A Tale of Two Popes

A recent discussion got me thinking.  A person was criticizing Pope Pius XII for what many have perceived as not taking a strong enough stand against Nazi Germany during WWII.

I tend to agree.  Granted, there were some realities involved.  Namely, that the church was headquartered in a virtually undefended city/state in the middle of an Axis power.  The criticisms of Pius XII are pretty well documented, and in my opinion, relatively well-founded.

This has become a bit of a hot-button issue as he is now being considered for canonization.

However, people all too often don't hear about his predecessor, Pius XI.

If ever there were a model of principled opposition to the practices of the Nazis, it was Pius XI.  It started with the 1937 encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge.  It was, I believe, the first encyclical ever written in German.  It was published and distributed throughout Germany and the church read it aloud to Roman Catholics.

The result?  Numerous Catholics were rounded up and thrown into concentration camps for it.  Why?  It was basically a direct opposition to the practices of the Nazis.

It included such statements as:

"Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds."

Basically, that you can be a good Christian, but you cannot reconcile racism or despotism or the excesses of nationalism with your Christian faith.

It was as close as anybody came to punching Adolph Hitler in the nose.

Keep in mind the political climate at the time, too.  The entire world was a group of Hitler appeasers.  Neville Chamberlain was perhaps the most notable, but frankly, nobody wanted to oppose the Nazis.

As if bopping der fuhrer in the nose wasn't enough, he went even further in a public address in the Vatican to Belgian pilgrims in 1938: "Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites".

A person once asked me if Jesus would have told his followers to be true to Christian teachings if the result were that they would be rounded up and thrown into jails by the Romans.

I think we all know the answer to that question. 

Because of this, Pius XII may be rationalized as bowing to the political realties of his day.  I consider him the equivalent of Switzerland.  This is not something I say as a compliment.

However, Pius XI was the true hero, virtually alone in the entire world at the time.  Speaking out against a grave injustice and continuing to do so, even when the consequences were dire.  Even when the rest of the world clearly did not have his back and gave a collective yawn when Catholics were rounded up and sent to their doom.

Not every man is a great man.  Not every era produces one.  However, they do come along now and then.  All the more important that we recognize them when they come.