Pope Pius XII Delivers a Message of Praise and Caution on Easter Sunday: April 13, 1941

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II.

On February 4, 1939, Pope Pius XI made a surprising request. He invited all the bishops of Italy to meet with him in Rome on February 11. He wanted, he said, to have a fatherly conversation with them.

Though very sick, the pope himself prepared the speech he would give to the bishops. He had copies of it made so that, in case he could not give the speech himself, the bishops could read it. The speech was obviously of great importance to Pius. It seems it was to be a strong blow against Fascism and Nazism—a warning to Mussolini not to join hands with Hitler in war. We will never know, however, what effect the speech would have had on Italy and the world, for it was never given. On February 10, 1939—the day before he was to give the speech—Pope Pius XI died.

In less than a month, the Church had a new pope. He was Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican secretary of state, who was crowned Pope Pius XII on March 12, 1939. As cardinal secretary of state, Pacelli had worked closely with Pius XI; it is said that Pius XI had wanted Pacelli to succeed him as pope. Both men had witnessed, with fear and sorrow, the rise of Stalin and Hitler. Together they had worked for justice and the safety of the Church in a world that seemed to care only for power and wealth. Both men could see the war coming; but it was Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII, who actually saw it come.

Pope Pius XII

Since he had served as both papal nuncio to Germany and secretary of state, Pope Pius XII was used to dealing with governments. Before the war broke out, he called on the European governments to keep the peace. When war broke out at last, he refused to take sides so that he could more easily work as a peacemaker. But, though he continually called for peace, Pope Pius XII spoke out against the evils committed by both sides in the conflict.

In his Easter message of April 13, 1941, Pius XII praised all those who fought “for the defense and prosperity of their homeland”; yet, he had harsh words for acts of war that targeted noncombatant men, women, and children. “The ruthless struggle,” he said, “has at times assumed forms which can be described only as atrocious. . . . Undefended cities, country towns and villages have been terrorized by bombing, destroyed by fire, and reduced to ruins.”

In his Christmas message of 1942, broadcast by radio to the world, the pope said the sorrows of war came from the world’s rejection of God and truth. The “earthly city,” he said, had been separated from the “City of God.” Mankind had embraced false ideas about God and man. The pope condemned “Marxist socialism,” but he spoke out against the Liberal economic system that oppressed workers, depriving them of a just wage for their labor and robbing them of their dignity. Liberal ideas about the state, said Pius, had destroyed a true idea of the state and led finally to the belief that the state has complete power over everyone and everything in society.

Pius had strong words for both sides in the war, as when he spoke out against the bombing of civilians. And he had strong words for Nazi persecution of Jews, Slavs, and Gypsies, simply on account of their ethnicity.