through the nuncio in Italy with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on 24 Apr., when the war had by then been decided, he addressed a handwritten letter to Mussolini, appealing to his sense of responsibility so that «so great a calamity might be spared to his country». The interventions and public appeals of the Pope for peace multiplied during the month of May, and to the protests of Mussolini, irritated by the repercussions they had among the Italian people, he had it answered that «he did not fear to go even to a concentration camp».

At the moment of the invasion of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg (10 May), Pius XII sent telegrams of solidarity (published in the Osservatore Romano) to the Sovereigns of those nations, denouncing the German aggression. After France was invaded and in part occupied, he addressed a letter to the French episcopate (29 June), giving directives for the work to be carried out in that difficult moment.

Faced with Germany, P. sought at the beginning of his pontificate to improve relations with the National Socialist government, but the offer, made on the suggestion of the German episcopate, proved vain, and Nazi illegalities continued in the various fields of ecclesiastical life. The Pope denounced the new oppressions with a diplomatic note of 10 July 1939, and continued his protests when the outbreak of war aggravated the Nazi harassment of the Church. The visit to Rome of Foreign Minister Ribbentrop provided the occasion to request permission to send an apostolic visitor into the Polish territory occupied by the Germans, but the request was not granted; the Holy See continued to concern itself with that unhappy country, protesting to Berlin without interruption with notes and appeals on account of the iniquitous persecutions suffered by the Church and the Polish population (the note of 2 March 1943 being particularly grave). Against certain aberrations of Nazi ideology, the Holy Office in those years condemned the principle of "euthanasia" (2 Dec. 1940), applied in Germany to suppress those considered "unworthy of life" (Lebensmuerte), and that of sterilization, especially when compulsory, because it gravely violates human integrity and freedom (23 Feb. 1941).

Meanwhile, from Sept. 1939 onward, the Pope's aid to the peoples struck by war had begun. Through the pontifical representations, subsidies were given to Polish refugees who had taken refuge in various countries, and later to those of Bessarabia and Bukovina. The requests for news about prisoners, which immediately reached the Holy See from all over the world, and the experience of what it had done in the First World War, led Pius XII to organize an Information Office at the Secretariat of State, which had enormous development during the war. As soon as hostilities began, the Pope had the German government asked for the lists of Polish prisoners, but received a negative reply, and equally fruitless were the requests that were insistently renewed. He then sought to gather news, with the help of the bishops, about persons and families dispersed, encountering difficulties in this work as well. By June 1940 the searches were extended to Belgian, Dutch and French refugees, to interned Italians, and, to an ever greater extent as the conflict continued and spread, to prisoners of war. From June 1940 to Sept. 1941 about 400,000 requests arrived; the central Office was placed in the Palazzo di S. Carlo in the Vatican and reached the number of 885 employees, while other auxiliary offices were in Rome. The work was carried out in sections for the various languages and nations or parts of the world; one special section was that for the Jews persecuted by the Germans, for whom 100,000 requests were received. To obtain the desired news, difficult negotiations had to be conducted with the governments: that of Germany and the German military commands did not grant the Holy See's requests, and Greece too did not consent to give information. Most urgent insistences and countless attempts were made by the Pope (especially through President Roosevelt) to succeed in obtaining from Russia news about its German, Italian and other prisoners, but every effort proved useless; the Pope also attempted, in 1940, to reach an exchange of prisoners between the belligerents, but the attempts were fruitless. In Aug. 1940 the broadcasts by means of Vatican Radio began, soon multiplied and extended to the whole world. The communications of news, made by radio, telegraph, couriers and postal service, were carried out through the nunciatures or apostolic delegations, which set up special offices; the representatives of the Holy See in the various countries also assisted, as far as they were permitted, the prisoners, the internees and their families, bringing the generous aid that the Pope could send, especially on the occasion of the Christmas and Easter festivities. In 1942 the information services were extended to South America, where there were many civilian internees; in 1943 Vatican Radio was able to establish connections with Japan; after the Allied landing in North Africa a special Information Office was set up in Algiers, entrusted to the White Fathers; once Sicily and southern Italy were occupied, requests for news multiplied and after laborious negotiations the Holy See was able to organize centers for the collection and distribution of Vatican messages at the diocesan Curias, assisted by parish priests and by Catholic Action. Fruitless, on the other hand, were the searches for news about Italian soldiers interned in Germany, and the Pope succeeded only in sending them some aid through the Swiss Catholic mission and the nunciature of Bern. The Information Office continued, even after the war ended, to assist German prisoners and those of other nations, to help the political internees of the fallen regimes and to promote the repatriation of prisoners and internees, especially from Germany. At the end of its activity (1946) the Information Office of the Holy See had received almost 10 million requests and transmitted an even greater number of messages.

The Pope's solicitude during the war was concerned in a particular way with saving Rome, the center of Christianity and his episcopal see. On the very day of Italy's entry into the war, the Holy See asked the French and English governments that the city not be bombed by air raids. While the French reply was immediately favorable, the London government assumed a reserved attitude, and set conditions without undertaking any concrete commitment. The Holy See continued to request the immunity of Rome, letting no occasion pass to set out the reasons in favor, interposing governments and personalities. After America's entry into the war, it also pressed the government of the United States. As the danger drew near (1942), the representatives of the Holy See were more greatly involved and, through them, the bishops and Catholics, encouraging prayers and publications, and it worked upon the Italian government (Dec. 1942) to have it declare and render Rome an "open city,"

removing the military commands from it. The attempts, intensified in the spring of 1943, did not succeed, and on 19 July of that year came the first Allied bombing of the city: P. immediately hastened among the ruins and the victims, bringing comfort and aid, and deplored the bombing in the strongest terms with a public letter to the cardinal vicar. Despite the protest and new interventions, Rome was bombed a second time on 13 Aug., and again the Pope went immediately among the stricken population and had a note of deploration sent to the English and American governments. When the war drew near to Rome, P.'s efforts multiplied to prevent the city from becoming a battlefield between the two armies, encouraging the initiatives of neutrals (Ireland with the United States and Spain with Germany). To the German ambassador's proposal that he withdraw from the city in danger, protected by the Germans, he had it answered that he refused to leave Rome, whatever might happen (5 Feb. 1944).

Rome and its surroundings had filled with evacuees and refugees, driven by the events of the war, and the charity of the Pope came to their aid: in the spring of 1944 he established the Commissione assistenza (Assistance Commission), had refectories, soup kitchens and food transports organized; in the most difficult moments, when communications with Rome were paralyzed by bombardments, the resources of the Vatican provided for supplying the city, in particular the hospitals. The protection of P. extended likewise to political persecutees of every ideology and to the Jews, received and protected in religious institutes, and to art treasures, archives and libraries, which were transported to Vatican City especially from Latium; it is estimated that more than a third of the movable heritage of Italian art was given shelter there.

The work of Pius XII for Rome became more intense in the last months of the German occupation, through public demonstrations (address to the refugees in St. Peter's Square, 12 March) and multiplied interventions both with the Germans and the Allies to avert the impending danger: to the proposal of the German command to evacuate the population of the city, he firmly opposed himself. Rome was saved, and the day after the liberation (5 June 1944) an immense crowd in St. Peter's Square acclaimed the Pope defensor civitatis.

For many other Italian and foreign cities as well, P. XII asked that they be preserved from bombardments and the ruins of war, either because they were hospitable cities or because of their religious and artistic importance (Chieti, Siena, Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Bologna, Venice, L'Aquila, Farfa, Pavia, Verona, Chioggia, Macerata, Fermo, Milan, Padua, Ferrara, Vercelli, Ascoli-Piceno, Orvieto, Ravenna, Loreto, Ferentino, Sonnino, the abbey of Valviscio, the monastery of S. Domenico at Sora, the Camaldolese hermitage at Frascati, the abbey of Chiaravalle; the Republic of S. Marino, Vienna, Spalato). During the negotiations for Rome he interceded with the Italian government so that Athens and Cairo would not be bombed. An intense diplomatic action was conducted in order to prevent the bombardment of the abbey of Montecassino, unfortunately destroyed on 15 Feb. 1944. P. XII also launched an appeal in Sept. of that year to save the city of Warsaw from destruction.

At the beginning of the difficult and uncertain postwar period, P. XII wished to give a manifestation of the supranational and universal character of the Church with the cardinalitial creation of 18 Feb. 1946, naming 32 new cardinals from all parts of the world (including China), in the great majority bishops with the care of souls (for the significance and scope of the event, v. the allocutions of P. XII on that occasion). In the same period the charity of the Pope developed further, sending aid in 1945 to the populations of China and, once the war was over, helped Germany in a particular way, sending great quantities of food and subsidies especially for the reconstruction of churches. In Italy he operated principally through the Pontificia Commissione Assistenza, which concerned itself with refugees, veterans and repatriated persons, extended its action to other works of charitable and social assistance (especially summer colonies) and intervened with generous and prompt aid in grave international calamities (as for the floods of 1951 in southern Italy and in the Polesine).

While the charity of the Pope sought to alleviate the ills of the postwar period, his concern grew more vivid over the baneful influence of atheistic communism in Europe and in the world. During the war, with noble impartiality, he had done nothing that signified approval or encouragement of the war undertaken in 1941 against the Russian people (v. address of 25 Feb. 1946), but he had openly condemned the ideological content of communism (v. Christmas radio message 1942), and he was clear and cautious in the face of the suggestions of President Roosevelt, who showed himself benevolent and optimistic, warning against the dangers of Soviet communism (v. correspondence between Roosevelt and P. XII). The Pope's forecasts proved correct, and Russian expansion after the war brought the predominance of communism in the central-eastern nations of Europe and in China, while in other countries, in particular Italy and France, strong communist parties organized or developed. To avert so grave a danger for religion, P. XII exerted all his energies, stimulating the understanding of the more prosperous nations in favor of those more exposed to the snares of communism because of their social conditions, and above all illustrating and championing Catholic social doctrine, denouncing the errors of Marxist ideology, giving practical norms concerning the conduct of the clergy and of the Christian people (v. COMUNISMO; decree of the Holy Office, 1 July 1949).

Connected with such measures is the subsequent admonition of the Holy Office of 28 July 1950 against communist associations of boys and girls. Of great importance too are the directives given to the bishops by the Congregation of the Consistory in 1945 concerning the duty of voting and the necessity of giving one's vote only to candidates who are safe from the religious point of view, a subject on which the Pontiff himself entered with precise and forceful teachings (v. address to the Lenten preachers of Rome, 10 March 1948).

The necessity of these interventions appears more manifest if one considers the struggle unleashed by communism against the Church in the countries where it has come to power. The first most grave event of the postwar period was the violent destruction of the Catholic Church in Ruthenia annexed to Russia (v. encycl. Orientales omnes, 23 Dec. 1945). In the following Sept. and Oct. the trial took place in Yugoslavia against Msgr. Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb, which was added to massacres, deportations of priests and other most grave acts of violence (v. address to the Rota, 6 Oct. 1946). There followed (1948) in Hungary the most sorrowful trial against Card. Mindszenty (v. letter to the Hungarian episcopate of 2 Jan. 1949, the allocutions in the secret Consistory, to the diplomatic corps and to the Roman people of the following Feb.). As the struggle against the Catholic religion in the countries fallen under Soviet influence developed ever more, the interventions of P. XII were repeated, both by striking with ecclesiastical penalties those responsible for the struggle (v. disciplinary measures of the Holy Office and of the Congregation of the Council against pseudo-Catholic movements or apostate priests in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia even after the rupture of the Cominform), and by providing for the appointment of bishops in place of those violently removed by the government of the churches, and by helping, when it was possible, and above all encouraging the hierarchy, the clergy and the people in the defense of their own faith: mention must here be made of the letters addressed to the Polish episcopate (Sept. 1949 and Sept. 1951), that to the hierarchy and people of Czechoslovakia (28 Oct. 1951), to the Catholics of China (18 Jan. 1952), and to the episcopate of Romania (27 March 1952).

The dogmatic teaching of Pius XII touched upon the most vital problems of modern theology, at times giving definitive solutions, and repeatedly guiding the researches of Catholic theology along sure paths. Biblical investigations, which are at the basis of dogma, received norms responding to new needs and to scientific progress through the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu (v.); the precise meaning of Revelation and of the Magisterium is determined in the encyclical Humani generis (v.), which points out in the current theological and philosophical deviations of certain cultural circles the dangerous effects of a science emancipated from the authority of the Church; the encyclical Mystici corporis (v.) gives a broad exposition of the revealed doctrine on the Church, while Mediator Dei contains a systematic treatment of "liturgical theology" and is particularly rich in dogmatic clarifications on questions of sacramental theology. In the apostolic constitution Sacramentum ordinis (v.) Pius XII resolved the age-old question concerning the essence of the Sacrament of Order, while in other encyclicals or documents he pronounced on controversies alive today, as in the encyclical Munificentissimus Deus (v.), which defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, and outlines the progressive affirmation of the truth implicitly contained in Revelation, and in the encyclical Sempiternus Rex, on the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Chalcedon, he rejects the Protestant theory of kenosis (v.) and recent interpretations of the mystery of the Incarnation.

In the field of the sciences and of culture Pius XII gave impetus to the activity of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (v. discourses); he promoted the translation of the Psalter from the original texts, made by the Pontifical Biblical Institute, proposing it for the recitation of the Breviary with the letter In quotidianis precibus (24 March 1943); he had carried out the excavations beneath the confessio of St. Peter which led to the discovery of the Apostle's tomb.

In the moral and juridical field, Pius XII showed particular care for the protection of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the sanctity of the domestic hearth: in catechetical form the subject is illustrated mainly in the discourses to newlyweds, which develop an organic plan of teaching on Matrimony, conjugal duties, and the education of children; in juridical form many problems are set out in the annual discourses to the Rota. The question of the primary end of Matrimony, besides being treated in certain discourses, was the subject of a decree of the Holy Office (9 March 1944); certain aspects of conjugal morality were clarified in the discourse to midwives of 29 Oct. 1951; others, which concern woman in her moral, religious and apostolic problems, are touched upon in numerous discourses to women's groups or organizations, with original reflections on the demands of modern times. Finally, one must recall the very numerous discourses addressed to particular categories, which take occasion from audiences or congresses to set out the specific tasks of each profession or service; of particular importance are the radio messages to the sick.

Under Pius XII there occurred the first modification of the CIC with the abolition of the 2nd paragraph of § 4 of can. 1099, concerning the end of Matrimony, which had raised so many problems of minute casuistry (motu proprio of 1 Aug. 1948), and three parts of the Code for the Eastern Church were published, De Matrimonio (motu proprio of 22 Febr. 1949), De iudicibus (6 Jan. 1950), and De bonis, De religiosis, De verborum significatione (9 Febr. 1952).

If one turns finally to the social teaching of Pius XII, one finds reproposed in its broad outlines the doctrine of his predecessors. However, the fundamental motif that characterizes Pius XII is the emphasis he places on man and on the enhancement of his person, and this is explained by the fact that in recent decades the incidence of the State in every order of human relations has become ever more vast and profound, threatening to be all-absorbing even in countries with democratic regimes. Pius XII affirms that the economic world is not by its nature a state institution, but a living creation of the free initiative of individuals and of their freely constituted groups (discourse to UNIAPAC, 7 May 1949); the duty and the right to work do not come from society, but spring from human nature, and work is always noble, even when the forms in which it is carried out appear humble, and therefore it demands the establishment and consolidation of a social order that makes it possible for workers to escape from the state of propertylessness, to make their children participants in the goods of culture, and to insert themselves into the various human communities as active and responsible members (Christmas radio message 1942); workers and employers must strive to humanize their mutual relations, to the point of transforming the enterprise into a community of work (discourse of 31 Jan. 1952), without arriving at the affirmation of a natural right of workers to co-management (discourse of 3 June 1950). On the other hand Pius XII affirms that private property must be considered the cornerstone of a well-conceived and rightly functioning socio-economic order (radio message 1 Sept. 1944), intimately connected with the dignity and development of the human person, and that nature itself demands that men be owners "and when they are not, that they become so" (Christmas radio message 1942). Therefore the Pope condemned the present capitalist socio-economic order, as not conforming to justice, teaching that it must be recomposed according to a criterion of equity, through adequate state interventions when necessary (radio message 1 Sept. 1944); however, the humanization of the economic world is to be realized not by revolution, but by a gradual and well-conducted evolution (discourse of 13 June 1943).

The problems concerning the internal life of the Church as well as those of the religious life of the faithful are all treated or touched upon in the acts, allocutions and discourses of Pius XII. The very discourses in which political problems are touched upon, in the highest sense of the word (the great problems of today of human coexistence, of world peace, of social justice), always refer back to the higher principles of the Gospel and of Christian Revelation (v. in particular the Christmas radio messages).

Following the line traced by the blessed Pius X and by Pius XI, Pius XII was solicitous for the right formation and the good spirit of the clergy; the most important document in this matter is the exhortation Menti Nostrae (23 Sept. 1950), notable also because for the first time in a pontificate, current aspects of priestly pedagogy are touched upon. Particular solicitude is not lacking in documents or exhortations to the episcopate of various nations where the problem of priestly vocations is more acute, as in many parts of Latin America (see especially the letter to the Brazilian episcopate of 23 April 1947, to which was added on 7 March 1950 a letter of the Congregation of Seminaries).

No less was his interest in the formation of religious men and women. Worthy of mention are the apostolic constitution Provida Mater (2 Feb. 1947), in favor of secular institutes, and Sponsa Christi (21 Nov. 1950) on the discipline of women's monasteries. Also important are certain addresses given on the occasion of General Chapters for certain valuable recommendations (to the Society of Jesus and to the Dominicans on 17 and 29 Sept. 1946; to the Friars Minor and to the Discalced Carmelites on 23 May and 23 Sept. 1951).

P. XII gave directives and developments to Catholic Action (v.), encouraging the establishment of international organizations (intellectuals, men, male and female youth, the Permanent Committee of International Congresses for the Apostolate of the Laity), and giving impetus to the various branches with addresses that touched upon the specific problems of each (memorable, for the circumstances in which it took place, was the one to workers, of Pentecost 1943). The particular needs and the religious and moral problems of individual peoples were recalled by P. XII on the occasion of the numerous radio messages for international eucharistic or Marian congresses or similar religious manifestations, addressed to all Catholic nations; the word of P. XII as universal Pastor was facilitated and made more effective by his sure command of the principal languages.

Two moments of intense pastoral activity were the year of the Pope's episcopal jubilee (13 May 1942-1943) and above all the Holy Year of 1950, which saw millions of pilgrims converge on Rome from every part of the world, all welcomed by the tireless word of the Pope. The most solemn act of the Holy Year (and of the pontificate of P. XII) was the proclamation of the dogma of the bodily Assumption of Mary, in St. Peter's Square on 1 Nov. 1950, in the presence of about 600 bishops and an immense crowd of the faithful.

Numerous were the canonizations and beatifications decreed by P. XII, especially during the Holy Year: particular prominence was given to the beatification of Pius X on 3 June 1951; add to this the equipollent canonization of St. Margaret of Hungary and the title of Doctor to St. Anthony of Padua. From the liturgical aspect, one recalls the directives given in the encyclical Mediator Dei (v.), of admirable balance between the spiritual demands of today and a firm check on every abuse, and the restoration "ad experimentum" of the Easter Vigil. Marian devotion was greatly developed by P. XII, who on 31 Oct. 1942 consecrated the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, subsequently instituting this feast (22 Aug.), each year invited prayer during the month of May, sent messages to various Marian Congresses (several times to Fatima) and finally defined the dogma of the Assumption. The cult of the Saints was favored with documents for jubilee solemnities (St. Benedict, St. Rose of Viterbo, St. Leonard of Port Maurice), proclaiming new patrons of cities and nations; of particular importance was the proclamation (1939) of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena as primary patrons of Italy.

Great development was had by the hierarchy under the pontificate of P. XII: up to 31 Dec. 1951, 85 new archiepiscopal or episcopal sees had been erected (24 episcopal sees became archiepiscopal), 123 vicariates or apostolic prefectures became episcopal sees, 17 abbeys or prelatures nullius were created, in the mission countries 37 new apostolic vicariates and 53 apostolic prefectures were instituted. P. XII, following the direction given by Pius XI, promoted the gradual passage of missionary circumscriptions to dioceses, and favored the growth of the indigenous clergy. He gave manifold norms for the life and development of the missions in the encyclical Evangelii praecones (2 June 1951), among which there is no lack of a reminder of the social problems of those regions. The diplomatic relations of the Holy See, unfortunately interrupted by the communist countries (in Yugoslavia a chargé d'affaires has remained), under the pontificate of P. XII were extended to other nations, and the internunciatures of Egypt, India, Lebanon, the Philippines, Japan, Pakistan were established, as well as the apostolic delegations of Dakar and Korea. - See plate CV.

Michele Maccarrone