{"id":62678,"date":"2026-05-06T21:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62678"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:58:11","slug":"pacelli-insulted-hitler-new-text-reignites-historical-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2026\/05\/06\/pacelli-insulted-hitler-new-text-reignites-historical-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacelli Insulted Hitler: New Text Reignites Historical Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-133791\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pacelli_hitler.webp\" alt=\"pacelli hitler\" width=\"602\" height=\"316\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDelusional\u201d and \u201carrogant\u201d: when Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pius XII, intensified his criticism of Hitler. A text unknown until today.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">An unpublished document is fueling the historical debate surrounding <mark><strong>Eugenio Pacelli<\/strong><\/mark>, the future Pope Pius XII.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The text, dating back to 1937, shows the then Cardinal Secretary of State firmly intervening <strong>against Nazi propaganda<\/strong> and in defense of the American cardinal <strong>George Mundelein<\/strong>, guilty of having publicly attacked Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The controversy arose after a private speech delivered by Mundelein in Chicago, in which the prelate <strong>mocked<\/strong> the F\u00fchrer by calling him an &#8220;Austrian paperhanger&#8221; and a &#8220;little upstart,&#8221; while openly criticizing Goebbels, G\u00f6ring, and the German regime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Berlin reacted immediately, <strong>furiously protesting<\/strong> to the Holy See.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Pacelli on Hitler: &#8220;Arrogant and Delusional&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was then that Pacelli, destined two years later to become Pope under the name of <strong>Pius XII<\/strong>, took a stand in a diplomatic text now <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/it\/vaticano\/news\/2026-05\/eugenio-pacelli-pio-xii-convegno-roma-santa-maria-sopra-minerva.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brought back to public attention<\/a><\/em><\/strong> during the conference <em>&#8220;Eugenio Pacelli &#8211; Pius XII Between the City of God and the City of Man&#8221;<\/em> by <strong>Andrea Tornielli<\/strong>, editorial director of Vatican media.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the document, Pacelli <strong>refused<\/strong> to condemn the American cardinal\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Doing so, he said, <i>\u201cwould be an act of weakness that would only make the leaders of National Socialism and <strong>Hitler himself even more arrogant<\/strong>, since in his <strong>self-delusion<\/strong> he believes that the entire world must immediately bow before him.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the time, not many Secretaries of State were capable of <strong>confronting Hitler<\/strong> in such a way, even publicly calling him arrogant and delusional while <strong>further reinforcing<\/strong> the delegitimization already advanced by the American cardinal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The future Pius XII also <strong>&#8220;saved&#8221;<\/strong> the Archbishop of Chicago from the humiliation of a retraction, leading the then <strong>Pope Pius XI<\/strong> to express his support by describing Pacelli as <i>\u201cour Cardinal Secretary of State, for whom <strong>no praise is sufficient<\/strong>.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Stay updated by <strong>subscribing<\/strong> to our new channels:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VbBFa0m9hXF1g4wrUT0z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-132039\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/whatsapp.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"74\" height=\"75\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/uccr_news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-132040\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/telegram.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"74\" height=\"73\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Historical Evidence on Pius XII<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A significant stance, especially in light of the <strong>accusations<\/strong> that for decades portrayed Pius XII as <strong>excessively cautious<\/strong> toward Nazism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The conference in Rome was organized as part of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Roman pontiff\u2019s birth, bringing together <strong>historians and scholars<\/strong> committed to reassessing Pacelli\u2019s figure in light of newly uncovered archival documents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In recent years, in fact, the opening of the Vatican archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XII has revived studies on his <strong>diplomatic activity<\/strong> both before and after his election in 1939.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At a 2023 conference, for example, a previously <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.avvenire.it\/agora\/cultura\/la-scelta-di-pio-xii-sulla-shoah-prudenza-ma-non-silenzio_70150\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unpublished message<\/a><\/em><\/strong> sent by <strong>Pius XII<\/strong> to the Bishop of W\u00fcrzburg, Matthias Ehrenfried, was revealed. In it, he wrote the emblematic words: <i>\u201cWhere the Pope <strong>would like to cry out loudly<\/strong>, his office compels him to restrain himself and remain silent.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A prudence now considered justified by several twentieth-century historians, such as <strong>David Bidussa<\/strong> and <strong>Angelo Varni<\/strong>, who acknowledge that public condemnations would have been <i>\u201c<strong>counterproductive<\/strong> for the persecuted themselves\u201d<\/i> and that, for this reason, the Vatican preferred <i>\u201cinstead to act concretely through <strong>a hidden rescue effort<\/strong>\u201d<\/i> carried out diplomatically in favor of the Jews.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The experience of the <strong>furious Nazi reaction<\/strong> to the encyclical <i>Mit brennender Sorge<\/i>, written &#8220;against&#8221; Hitler, taught an important lesson: the Germans unleashed a harsh repression against the German Church, helping convince <strong>Pius XII<\/strong> of the need to maintain diplomatic caution during the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Rabbis in Favor of Pius XII<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Several rabbis and Jewish scholars, beginning with <strong>David Gil Dalin<\/strong> (author of <strong><i>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.it\/leggenda-nera-del-papa-Hitler\/dp\/883848662X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Myth of Hitler\u2019s Pope<\/a>\u201d<\/i><\/strong>, Piemme 2007), have <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2025\/01\/29\/pio-xii-prudenza-e-aiuti-segreti-agli-ebrei-nuove-scoperte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documented<\/a><\/em><\/strong> Pope Pacelli\u2019s concern over possible reprisals <strong>against the Jews<\/strong> in the event of a direct confrontation with Hitler.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And yet, at the same time, there was also the work of <strong>saving thousands of Jews<\/strong>, so much so that Dalin himself suggested honoring Pius XII as a \u201cRighteous Among the Nations,\u201d as was also requested by several prominent Jewish contemporaries of the Pope (Isaac Herzog, Golda Meir, Chaim Weizmann, Pinchas Lapide, etc.).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another of the many recent discoveries came in 2022, when historian <strong>Antonello Carvigiani<\/strong> <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2022\/02\/28\/pio-xii-nascose-gli-ebrei-nei-conventi-nuove-prove\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discovered<\/a><\/em><\/strong> a new document proving Pius XII\u2019s direct request to save and <strong>hide Jews<\/strong> in Roman convents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">From the recent discoveries concerning the years preceding his pontificate to the new materials emerging from the Vatican archives, <strong>the historical profile of Pius XII<\/strong> no longer deserves to be reduced to ideological simplifications, but must instead be reconsidered in light of the evidence that restores <strong>the truth<\/strong> about his actions during the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDelusional\u201d and \u201carrogant\u201d: when Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pius XII, intensified his criticism of Hitler. A text unknown until today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":26,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1736,2201,2200],"class_list":["post-62678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-pius-xii","tag-pius-xii-hitler","tag-pius-xii-nazism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pacelli Insulted Hitler: New Text Reignites Historical Debate - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cDelusional\u201d and \u201carrogant\u201d: when Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pius XII, intensified his criticism of Hitler. 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