Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address
Encyclopedia
Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address was an annual speech delivered by Pope Pius XII
over Vatican Radio
on Christmas
1942.
that rivaled that of the Allied governments
. The Vatican possessed information on the systematic nature of deportations and atrocities, compiled from its own diplomatic corps in Eastern Europe, from Catholic bishops in Germany, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe, from ordinary Catholics, priests, and laity, from the Polish government-in-exile, the foreign diplomats to the Holy See, and various Jews and Jewish organizations. A variety of historians have comprehensively examined the data received by the Vatican, which "covered not just the activity of mobile killing squads but every aspect of the Nazis' murdering process".
However, until 1942, Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione had repeatedly and publicly stated that the Vatican was "unable to confirm atrocity reports". According to Phayer, "regarding Maglione's oft-repeated rejoinder to the effect that something could not be confirmed, it must be noted that he never took steps to confirm the many reports of atrocities that flowed to his office. Had Pope Pius wished to do so, he could have assembled a comprehensive picture of the genocidal crimes of the Nazis".
Messages to the effect that the pope was losing his "moral authority" due to the failure to condemn Nazi atrocities poured in from diplomats accredited to the Vatican from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Cuba, Belgium, and Poland. Moreover, the Allies condemned the genocide of the Jews on December 17, 1942, which—according to Phayer—"must have sent the Holy See scurrying to play catch-up". Pius XII refused to endorse the United Nations
's (not yet an officially chartered body) declaration, as urged by Harold Tittmann, his US ambassador, and indeed, his own speech would be "not as bluntly stated as the United Nations' declaration earlier that month".
The "pivotal words that remain one of the key flashpoints in the Holocaust-related controversy that continues to swirl around him" came near the end of the speech. Pius XII stated:
Pius XII, however, did not address the perpetrators or victims by name. Nor did he mention Jews or antisemitism.
The speech elicited the strongest reaction in the Dutch Catholic Church
. Archbishop of Utrecht, Johannes de Jong
saw the address as a signal for Catholics to publicly confront Nazism. A later pastoral letter from the Dutch bishops claimed to be "following a path indicated by our Holy Father, the Pope" and quoted the address: "The Church would be untrue to herself, ceasing to be a mother, if she turned a deaf ear to children's anguished cries". However, unlike the Christmas address, the Dutch letter went farther and "named names".
Others were more guarded in their reactions. Bishop Konrad von Preysing
of Berlin agreed that the address referred to Jews, but considered it not specific enough. Catholic Poles believed that the address referred to them alone and wished that the pope had identified the Germans as the perpetrators. The Polish government-in-exile in London remained dissatisfied with the address, wishing for a "more trenchant papal condemnation" that named the perpetrators.
The German government expressed displeasure at the Christmas address and boycotted the pope's Christmas eve
liturgy. According to Pinchas Lapide
's Three Popes and the Jews
, on December 27, 1942 the department Prague
of the RSHA
reported the following about the Christmas broadcast that "The Pope has repudiated the National-Socialist New European Order.... He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals." However, Pius XII attempted to assuage the German ambassador, Diego von Bergen
, by pulling him aside and assuring him that his remarks were intended for the Soviets and Stalin rather than the Germans.
Phayer argues that contemporaries and scholars have viewed the speech differently because "we know that the pope would not take up the matter again, but contemporaries did not know that this would be the case. In fact, to assert that Pope Pius himself intended this to be his one and only statement is incorrect".
", and its interpretation remains "unsettled and unsettling". Phayer agrees that the 1942 speech did denounce genocide, but argues that "it is still not clear whose genocide or which genocide he was referring to, and we can do no more than speculate as to why he spoke out". Phayer states that "although the word genocide would not be coined until 1944, Pius XII denounced what we now commonly understand as genocide".
In 2000, Phayer wrote that "Pope Pius's radio talk contained twenty-seven words about the Holocaust out of twenty-six pages of text". While Phayer's views of the speech changed between 2000 and 2008 ("Pius did speak out"), his dismal assessment of the "Vatican's essential passivity in collecting and disseminating genocide information" did not. Phayer states that his change of views came after he was invited by Michael Marrus
to participate in a University of Toronto
conference about the Holocaust and the Netherlands.
Phayer cites the address as evidence of the "adaptability rather than uniform rigidity at the Vatican in the middle of the Holocaust years. The Holy See was in search of a new path for papal policy". He argues that historians (himself included) have been "too dismissive of the 1942 address" although he agrees that "Pius never spoke out again".
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
over Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican.Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave , medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. The Jesuit Order has been charged with the management of Vatican...
on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
1942.
Background
Pius XII possessed a specific knowledge of the HolocaustThe Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
that rivaled that of the Allied governments
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. The Vatican possessed information on the systematic nature of deportations and atrocities, compiled from its own diplomatic corps in Eastern Europe, from Catholic bishops in Germany, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe, from ordinary Catholics, priests, and laity, from the Polish government-in-exile, the foreign diplomats to the Holy See, and various Jews and Jewish organizations. A variety of historians have comprehensively examined the data received by the Vatican, which "covered not just the activity of mobile killing squads but every aspect of the Nazis' murdering process".
However, until 1942, Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione had repeatedly and publicly stated that the Vatican was "unable to confirm atrocity reports". According to Phayer, "regarding Maglione's oft-repeated rejoinder to the effect that something could not be confirmed, it must be noted that he never took steps to confirm the many reports of atrocities that flowed to his office. Had Pope Pius wished to do so, he could have assembled a comprehensive picture of the genocidal crimes of the Nazis".
Messages to the effect that the pope was losing his "moral authority" due to the failure to condemn Nazi atrocities poured in from diplomats accredited to the Vatican from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Cuba, Belgium, and Poland. Moreover, the Allies condemned the genocide of the Jews on December 17, 1942, which—according to Phayer—"must have sent the Holy See scurrying to play catch-up". Pius XII refused to endorse the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
's (not yet an officially chartered body) declaration, as urged by Harold Tittmann, his US ambassador, and indeed, his own speech would be "not as bluntly stated as the United Nations' declaration earlier that month".
Content
The 1942 Christmas address was 26 pages and over 5000 words long and took more than 45 minutes to deliver. The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society. The speech was "crafted to fit the circumstances as he saw them—that is to say, he addressed principles and omitted particulars". According to Rittner and Roth, "always one to choose words carefully, Pius wrote several drafts before he had crafted exactly what he wanted to say on that particular Christmas Eve".The "pivotal words that remain one of the key flashpoints in the Holocaust-related controversy that continues to swirl around him" came near the end of the speech. Pius XII stated:
- "Humanity owes this vow to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline" [also translated: "marked down for death or gradual extinction"]
Pius XII, however, did not address the perpetrators or victims by name. Nor did he mention Jews or antisemitism.
Contemporary reception
The immediate reaction to the speech was generally positive, with the exception of the Nazis and Jewish victims in Poland. Diplomatic criticism of the Vatican's "moral authority" essentially ceased for an entire year, until the deportations of the Italian Jews began in 1943. A New York Times editorial called Pius XII a "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent". Phayer's survey of global news sources notes that every paper that covered the speech did so in a positive light, although none of them considered it front page news. Tittmann pressured Pius XII in their diplomatic meetings to go further in his public statements, but privately wired the State Department that "taken as a whole, the message may be regarded as an arraignment of totalitarianism. Furthermore, the reference to the persecution of the Jews and mass deportations is unmistakeable".The speech elicited the strongest reaction in the Dutch Catholic Church
Roman Catholicism in the Netherlands
The Catholic Church in the Netherlands; , is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. Although the number of Catholics in the Netherlands has decreased significantly in recent decades, the Dutch Catholic Church is today the largest...
. Archbishop of Utrecht, Johannes de Jong
Johannes de Jong
Johannes de Jong was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1936 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII....
saw the address as a signal for Catholics to publicly confront Nazism. A later pastoral letter from the Dutch bishops claimed to be "following a path indicated by our Holy Father, the Pope" and quoted the address: "The Church would be untrue to herself, ceasing to be a mother, if she turned a deaf ear to children's anguished cries". However, unlike the Christmas address, the Dutch letter went farther and "named names".
Others were more guarded in their reactions. Bishop Konrad von Preysing
Konrad von Preysing
Johann Konrad Maria Augustin Felix Graf von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos was a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church...
of Berlin agreed that the address referred to Jews, but considered it not specific enough. Catholic Poles believed that the address referred to them alone and wished that the pope had identified the Germans as the perpetrators. The Polish government-in-exile in London remained dissatisfied with the address, wishing for a "more trenchant papal condemnation" that named the perpetrators.
The German government expressed displeasure at the Christmas address and boycotted the pope's Christmas eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
liturgy. According to Pinchas Lapide
Pinchas Lapide
Pinchas Lapide was a Jewish theologian and Israeli historian. He was an Israeli diplomat from 1951 to 1969, among other position acting as Israeli Consul to Milan, and was instrumental in gaining recognition for the young state of Israel. He wrote more than 35 books during his lifetime...
's Three Popes and the Jews
Three Popes and the Jews
Three Popes and the Jews is a 1967 book by Pinchas Lapide, then Israeli Consul to Milan. The "three popes" are Pope Pius XII , Pope John XXIII , and Pope Paul VI .- Reviews :Rabbi David G...
, on December 27, 1942 the department Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
of the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
reported the following about the Christmas broadcast that "The Pope has repudiated the National-Socialist New European Order.... He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals." However, Pius XII attempted to assuage the German ambassador, Diego von Bergen
Diego von Bergen
Dr. Carl-Ludwig Diego von Bergen was the ambassador to the Holy See from the Kingdom of Prussia , the Weimar Republic , and Nazi Germany , most notably during the negotiation of the Reichskonkordat and during World War II.From 1930 to 1943, by virtue of seniority, von Bergen was also the doyen of...
, by pulling him aside and assuring him that his remarks were intended for the Soviets and Stalin rather than the Germans.
Phayer argues that contemporaries and scholars have viewed the speech differently because "we know that the pope would not take up the matter again, but contemporaries did not know that this would be the case. In fact, to assert that Pope Pius himself intended this to be his one and only statement is incorrect".
Scholarly interpretation
According to Rittner and Roth, the speech remains a "lightning rod in debates about Pius XII and the HolocaustPope Pius XII and the Holocaust
The relationship between Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust has long been disputed, with some scholars arguing that he kept silent during the Holocaust, while others have argued that he saved thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of Jews....
", and its interpretation remains "unsettled and unsettling". Phayer agrees that the 1942 speech did denounce genocide, but argues that "it is still not clear whose genocide or which genocide he was referring to, and we can do no more than speculate as to why he spoke out". Phayer states that "although the word genocide would not be coined until 1944, Pius XII denounced what we now commonly understand as genocide".
In 2000, Phayer wrote that "Pope Pius's radio talk contained twenty-seven words about the Holocaust out of twenty-six pages of text". While Phayer's views of the speech changed between 2000 and 2008 ("Pius did speak out"), his dismal assessment of the "Vatican's essential passivity in collecting and disseminating genocide information" did not. Phayer states that his change of views came after he was invited by Michael Marrus
Michael Marrus
Michael Robert Marrus is a Canadian historian of France, the Holocaust and Jewish history. He was born in Toronto and received his BA at the University of Toronto in 1963 and his MA and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and 1968...
to participate in a University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
conference about the Holocaust and the Netherlands.
Phayer cites the address as evidence of the "adaptability rather than uniform rigidity at the Vatican in the middle of the Holocaust years. The Holy See was in search of a new path for papal policy". He argues that historians (himself included) have been "too dismissive of the 1942 address" although he agrees that "Pius never spoke out again".
External links
- English translation by the Eternal Word Television NetworkEternal Word Television NetworkThe Eternal Word Television Network is an American cable television network which presents Catholic-themed programming. It was founded in 1980 by Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA...