PIO XII, pope. - Eugenio Pacelli, born in Rome on 2 March 1876 to the lawyer Filippo (v. Pacelli, famiglia) and Virginia Graziosi, received his early education in Rome: after classical studies at the Royal Ginnasio-Liceo Visconti (concluding with an honorary diploma), he entered the Capranica College 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 earned, with highest honors, degrees in theology and in both canon and civil law. Ordained priest on 2 April 1899, he immediately entered the service of the Holy See in the Secretariat of State within the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, where he was appointed undersecretary by Pius X (1911) and later secretary (1914). Meanwhile, he developed a special 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 works, the historical-juridical study *La personalità e la territorialità delle leggi, specialmente nel Diritto canonico*. Alongside his official duties and scholarly work, he devoted himself to the priestly ministry, particularly excelling in preaching.
Monsignor Pacelli continued his work in the Secretariat of State (he prepared the Concordat with Serbia in 1914) until the death of the nuncio to Bavaria at the most difficult moment of the war prompted Benedict XV to appoint him apostolic nuncio to that government, with which the Holy See had diplomatic relations only in wartime Germany. Elevated on 20 April 1917 to the titular archiepiscopal see of Sardis and consecrated by the Pope himself (13 May), he immediately took up his post in Munich to carry out a delicate mission with the government of the Reich in support of the Pope’s efforts for peace. During the war, he visited prisoner-of-war camps, and after Germany’s defeat he aided the population and displayed exemplary firmness in the face of the Bolshevik revolution in Munich (1919). Appointed in 1920 as the first nuncio to the Reich in Berlin—while retaining his Munich post until 1925—his principal aim was to establish Church-State relations in Germany on a new concordatory basis; since a national concordat proved impossible, he worked to conclude agreements with individual German states. The fruit of his labors were the concordats with Bavaria (1925), Prussia (1929), and Baden (1932), which secured many positive rights for the Church. In those postwar years in Germany, the nuncio Monsignor Pacelli also devoted himself to elevating the prestige of the Holy See in Germany and to fostering the reform of the German Church, participating in Catholic gatherings and delivering speeches.
Created cardinal by Pius XI on 16 December 1929 and called to succeed Cardinal Gasparri as Secretary of State, for nine years he faithfully collaborated with the great Pope in that most elevated office, a task made more arduous during the final period when the Pope was gravely ill. His responsibilities increasingly focused on defending the Church against national socialism in Germany after the Reich Concordat (1933), concluding further concordats, and implementing the Italian one. Pius XI sent him as his legate to the important Eucharistic Congresses in Buenos Aires (1934) and Budapest (1938), as well as to the celebrations at Lourdes (1935) and Lisieux (1937); in these missions—along with a journey to the United States in 1936—he distinguished himself by his oratory and uncommon linguistic skills, admired equally in congresses and commemorations held in Rome.
Upon the death of Pius XI and the opening of the conclave on 10 March 1939, Cardinal Pacelli was elected pope the following day, taking the name Pius XII. His immediate concern was the imminent danger of the Second World War, and from his very first allocution to the world (3 March) he appealed to peoples and governments to preserve peace. These efforts continued unceasingly from March to September 1939, both publicly through appeals and special prayers and through diplomatic channels. In early May, the Pope made a démarche through his diplomatic representatives to the heads of the major European powers; on 24 August, following the German-Soviet Agreement that determined the partition of Poland and the outbreak of war, he issued 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 may be lost with war.” On 31 August, a diplomatic note to the governments of Germany, Poland, England, France, and Italy pleaded “in the name of God” to do everything possible to avert the outbreak of hostilities.
With the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939, Pius XII’s action was directed toward three principal aims: the prompt restoration of a just and honorable peace for all, the limitation of the conflict, and aid to the victims of war. In his first encyclical, *Summi pontificatus* (20 October 1939), he outlined the ways and ends of peaceful coexistence among nations, identifying the causes and remedies of evils and making a significant reference to invaded Poland; in his Christmas address, he recalled the principles of natural law that belligerents were bound to respect, condemning aggression against small nations, atrocities, and the use of illicit means of destruction, as well as the contempt for human dignity, freedom, and life. Throughout the war, unceasing calls for prayer for peace were issued, support was given to every initiative that might lead to peace (for this reason, he welcomed with satisfaction the dispatch at the beginning of 1940 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 lasting order among nations in Europe and the world was maintained (v. especially the Christmas messages).
Pius XII likewise made every effort to prevent the conflict from spreading to other countries, particularly to save Italy from war, which on 1 September 1939 had declared its “non-belligerence.” He first urged the Italian government to mediate between Germany and Poland, and afterward made every attempt to prevent Italy’s entry into the war: he spoke of Italy’s peace in the encyclical *Summi pontificatus*, insisted on it in public speeches, and at the end of December 1939 addressed the Sovereign directly (visit to the Quirinale, 28 December 1939); he continued his efforts in the early months of 1940, pressing through the nuncio in Italy with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on 24 April, when war had already been decided, he sent a personal letter to Mussolini, appealing to his sense of responsibility so that “such a great calamity might be spared his country.” The Pope’s interventions and public appeals for peace multiplied during May, and when Mussolini protested at their impact on the Italian people, he replied that he “did not fear going even into a concentration camp.”
At the time of the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (10 May), Pius XII sent telegrams of solidarity (published in *L’Osservatore Romano*) to the sovereigns of those nations, denouncing the German aggression. After the partial occupation of France, he addressed a letter to the French episcopate (29 June), giving directives for the work to be carried out in that difficult moment.
Facing Germany, Pius XII at the beginning of his pontificate sought to improve relations with the National Socialist government, but the offer, made at the suggestion of the German episcopate, proved futile, and Nazi illegalities continued in various areas of ecclesiastical life. The Pope denounced the new oppressions in a diplomatic note of 10 July 1939, and continued his protests as the outbreak of war aggravated Nazi persecutions against the Church. The visit to Rome of the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop provided an opportunity to request permission to send an apostolic visitor to the Polish territory occupied by the Germans, but the request was not granted; the Holy See continued to be concerned for that unfortunate country, protesting without interruption in Berlin through notes and appeals against the unjust persecutions suffered by the Church and the Polish population (particularly grave was the note of 2 March 1943). Against certain aberrations of Nazi ideology, the Holy Office in those years condemned the principle of the “causa nasi” (2 Dec. 1940), applied in Germany to suppress those considered “unworthy of life” (Lebensunwerte), and that of sterilization, especially when compulsory, as gravely injurious to human integrity and freedom (23 Feb. 1941).
Meanwhile, aid to the peoples afflicted by war had already begun in September 1939. Through the papal representatives, subsidies were given to Polish refugees who had taken refuge in various countries, and later to those from Bessarabia and Bukovina. The requests for information 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 within the Secretariat of State, which grew enormously during the war. As soon as hostilities began, the Pope asked the German government for lists of Polish prisoners, but received a negative response, and equally fruitless were the repeated requests that followed. He then endeavored to gather information, with the help of the bishops, about dispersed persons and families, encountering difficulties even in this work. By June 1940, the search had expanded to include Belgian, Dutch, and French refugees, Italians interned abroad, and, as the conflict continued and spread, to prisoners of war. From June 1940 to September 1941, about 400,000 requests were received; the central office was established in the Palazzo di San Carlo in the Vatican and reached a staff of 885 employees, while other auxiliary offices were set up in Rome. The work was organized into sections by language and nationality or region of the world; a special section was dedicated to Jews persecuted by the Germans, for whom 100,000 requests were received. To obtain the desired information, difficult negotiations had to be conducted with governments: that of Germany and the German military commands did not grant the requests of the Holy See, and neither did Greece consent to provide information. The Pope made the most insistent efforts and countless attempts (especially through President Roosevelt) to obtain information from Russia about its German, Italian, and other prisoners, but all efforts proved useless. In 1940, the Pope also attempted to arrange a prisoner exchange between the belligerents, but these efforts were unsuccessful. In August 1940, broadcasts began over Vatican Radio, soon expanded and extended worldwide. The transmission of news, carried out by radio, telegraph, couriers, and postal service, was coordinated through nunciatures or apostolic delegations, which established special offices; the representatives of the Holy See in various countries also assisted, as far as possible, prisoners, internees, and their families, bringing the generous aid that the Pope could provide, especially during the Christmas and Easter holidays. In 1942, the information services extended to South America, where many civilians were interned; in 1943, Vatican Radio succeeded in establishing connections with Japan. After the Allied landing in North Africa, a special Information Office was set up in Algiers, entrusted to the White Fathers. When Sicily and southern Italy were occupied, requests for information multiplied, and after laborious negotiations, the Holy See was able to organize centers for the collection and distribution of Vatican messages in diocesan curias, assisted by parish priests and Catholic Action. Unsuccessful, however, were the efforts to obtain information about Italian military personnel interned in Germany, and the Pope managed only to send them some aid through the Swiss Catholic mission and the Nunciature in Bern. The Information Office continued its work even after the war ended, assisting German and other prisoners, helping political internees of fallen regimes, and facilitating the repatriation of prisoners and internees, especially from Germany. By the end of its activity in 1946, the Information Office of the Holy See had received nearly ten million requests and transmitted an even greater number of messages.
The Pope’s wartime solicitude was particularly focused on saving Rome, the center of Christendom and his episcopal see. On the very day Italy entered the war, the Holy See asked the French and British governments that the city not be subjected to aerial bombardment. While the French response was immediately favorable, the London government adopted a reserved attitude and imposed conditions without making any concrete commitment. The Holy See continued to seek immunity for Rome, leaving no opportunity to present its arguments, intervening with governments and personalities. After the United States entered the war, the Pope also pressed the American government. As the danger drew nearer (1942), the representatives of the Holy See and, through them, the bishops and Catholics were more actively involved, encouraging prayers and publications, and the Pope worked with the Italian government (December 1942) to have Rome declared and made an “open city,” with military commands removed. The efforts, intensified in the spring of 1943, were unsuccessful, and on 19 July of that year the first Allied bombing of the city took place: Pius XII immediately went among the ruins and victims, bringing comfort and aid, and strongly deplored the bombing in a public letter to the Cardinal Vicar. Despite the protest and further interventions, Rome was bombed again on 13 August, and once more the Pope went immediately among the stricken population and sent a note of deploration to the British and American governments. As the war approached Rome, Pius XII redoubled his efforts to prevent the city from becoming a battlefield between the two armies, supporting initiatives by neutral parties (Ireland with the United States and Spain with Germany). When the German ambassador proposed that he withdraw from the endangered city, protected by the Germans, he replied that he refused to leave Rome, whatever might happen (5 February 1944).
English governments and American. When the war drew near to Rome, P.’s efforts multiplied to prevent the city from becoming a battlefield between the two armies, favouring initiatives by neutrals (Ireland with the United States and Spain with Germany). To the proposal of the German ambassador to withdraw from the endangered city, protected by the Germans, he replied that he refused to leave Rome, whatever might happen (5 Feb. 1944).
Rome and its surroundings were filled with refugees and displaced persons driven by the events of war, and to them came the charity of the Pope, who in the spring of 1944 had the Assistance Commission organise refectories, public kitchens, and food transports; in the most difficult moments, when communications with Rome were partially cut off by bombing, the Vatican’s means provided for the city’s supplies, especially to the hospitals. P.’s protection extended equally to political persecuted of every ideology and to the Jews, who were welcomed and sheltered in religious institutes, and to the treasures of art, archives, and libraries, which especially from Latium were transported to the City of the Vatican; it was estimated that more than a third of the movable patrimony of Italian art was housed there.
P.’s work for Rome intensified in the last months of the German occupation, through public manifestations (address to refugees in St Peter’s Square, 12 March) and multiplied interventions both with the Germans and the Allies to avert the danger that loomed: to the proposal of the German command to evacuate the city’s population, he firmly opposed II. Rome was saved, and the day after its liberation (5 June 1944) an immense crowd in St Peter’s Square acclaimed the Pope as *defensor civitatis*.
P. XII also asked that many other Italian and foreign cities be preserved from the bombings and ruins of war, either because they were hospitable cities or for 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 Valvisciolo, the monastery of S. Domenico at Sora, the Camaldolese hermitage at Frascati, the abbey of Chiaravalle; the Republic of San Marino, Vienna, Split). During the negotiations for Rome he interposed with the Italian government so that Athens and Cairo would not be bombed. An intense diplomatic action was conducted to prevent the bombing of the abbey of Monte Cassino, unfortunately destroyed on 15 Feb. 1944. An appeal was likewise launched by P. XII in September of that year to save the city of Warsaw from destruction.
At the beginning of the official and uncertain post-war period, P. XII wished to give a manifestation of the supernational and universal character of the Church by the consistorial creation of 18 Feb. 1946, naming 32 new cardinals from all parts of the world (including China), the great majority of them residential bishops (for the meaning and scope of the event, V. the allocutions of P. XII on that occasion). In the same period the Pope’s charity developed: in 1945 he sent aid to the populations of China, and after the war he especially assisted Germany, sending large quantities of food and subsidies, particularly for the reconstruction of churches. In Italy he operated principally through the Pontifical Assistance Commission, which concerned itself with refugees, repatriates, and returnees, broadened its action to other works of charitable and social assistance (especially summer colonies), and intervened with ample and prompt aid in grave international calamities (thus for the floods of 1951 in southern Italy and the Polesine).
While the Pope’s charity sought to alleviate the evils of the post-war period, his concern grew more vivid regarding the nefarious influence of atheistic communism in Europe and 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 of 1942), and was clear and cautious in the face of the suggestions of President Roosevelt, who appeared benevolent and optimistic, warning against the dangers of Soviet communism (v. correspondence between Roosevelt and P. XII). The Pope’s predictions proved correct, and the Russian expansion after the war brought the predominance of communism in the central-eastern nations of Europe and in China, while in other countries, especially Italy and France, strong communist parties were organised or developed. To avert so grave a danger to religion, P. XII deployed all his energies, stimulating the more prosperous nations to aid those most exposed to the communist snare because of their social conditions, and above all illustrating and promoting Catholic social doctrine, denouncing the errors of Marxist ideology, and giving practical norms for the conduct of the clergy and Christian people (v. COMMUNISM; decree of the Holy Office, 1 July 1949).
Connected with these measures is the subsequent decree of the Holy Office of 28 July 1950 against communist associations of boys and girls. Great importance also attaches to the directives given to the bishops by the Congregation of the Consistory in 1945 regarding the duty of voting and the necessity of giving it only to candidates safe from the religious point of view, a subject on which the Pope himself entered with precise and strong teachings (v. address to the Lenten preachers of Rome, 10 March 1948).
The necessity of these interventions appears more evident if one considers the struggle waged by communism against the Church in the countries where it had come to power. The first most grave post-war event was the violent destruction of the Catholic Church in Ruthenia, annexed to Russia (v. enc. Orientales omnes, 23 Dec. 1945). In September and October following, the trial took place in Yugoslavia against Mgr Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb, which was added to the massacres, deportations of priests, and other most grave acts of violence (v. Rota, 6 Oct. 1946). This was followed (1948) in Hungary by the most sad trial against Cardinal 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 February). As the struggle against the Catholic religion developed ever more in the countries fallen under Soviet influence, P. XII’s interventions were repeated, both by striking with ecclesiastical penalties those responsible for the struggle (v. Cominform), and by providing for the appointment of bishops in place of those violently removed from the government of the churches, and by aiding, when possible, and above all encouraging the hierarchy, the clergy, and the people in the defence of their faith: mention should be made here 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 Chinese Catholics (18 Jan. 1952), and to the episcopate of Romania (27 March 1952).
Pius XII’s dogmatic teaching has addressed the most pressing problems of modern theology, at times providing definitive solutions and repeatedly guiding Catholic theology along secure paths. Biblical studies, which form the foundation of dogma, have been given norms that meet new demands and scientific advances with the encyclical *Divino afflante Spiritu* (v.); the precise meaning of Revelation and the Magisterium is determined in the encyclical *Humani generis* (v.), which points out in the present theological and philosophical deviations of certain cultural environments the dangerous effects of a science emancipated from the authority of the Church; the encyclical *Mystici corporis* (v.) offers an extensive exposition of revealed doctrine on the Church, while *Mediator Dei* contains a systematic treatment of liturgical theology and the particular interest of the priesthood. In the apostolic constitution *Sacramentum ordinis* (v.), Pius XII resolved the centuries-old question regarding the essence of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, while in other encyclicals or documents he addressed controversies still alive today, such as in the encyclical *Munificentissimus Deus* (v.), which defines *ex cathedra* the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, outlining the progressive affirmation of a truth implicit in Revelation; and in the encyclical *Sempiternus Rex*, on the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Chalcedon, he rejected the Protestant theory of kenosis (v.) and recent interpretations of the mystery of the Incarnation.
In the fields of science and culture, Pius XII promoted the activity of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (v. speeches); he encouraged the translation of the Psalter from the original texts, undertaken by the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and proposed its use in the recitation of the Breviary with the letter *In quotidianis precibus* (24 March 1945); he also ordered the excavations beneath the confession of St. Peter, which led to the discovery of the Apostle’s tomb.
In the moral and juridical spheres, Pius XII showed particular care for the protection of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the sanctity of the domestic hearth. In catechetical form, this matter is chiefly illustrated in his discourses to married couples, which develop a coherent plan of teaching on Matrimony, conjugal duties, and the education of children; in juridical form, many problems are addressed in his annual discourses to the Rota. The question of the primary end of Matrimony, besides being treated in some discourses, was the subject of a decree of the Holy Office (9 March 1944); certain aspects of conjugal morality were clarified in his discourse to midwives on 29 October 1951; others, concerning women in their moral, religious, and apostolic problems, were addressed in numerous discourses to women’s groups or organizations, with original reflections on the demands of modern times. Finally, one must recall the countless discourses addressed to specific professions, which took occasion from audiences or congresses to set forth the particular duties of each profession or service; of special note are the radio messages to the sick.
Under Pius XII, the first modification to the *Codex Iuris Canonici* occurred with the abolition of the second paragraph of §4 of canon 1099, regarding the end of Matrimony, which had raised so many problems of minute casuistry (motu proprio of 1 August 1948), and three parts of the Code for the Eastern Church were published: *De Matrimonio* (motu proprio of 22 February 1949), *De iudicibus* (6 January 1950), and *De bonis, De religiosis, De verborum significatione* (9 February 1952).
Turning finally to Pius XII’s social teaching, one finds the doctrine of his predecessors restated in its broad outlines. Yet the fundamental motif that characterizes Pius XII is the emphasis he places on man and the valorization of the human person—a stance explained by the fact that in recent decades the State’s influence in every sphere of human relations has grown ever broader and deeper, threatening to become all-encompassing 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 their freely constituted groups (discourse to UNIAPAC, 7 May 1949); the duty and right to work do not derive from society but spring from human nature, and labor is always noble, even when its forms seem humble, and thus demands the establishment and consolidation of a social order that enables workers to escape the state of mere subsistence, share in the goods of culture, and take their place as active and responsible members in various human communities (radio message of 1942). Workers and employers must strive to humanize their mutual relations, even to the point of transforming the enterprise into a community of labor (discourse of 31 January 1952), without, however, asserting a natural right of workers to management (discourse of 3 June 1950). At the same time, Pius XII affirms that private property must be regarded as the cornerstone of a well-ordered and properly functioning socio-economic order (radio message of 1 September 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, become so (radio message of 1942). Hence the Pope condemned the present capitalist socio-economic order as unjust, teaching that it must be reformed according to a criterion of equity, with appropriate state intervention when necessary (radio message of 1 September 1944); yet the humanization of the economic world must be achieved not through revolution but through gradual and well-directed evolution (discourse of 13 June 1943).
The problems concerning the Church’s internal life, as well as those of the religious life of the faithful, are all treated or touched upon in Pius XII’s acts, allocutions, and discourses. Even the discourses in which he addresses political problems in the highest sense of the word (the great contemporary issues of human coexistence, world peace, and social justice) always appeal to the higher principles of the Gospel and Christian Revelation (v. especially the Christmas radio messages).
Following the path traced by Bl. Pius X and Pius XI, Pius XII was diligent in ensuring the proper formation and good spirit of the clergy; the most important document on this matter is the exhortation *Menti Nostrae* (23 September 1950), notable also for being the first pontifical document to address current aspects of priestly pedagogy. Special solicitations are also found in documents or exhortations to the episcopates of various nations where the problem of priestly vocations is more acute, as in many countries of Latin America (v. especially the letter to the Brazilian episcopate of 23 April 1947, followed on 7 March 1950 by a letter from the Congregation of Seminaries).
No less was his interest in the formation of religious men and women. Notable are the apostolic constitutions *Provida Mater* (2 February 1947), in favor of secular institutes, and *Spousa Christi* (21 November 1950) on the discipline of women’s monasteries. Also important are some discourses delivered on the occasion of general chapters, containing valuable recommendations (to the Society of Jesus and the Dominicans on 17 and 29 September 1946; to the Friars Minor and the Discalced Carmelites on 23 May and 23 September 1951).
Pius XII gave Action (v.), fostering the establishment of international organizations (for intellectuals, men, male and female youth, and the Permanent Committee of International Congresses for the Apostolate of the Laity), and invigorating its various branches through speeches that addressed the specific problems of each (memorable, for the circumstances in which it took place, was the one to workers on Pentecost 1943). The particular religious and moral needs of individual peoples were highlighted by Pius XII on the occasion of his numerous radio messages for international, Eucharistic, or Marian congresses and similar religious gatherings addressed to all Catholic nations; the universal Pastor’s word 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 from every part of the world converge on Rome, all welcomed by the Pope’s tireless words. The most solemn act of the Holy Year (and of Pius XII’s pontificate) was the proclamation of the dogma of the bodily Assumption of Mary in St Peter’s Square on 1 November 1950, in the presence of some 600 bishops and an immense multitude of the faithful.
Numerous were the canonizations and beatifications decreed by Pius XII, especially during the Holy Year; particular prominence was given to the beatification of Pius X on 3 June 1951, together with the equipollent canonization of St Margaret of Hungary and the conferral of the title of Doctor upon St Anthony of Padua. In the liturgical sphere, noteworthy are the directives Mediator Dei (v.), marked by a wonderful balance between contemporary spiritual needs and a firm curb on abuses, as well as the experimental restoration of the Easter Vigil. Marian devotion was greatly developed by Pius XII, who on 31 October 1942 consecrated the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, later instituting this feast (22 August), and each year inviting prayer during the month of May. He sent messages to various Marian congresses (several times to Fatima) and finally defined the dogma of the Assumption. The cult of the saints was promoted through documents for jubilee solemnities (St Benedict, St Rose of Viterbo, St Leonard of Port Maurice), the proclamation of new patrons of cities and nations, and the particular importance of the proclamation (1939) of St Francis of Assisi and St Catherine of Siena as principal patrons of Italy.
The hierarchy experienced great development under the pontificate of Pius XII: by 31 December 1951, 85 new archiepiscopal or episcopal sees had been erected (24 episcopal sees had been raised to archiepiscopal status), 123 vicariates or apostolic prefectures had become episcopal sees, 17 abbacies or prelatures *nullius* had been created, and in the mission countries 37 new apostolic vicariates and 53 apostolic prefectures had been established. Following the direction given by Pius XI, Pius XII promoted the gradual transformation of missionary circumscription into dioceses and fostered the growth of indigenous clergy. He issued numerous norms for the life and development of the missions in the encyclical Evangelii praecones (2 June 1951), which also addresses the social problems of those regions. The diplomatic relations of the Holy See, unfortunately severed by communist countries (in Yugoslavia only an *chargé d’affaires* remained), were extended under Pius XII to other nations, and apostolic internunciatures were established in Egypt, India, Lebanon, the Philippines, Japan, and Pakistan, as well as apostolic delegations in Dakar and Korea. — See pl. CV.