Pius XII Elected Pope

Today marks the unanimous election of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958) to the papacy as Pope Pius XII. Pacelli was Pius XI’s announced choice for successor. Born Eugenio Pacelli to a noble Roman family, he entered the diplomatic service as a young priest. From 1917 to 1929 he was nuncio to Germany. He then came back to Italy as Pius XI’s secretary of state. Much has been made of his alleged silence during World War II regarding the Holocaust. However, this controversy only started in the 1960’s with the play The Deputy. Both during and after the war, Jewish leaders praised Pius for his efforts to help the Jewish people. Pius felt that a condemnation would help rather than hurt the Jewish people, and might jeopardize the good that was being done by the Church in secret.

But there’s much more to his pontificate. In 1950 he proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption. He encouraged biblical scholarship in Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943). He wrote the first encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei (1947), which encouraged active lay participation in Mass. The constitution Christus Dominus (1956) allowed evening Mass and shortened the communion fast. His encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ, Mystici Corporis (1943) was an important encyclical dealing with a topic that has deep roots in the Christian experience.