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POPE PIUS XIIHis Life HistoryPIOUS MOTHERALTAR BOYNUN’S SCHOOLBRILLIANT STUDENTEugenio Pacelli, who was to become Pope Pius XII, had decided to be a Roman Catholic priest by the time he was ten years old. He might, like his father and grandfather, have been a successful Roman lawyer. But his early determination to become a priest pleased both his parents and they did everything possible to foster his interest in that direction.Born in Rome March 2, 1876, Eugenio had an older brother and two sisters. Their mother, a pious woman, inculcated religious faith in her children as soon as they were able to understand her words. A studious boy, Eugenio donned the cassock for the first time when he was ten years old and became an altar boy at the parish church in the center of old Rome.He first attended a nuns’ school, then the Royal Lyceum and then theCapranica College. Throughout his school career he lived at home with his parents. An exceptional student, he won many honors. Well versed in Latin and Greek, he also showed great aptitude in modern languages. This aptitude led to fluency in six languages—Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and Portuguese. As Pope he often surprised visitors from remote countries by his fluency in their languages—a cultivated product of his studies.At the age of 22 he was ordained a priest and said his first Mass in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore* In reporting it, the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano predicted a “great future” for Pacelli. But it could not, naturally, foresee the steps that would lead the young priest to the Papacy.VATICAN JOBLIBRARY MOUSECORONATION TRIPWhen Eugenio Pacelli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest at the age of 22, he accepted a post as instructor in canon law at the Apollinare Academy. But his teachers’ accounts of his brilliance already had reached the Vatican— the place where he someday would reign as Pius XII. Thus, instead of going to the-Academy, he was summoned to the Vatican to become an apprentice in the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, which is a kind of investigation bureau for the Vatican Secretariat of State.Pacelli aided Pietro Cardinal Gasparri in codifying canon law and became for a time, as he later said, “a library mouse.” He never again left the shadow of the Vatican. Twice he accepted professorships in Catholic institutions, but each time Gasparri persuaded him to change his mind.In 1901 he made the first of his many trips abroad as papal emissary when he carried to London a personal letter of condolence from Pope Leo XIII to Edward XII on the death of Queen Victoria. He returned for the London Eucharistic Congress in 1908. He made a third visit to England in 1911 for the coronation of King George V and received the Coronation Medal. Thus he was the only Pope in history with a British decoration.He moved up to the post of Secretary for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1913. When Benedict XV became Pope in 1914, Gasparri became Secretary*©! State and Pacelli Undersecretary of State.PEACE PLANWITH KAISERAs Undersecretary of State at the Vatican, Monsignor Pacelli—the future Pope Pius XII—aided in drawing up the ambitious peace plan which Pope Benedict XV hoped to have World War I called off in 1917. The Pontiff appointed him nuncio to Bavaria to try to get the Kaiser to agree to peace.Finally the 42-year-old nuncio succeeded in seeing the Kaiser and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and explained to them Benedict’s message urging peace. At first Pacelli thought they were receptive, but his hopes were dashed. The war went on. The Kaiser was impressed by the future Pope, however, and wrote in his memoirs:“Pacelli is a distinguished, likeable man, of high intelligence and excellent manners, the perfect pattern of an eminent prelate of the Church.”RIOTERS THREATENRemaining as nuncio to Bavaria throughout the war. Pacelli was deeply moved by the suffering of the Bavarian people. He stayed in Munich through the Red regime that followed the war and attacked Socialism and Communism from the pulpit of the Munich Cathedral, incurring the hatred of the leftists.An armed band broke into the nunciature one night. Without flinching Pacelli walked down the broad staircase to meet the mob. He was dressed in the robes of office, a gold crucifix suspended from his neck.“You are on extra-territorial soil,” he said calmly. “It’s never wise to kill a diplomat.”The mob left without harming him. Later he received apologies.CARDINAL’S PLACEPRESS COUPMonsignor Pacelli was elevated to the purple on Dec. 16, 1929, and less than two months later was named Secretary of State by Pope Pius XI. Then began a close association which lasted until death ended the long illness of Pius XI on Feb. 10, 1939. Cardinal Pacelli spent an hour with the Pope nearly every day. Perhaps he had almost as much a part in determining church policy as the Pontiff himself.Pius XI, with Cardinal Pacelli at his side, fought back at Italian Fascism after Catholic Action headquarters were raided and pictures of the Pope were thrown into the street. The Pope prepared an encyclical to tell the world his side of the dispute and charged Cardinal Pacelli to get it published without interference by the Italian state.Pacelli commissioned Monsignor Francis J. Spellman — later Cardinal — to do the work. Spellman took the message to the Paris office of the Asso-TOURS U. S.VISITS ARGENTINAdated Press where it was given out for publication. Finally the controversy was settled.In 1936 Pacelli visited the United States and talked privately with President Roosevelt at the White House. He traveled across the continent and back by airplane, visiting a score of dioceses and exhibiting everywhere a democratic manner and smiling personality. On that trip he was a guest at the New York home of Myron C. Taylor, an Episcopalian who later was to become President Roosevelt’s personal envoy to the Vatican after Pacelli became Pope.He gained a first hand knowledge of South America in 1934 when he attended the International Eucharistic Congress at Buenos Aires as papal legate.MADE POPECardinal Pacelli’s conduct of the office of Papal Secretary of State and his popularity with his colleagues led to his election as Pope by the College of Cardinals on the third ballot. He was crowned March 12, 1939, in the eolorful, ages-old ceremony.Pius XII sometimes was called “the modern Pope.” He did not hesitate to discard traditions. In a precedent-defying interview with the Associated Press on the eighth anniversary of his coronation, he said: “Men are commonly children of the age in which they live. Hence the church necessarily must have an alert interest in each age in which her members live.”He was the first Pope to use an electric razor, the first to write his speechcs and church documents on a typewriter, the first to use the telephone regularly. He was the first Secretary of State ever to be elected Pope andthe first Roman in more than two centuries. While Secretary of State he was j instrumental in having installed the Vatican’s first radio broadcasting station.Pius XII seemed particularly at ease with Americans. In an address he !once remarked that the Catholic faith seemed to do as well or bettei in democratic countries — a point of view contrasting to that of his predecessors. IUntil late in life he slept only five or six hours a night. He ate sparingly, jcared little for wine, and for many years kept fit in a gymnasium he had constructed in the Vatican. Electric elevators were installed in the apostolic palace during his regime. Once, to the eonsternation of everyone in the Vatican but himself, he got stuck between floors. When attendants finally reached him they found him calmly reading his breviary.Continued on Page 10
Newspaper Details
La Crosse Tribune
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US
Thu, Oct 09, 1958
Page 9
Full Page
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USA 15 May 2025
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