Pope Pius XI
147858
226062881
2008-07-16T17:40:27Z
199.90.35.12
/* Mit Brennender Sorge */
{{Infobox pope|
English name=Pius XI
[[Image:Pius XI.jpg|200px]]|
birth_name=Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti|
term_start=[[February 6]] [[1922]]|
term_end=[[February 10]] [[1939]]|
predecessor=[[Pope Benedict XV|Benedict XV]]|
successor=[[Pope Pius XII|Pius XII]]|
birth_date={{birth date|1857|5|31|mf=y}}|
birthplace=[[Desio]], [[Italy]]|
dead=dead|
death_date={{death date and age|1939|2|10|1857|5|31|mf=y}}|
deathplace=[[Apostolic Palace]], [[Vatican City]]|
other=Pius}}
'''Pope Pius XI''' ([[Ecclesiastical Latin|Latin]]: ''Pius PP. XI''; [[Italian language|Italian]]: ''Pio XI''; [[May 31]] [[1857]] – [[February 10]] [[1939]]), born '''Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti''', reigned as [[Pope]] from [[February 6]] [[1922]], and as [[sovereignty|sovereign]] of [[Vatican City]] from 1929 until his death on [[February 10]] [[1939]]. He issued the [[encyclical]]
''[[Quas Primas]]'' establishing the [[feast of Christ the King]], and took as his papal motto "Christ's peace in Christ's kingdom".
==Early life and career==
[[Image:Pius XI Birthplace.jpg|thumb|left|The house in which Ratti was born.]]
Achille Ratti was born in [[Desio]], [[province of Milan]] in 1857, the son of an owner of a [[silk]] [[factory]]. <ref>D'Orazi,15-19</ref> He was ordained as a priest in 1879 and embarked on an academic career within the Church. He obtained three doctorates (in philosophy, canon law and theology) at the [[Gregorian University]] in [[Rome]], and then from 1882 to 1888 was a professor at the seminary in [[Padua]]. His scholarly speciality was as an expert [[paleographer]], a student of ancient and medieval Church manuscripts. Eventually, he left seminary teaching to work full time at the Ambrosian Library (the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]]) in [[Milan]], from 1888 to 1911. <ref>D'Orazi,14-24</ref>
[[Image:The Papal Parentage.JPG|thumb|The parents of Pius XI.]]
During this time, he edited and published an edition of the [[Ambrosian rite|Ambrosian]] [[Missal]] (the rite of Mass used in Milan), and researched and wrote much on the life and works of St. [[Charles Borromeo]]. He became chief of the Library in 1907, and undertook an impressively thorough programme of restoration and re-classification of the Ambrosian's collection. The scholar was also an avid [[mountaineer]] in his spare time, reaching the summits of [[Monte Rosa]], the [[Matterhorn]], [[Mont Blanc]] and [[Presolana]]. In 1911, at [[Pope Pius X]]'s (1903 – 1914) invitation, he moved to the Vatican to become Vice-Prefect of the [[Vatican Library]], and in 1914 was promoted to Prefect. <ref>D'Orazi,27 </ref>
<br clear="all" />
===Expulsion from Poland===
[[Image:As a Young Priest.JPG|thumb|Pius XI as a young priest.]]
Ratti's career took a sharp turn in 1918. [[Pope Benedict XV]] (1914 – 1922) asked him to leave the Library and take on a vital diplomatic post: apostolic visitor, (that is, papal representative), in [[Poland]], a state newly restored to existence, but at that time still under effective German and Austro-Hungarian control. Before all other heads of State, [[Pope Benedict XVI]] in October 1918 congratulated the Polish people to their independence. <ref>Schmidlin III, 306</ref> On March 1919, he nominated ten new bishops and, soon after, [[Achille Ratti]], already in Warsaw as his representative, as papal nuncio. <ref>Schmidlin III, 306</ref> He was consecrated as a [[titular bishop|titular archbishop]] in October 1919. Benedict XV and Nucio Ratti repeatedly cautioned Polish authorities against persecuting the Lithuanian and Ruthenian clergy. <ref>Schmidlin III, 307</ref> During the Bolshevik advance against Warsaw, the Pope asked for world-wide public prayers for Poland, while [[Nuncio]] Ratti as the only foreing diplomat showed personal courage, refusing to flee from [[Warsaw]] when the [[Red Army]] was approaching it in August 1920. <ref>Fontenelle 34-44</ref> On June 11, 1921, Benedict XV asked Ratti to deliver his message to the Polish episcopate, warning against political misuses of spiritual power, urging again peaceful coexistence with neighbouring people, stating that “love of country has its limits in justice and obligations” <ref>AAS 1921, 566</ref>
[[Image:Pius XI leaning.jpg|thumb|left |Pius XI, shortly after his consecration.]]
Ratti, a scholar, intended to work for [[Poland]] and build bridges to the [[Soviet Union]], hoping even, to shed his blood for Russia. <ref>Stehle 25</ref> [[Pope Benedict XV]] needed him as a [[diplomat]] and not as a[[martyr]] and forbade any trip into the [[USSR]], although he was the official papal delegate for Russia. <ref>Stehle 25</ref> Therefore he continued his contacts to Russia. This did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. The Pope sent nuncio Ratti to Silesia to act against potential political agitations of thePolish Catholic clergy. <ref>Schmidlin III, 307</ref> Ratti was asked to leave Poland after that. “While he tried honestly to show himself as a friend of Poland, Warsaw forced his departure, after his neutrality in [[Silesia]]n voting was questioned” <ref>Stehle 26 </ref> by Germans and Poles. Nationalistic Germans objected to a Polish nuncio supervising elections, and Poles were upset because he curtailed agitating clergy <ref>Schmidlin IV, 15</ref> November 20, when German Cardinal [[Adolf Bertram]] announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed in Warsaw. <ref>Schmidlin IV, 15</ref> Two year later, Achille Ratti became [[Pope Pius XI]], shaping Vatican policies towards Poland with [[Pietro Gasparri]] and [[Eugenio Pacelli]] for the following thirty-six years. (1922-1958)
===Elevation to Papacy===
[[Image:Pius XI seated.jpg|thumb|right| Pius XI as Archbishop of Milan.]]
His had been a fast rise in the world of practical Church affairs after his long years of scholarship. In the [[consistory]] of June 3, 1921, Pope Benedict created three new cardinals, among them Achille Ratti, who was appointed as [[Archbishop of Milan]] simultaneously. The Pope joked with them, saying, well, today I gave you the red hat, but soon it will be while for one of you.<ref> Fontenelle 40</ref> After the Vatican celebration, Ratti withdrew for a retreat into the Benedictine monastery [[Monte Cassino]] to prepare spiritually for his new role. He accompanied Milanese pilgrims to Our Lady of Lourdes | Lourdes in August of 1921 .<ref> Fontenelle 40</ref> Before his enthronisation on Milan on September 8, Ratti visited his home town [[Desio]], where he received a tumultuous welcome. His episcopate in Milan was cut short on January 22, 1922, when it was announced that [[Pope Benedict XV]] had died that day unexpectedly of [[pneumonia]].<ref>Fontenelle 44</ref> At the ensuing conclave (the longest of the 20th century), Ratti was elected Pope on [[February 6]] [[1922]] on the fourteenth ballot, taking the name of Pius XI. His first act was to revive the traditional public blessing given from the balcony, ''[[Urbi et Orbi]]'', ("to the city and to the world"). His immediate predecessors had refused to do so ever since the loss of Rome from papal hands to the Italian state in 1870.<ref>Fontenelle 44- 56</ref>
<br clear="all" />
==Public teaching: "Christ's Peace in Christ's Kingdom"==
[[Image:Pius XI after Coronation.jpg|left|thumb|200px|[[Pope Pius XI]] (1922-1939) Warsaw forced his departure as Nuncio. Two years later, he was Pope. He signed concordats with numerous countries including Lithuania and Poland]]
Pius XI's first encyclical as Pope was directly related to his aim of Christianising all aspects of increasingly secular societies.
''Ubi arcano'', promulgated in December 1922, inaugurated the "Catholic Action" movement. The idea was to involve lay men and women in an organisation, under the close supervision of the bishops, which would actively spread Catholic values and political ideas throughout society. Pius XI also gave his approval to specialised movements like the [[Jocists]], associations of young Catholic industrial workers who aimed to Christianise the workforce, and provide a Catholic alternative to Communist and socialist trade unions. Similar goals were in evidence in his encyclicals ''Divini illus magistri'' (1929), making clear the need for Christian over secular education, and ''[[Casti Connubii]]'' (1930), praising Christian marriage and family life as the basis for any good society, condemning artificial means of contraception, but also acknowledging at the same time the unitive aspect of intercourse as licit:
** Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.<ref name=casti>see [[Casti Connubii]]</ref>
** Nor are those considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial rights there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider so long as they are subordinated to the primary end and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved.<ref name=casti/>
===Political Teachings===
In contrast to some of his predecessors in the nineteenth century, who had favoured [[monarchy]] and dismissed [[democracy]], Pius XI took a pragmatic approach toward the different forms of government. In his encyclical ''[[Dilectissima Nobis]]'' (1933), in which he addressed the situation of the Church in Republican Spain, he proclaimed, that the Church is not "bound to one form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God and of Christian consciences are safe", and specifically referred to "various civil institutions, be they monarchic or republican, aristocratic or democratic".<ref>[http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_03061933_dilectissima-nobis_en.html Vatican website information re pontificate and policies of Pius XI]</ref>
<br clear="all" />
=== Social teachings===
{{Social teachings of the popes}}
Pius XI argued for a reconstruction of economic and political life on the basis of religious values. ''[[Quadragesimo Anno]]'' (1931), was written to mark 'forty years' since [[Pope Leo XIII]]'s (1878 – 1903) encyclical ''Rerum novarum'', and restated that encyclical's warnings against both socialism and unrestrained capitalism, as enemies to human freedom and dignity. Pius XI instead envisioned an economy based on co-operation and solidarity .
====Private Property ====
The Church has a role in discussing the issues related to the social order. Social and economic issues are vital to her not from a technical point of view but in terms of moral and ethical issues involved. Ethical considerations include the nature of private property. <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 44-52</ref> within the Catholic Church several conflicting views had developed. Pope Pius XI declares private property essential for the development and freedom of the individual. Those who deny private property, deny personal freedom and development. But, so Pius, private property has a social function as well. Private Property looses its morality, if it is not subordinated under the common good. Therefore governments have a right to redistribution policies. In extreme cases, the Pope grants the State a right of expropriation of private property. <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 114-115</ref>
==== Capital and Labour====
[[Image:PioXI et Pacelliinaugurazioneradiovaticana2.jpg|200px|thumb|left| ''Pope Pius XI inaugurates Radio Vatican with Cardinal Pacelli'']]
A related issue, so Pius is the relation between capital and labour and the determination of fair wages. <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 63-75</ref> Pius develops the following ethical mandate: The Church considers it a perversion of industrial society, to have developed sharp opposite camps based on income. He welcomes all attempts to alleviate these cross differences. Three elements determine a fair wage: His family, the economic condition of the enterprise and the economy as a whole. The family has an innate right for development, but this is only possible within the framework of a functioning economy and a sound enterprise. This Pope Pius concludes, that solidarity not conflict is a necessary condition, given the mutual interdependence of the parties involved. <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 63-75</ref>
====Social Order====
Industrialization, so Pius XI, resulted in less freedom at the individual and communal level, because numerous free social entities got absorbed by larger ones. A society of individuals became a mass and class society. People are much more interdependent, than in ancient times, and become egoistic or class-conscious in order to save some freedom for themselves. The pope demands more solidarity, especially between employers and employees through new forms of cooperation and communication. Pius draws a negative view of Capitalism, especially of the anonymous international finance markets. <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 99 ff</ref> He identifies here problems: dangers for small and medium-size enterprises, who have insufficient access to capital markets and are squeezed or destroyed by the larger ones. He warns, that capital interests can become a danger for states, who would be reduced to be “chained slaves of individual interests” <ref>Quadragesimo Anno 109</ref>
Pius XI was the first Pope to utilise the power of modern communications technology in evangelising the wider world. He established [[Vatican Radio]] in 1931, and was the first Pope to broadcast on radio.
<br clear="all" />
==Internal Church Affairs and Ecumenism==
In his management of the Church's internal affairs Pius XI mostly continued the policies of his predecessor. Like [[Benedict XV]], he put a great emphasis on spreading Catholicism in Africa and Asia and on the training of native clergy in these "mission territories". He ordered every religious order to devote some of its personnel and resources to missionary work.
Pius XI continued the approach of Benedict XV on the issue of how to deal with the threat of [[Modernism (Roman Catholicism)|modernism]] in Catholic theology. The Pope was thoroughly orthodox theologically and had no sympathy with modernist ideas that relativised fundamental Catholic teachings. He condemned modernism in his writings and addresses. However, his opposition to modernist theology was by no means a rejection of new scholarship within the Church, as long as it was developed within the framework of orthodoxy and compatible with the Church's teachings. {{Fact|date=November 2007}} Pius XI was interested in supporting serious scientific study within the Church, establishing the [[Pontifical Academy for the Sciences]] in 1936.
Pius XI strongly encouraged devotion to the [[Sacred Heart]] in his encyclical ''[[Miserentissimus Redemptor]]'' (1928). He canonised some important saints: [[Bernadette Soubirous]], [[Therese of Lisieux]], [[John Vianney]], [[John Fisher]], [[Thomas More]], and [[Saint John Bosco|John Bosco]]. He also named several new [[Doctors of the Church]]: [[John of the Cross]], [[Albert the Great]], [[Peter Canisius]] and [[Robert Bellarmine]].
Pius XI was the first Pope to directly address the Christian ecumenical movement. Like Benedict XV he was interested in achieving reunion with the [[Eastern Orthodox]] (failing that, he determined to give special attention the [[Eastern Catholic]] churches). {{Fact|date=November 2007}} He also allowed the dialogue between Roman Catholics and [[Anglo-Catholics|Anglicans]] which had been planned during Benedict XV's pontificate to take place at [[Mechelen]]. However, these enterprises were firmly aimed at actually reuniting with the Roman Catholic Church other Christians who basically agreed with Catholic doctrine, bringing them back under Papal authority. To the broad pan-Protestant ecumenical movement he took a more negative attitude.
He condemned, in his 1928 encyclical, ''Mortalium Animos'', the idea that Christian unity could be attained by establishing a broad federation of many bodies holding varying doctrines (the widespread view among Protestant ecumenists); rather, the Catholic Church was the one true Church, all her teachings were objectively true, and Christian unity could only be by achieved by non-Catholic Christian denominations rejoining the Catholic Church and accepting the doctrines they had rejected. {{Fact|date=November 2007}}
==Diplomacy==
[[Image:PiusXICOA.jpg|thumb|right|Coat of Arms of Pope Pius XI]]
Pius XI's reign was one of busy diplomatic activity for the Vatican. The Church made advances on several fronts in the 1920s, improving relations with France and, most spectacularly, settling the [[Roman question]] with Italy and gaining recognition of an independent Vatican state.
===Relations with France===
France's republican government had long been strongly anti-clerical. The Law of Separation of Church and State in 1905 had expelled many religious orders from France, declared all Church buildings to be government property, and had led to the shutting down of most Church schools. Since that time Pope Benedict XV had sought a rapprochement, but it was not achieved until the reign of Pope [[Pius XI]]. In ''[[Maximam Gravissimamque]]'' (1924) many areas of dispute were tacitly settled and a bearable coexistence made possible. {{Fact|date=November 2007}}
In 1926 Pius XI condemned [[Action Française]], the monarchist movement which had until this time operated with the support of a great many French Catholics. The Pope judged that it was folly for the French Church to continue to tie its fortunes to the unlikely dream of a monarchist restoration, and found the movement's tendency to defend the Catholic religion in merely utilitarian and nationalistic terms, as a vital contributing factor to the greatness and stability of France, unorthodox. {{Fact|date=November 2007}}
Although the condemnation caused great heartache for many French Catholics, most obeyed and ''Action Française'' never really recovered.
===Relations with Italy and the Lateran Treaties===
[[Image:VaticanCity Annex.jpg|thumb|Boundary map of [[Vatican City]], taken from the annex of the [[Lateran Treaty]].]]
Pius XI aimed to end the long breach between the papacy and the Italian government and to gain recognition once more of the sovereign independence of the Holy See. This goal led to one of his signature achievements, the signing in 1929 of the ''Lateran Treaty'' with the Italian government and the establishment of an independent Vatican City State.
Most of the Papal States had been seized by the forces of King [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy]] (1861 – 1878) in 1860 at the [[Italian unification|foundation of the modern unified Italian state]], and the rest, including Rome, in 1870. The Papacy and the Italian Government had been at loggerheads ever since: the Popes had refused to recognise the Italian state's seizure of the Papal States, instead withdrawing to become [[prisoner in the Vatican|prisoners in the Vatican]], and the Italian government's policies had always been [[anti-clerical]]. Now Pius XI thought a compromise would be the best solution.
To bolster his own new regime, [[Mussolini]] was also eager for an agreement. After years of negotiation, in 1929, the Pope supervised the signing of the [[Lateran Treaties]] with the Italian government. According to the terms of the first treaty, [[Vatican City]] was given sovereignty as an enclave of the city of [[Rome]] in return for the Vatican relinquishing its claim to the former territories of the Papal States. Pius XI thus became a head of state (albeit the smallest state in the world), the first Pope who could be termed as such since the Papal States fell after the unification of [[Italy]] in the 19th century. A second treaty, the concordat with Italy, recognised Roman Catholicism as the official state religion of Italy, gave the Church power over marriage law in Italy (ensuring the illegality of divorce), and restored Catholic religious teaching in all schools. In return, the clergy would not take part in politics. A third treaty provided financial compensation
to the Vatican for the loss of the Papal States. During the reign of Pius XI this money was used for investments in the stock markets and real estate. To manage these investments, the Pope appointed the lay-person [[Bernadino Nogara]], who through shrewd investing in stocks, [[gold]], and futures markets, significantly increased the [[Catholic Church]]'s financial holdings. However contrary to myth it did not create enormous Vatican wealth. {{Fact|date=November 2007}} The compensation was relatively modest, and most of the money from investments simply paid for the upkeep of the expensive-to-maintain stock of historic buildings in the Vatican which previously had been maintained through funds raised from the [[Papal States]] up until 1870.
The Vatican's relationship with Mussolini's government deteriorated drastically in the following years as Mussolini's totalitarian ambitions began to impinge more and more on the autonomy of the Church. For example, the Church's youth groups were dissolved in 1931 to allow Mussolini's fascist youth groups complete dominance.
{{Fact|date=November 2007}} As a consequence Pius issued the [[encyclical]] ''[[Non Abbiamo Bisogno]]'' in 1931, in which he criticized the idea of a totalitarian state and Mussolini's treatment of the Church. Relations with Mussolini continued to worsen throughout the remainder of Pius XI's pontificate.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}
=== Relations with Germany and the Concordat of 1933===
[[Image:Konkordat.jpg|thumb|Signing of the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' on [[July 20]] [[1933]]. From left to right: German Vice-Chancellor [[Franz von Papen]], representing Germany, Monsignor [[Giuseppe Pizzardo]], [[Pope Pius XII|Cardinal Pacelli]], [[Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani]], German ambassador [[Rudolf Buttmann]].]]
Pius XI was eager to negotiate concordats with any country that was willing to do so, thinking that written treaties were the best way to protect the Church's rights against governments increasingly inclined to interfere in such matters. Twelve concordats were signed during his reign with various types of governments, including some German state governments, and with [[Austria]]. When [[Adolf Hitler]] became Chancellor of Germany on [[January 30]] [[1933]] and asked for a concordat, Pius XI accepted. Negotiations were conducted on his behalf by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later became [[Pope Pius XII]] (1939 – 1958). The [[Reichskonkordat]] was signed by Pacelli and by the German government in June 1933, and included guarantees of liberty for the Church, independence for Catholic organisations and youth groups, and religious teaching in schools.
==== Mit Brennender Sorge ====
Pius XI responded to ever increasing Nazi hostility to Christianity by issuing in 1937 the encyclical ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'' condemning the Nazi ideology of racism and totalitarianism and Nazi violations of the concordat. Copies had to be smuggled into Germany so they could be read from the pulpit <ref>(Manners 2002, p. 374)</ref>
The encyclical, the only one ever written in German, was addressed to German bishops and was read in all parishes of Germany. The actual writing of the text is credited to Munich Cardinal [[Michael von Faulhaber]] to the Cardinal Secretary of State, [[Eugenio Pacelli]], who later became Pope Pius XII. <ref>August Franzen, Remigius Bäumer Papstgeschichte Herder Freiburg, 1988, p.394</ref> There was no pre-announcement of the encyclical, and its distribution was kept secret in an attempt to ensure the unhindered public reading of its contents in all the Catholic Churches of Germany.
This encyclical condemned particularly the paganism of the national-socialism ideology, the myth of race and blood, and the fallacy of their conception of God.
* ''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'' <ref>Mit Brennender Sorge, 8</ref>
===Conspiracy of Silence===
[[Image:Pius xi 1.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Pope Pius XI on his working desk]]
While numerous German Catholics, who participated in the secret printing and distribution of the encylical, went to jail and concentration camps, the reaction in the Western democracies remained silence, which Pope Pius XI labeled bitterly as ''a conspiracy of silence.'' <ref>Franzen, 395</ref> As the extreme nature of Nazi racial [[antisemitism]] became obvious, and as Mussolini in the late 1930s began imitating Hitler's anti-Jewish race laws in Italy, Pius XI continued to make his position clear, both in [[Mit brennender Sorge]] and in a public address in the Vatican to Belgian pilgrims in 1938: ''"Mark well that in the Catholic [[Mass (liturgy)|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 [[Christianity|Christian]] to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [Christians] are all Semites"'' <ref>Marchione 1997, p. 53).</ref> These comments were subsequently published worldwide but had little resoncen at the time in the secular media. <ref>Franzen, 395</ref>
===Relations with the Soviet Union and Communism===
Pius XI was horrified by Communist persecution of Christians in the [[Soviet Union]]. but he mandated [[Berlin]], Nuncio [[Eugenio Pacelli]] to work secretly on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. Pacelli in the name of the pope, negotiated food shipments for Russia, where the Church was persecuted. He met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister [[Georgi Chicherin]], who rejected any kind of religious education, the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican. <ref>(Hansjakob Stehle, Die Ostpolitik des Vatikans, Piper, München, 1975, p.139-141</ref> Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until Pius XI ordered them to be discontinued in 1927, because they generated no results an were dangerous to the Church, if made public.
The " harsh persecution short of total annihilation of the clergy, monks, and nuns and other people associated with the Church, <ref>Riasanovsky 617</ref>, continued well into the Thirties. In addition to executing and exiling many clerics, monks and laymen, the confiscating of Church implements "for victims of famine" and the closing of churches were common. <ref>Riasanovsky 634</ref> Yet according to an official report based on the [[Census]] of 1936, some 55% of Soviet citizens identified themselves openly as [[religious]], while others possibly [[conceal]]ed their [[belief]]. <ref>Riasanovsky 634</ref> In 1937 the Pope issued the encyclical [[Divini Redemptoris]], which was a condemnation of Communism and the Soviet regime." He did name a French Jesuit to go to the USSR and consecreate in secret Roman Catholic bishops. It was a failure, as most of them ended up in gulags or were otherwise killed by the communist regime.
===Relations with Mexico===
[[Image:Miguel Pro.gif|250px|thumb|right| ''[[Blessed Miguel Pro]], arms spread in the form of a cross, was killed for his faith on November 23, 1937 by the government in Mexico during the pontificate of Pius XI despite of his protests '' ]]
During the pontificate of Pius XI, the Catholic Church was subjected to extreme persecutions in Mexico, which resulted in the death of over 5000 priests, bishops and religious. <ref>Franzen 398</ref> In the state of [[Tabasco]] the Church was in effect outlawed altogether. In his encyclical ''Iniquis Afflictisque'' from November 18, 1926, Pope Pius protested against the slaughter and persecution. The [[United States of America]] intervened in [[1929]] and moderated an agreement. <ref>Franzen 398</ref> The persecutions resumed in 1931. Pius XI condemned the Mexican government again in his 1932 encyclical ''Acerba Animi''. Problems continued with reduced hostilities until 1940, when in the new pontificate of [[Pope Pius XII]] President [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]] returned the Mexican churches to the Catholic Church. <ref>Franzen 398</ref>
===Relations with Spain ===
The Republican government which had come to power in [[Spain]] in 1931 was strongly anti-clerical, secularising education, prohibiting religious education in the schools, and expelling the [[Jesuits]] from the country. On [[Pentecost]] 1932, Pope Pius XI protested against these measures and demanded [[restitution]]. He asked the Catholics of Spain to fight with all legal means against the injustices. June 3, 1933 he issued the encyclical [[Dilectissima Nobis]], in which he described the expropriation of all Church buildings, episcopal residences, parish houses, seminaries and monasteries. By law, they are now property of the Spanish State, to which the Church will have to pay rent and taxes in order to continuously use these properties. "Thus the Catholic Church is compelled to pay taxes on what was violently taken from her"<ref>Dilectissima Nobis, 9-10</ref> Religious vestments, liturgical instruments , statues, pictures, vases, gems and similar objects necessary for worship were expropriated as well. <ref>Dilectissima Nobis, 12</ref>
The churches were not spared in the expropriation. Numerous churches and temples were destroyed by burning, after they were nationalized. Jesuits were prohibited from teaching. Private Catholic schools from Religious Orders and Congregations were expropriated, without regard to the free will of founders and benefactors. The purpose was to create solely secular schools there instead. <ref>Dilectissima Nobis, 21</ref>
The Civil War in Spain started in 1936, during which thousands of churches were destroyed, eleven bishops and 7000 clergy and Religious assassinated <ref>Franzen 397</ref> Spanish Catholics largely supported Franco and the Nationalist forces in the [[Spanish Civil War]] of 1936 – 1939. The Pope distinguished Franco from the totalitarian, anti-religious fascists like Hitler and Mussolini, seeing him as an old-fashioned authoritarian Catholic conservative.
== Humani Generis Unitas and last pronouncements==
[[Image:PacelliBavaria1922a.JPG|thumb|220px|right|[[Pope Pius XII]] continued the policy on the Unity of Human Society: ''What a wonderful vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God'']]
The fascist government in Italy had long abstained from copying the[[ racial]] and [[anti-Semitic]] laws and regulations, which existed in [[Germany]]. This changed dramatically in [[1938]], the last year of the pontificate of Pius XI, when Italy introduced anti-Semitic legislation. The Pope asked Italy publicly to abstain from demeaning racist legislation, stating, that the term “race” is divisive but may be appropriate to differentiate animals <ref>Confalioneri 351</ref>. The Catholic view would refer to'' the unity of human society,'' which includes as many differences as music includes intonations. Italy, a civilized country, should not ape the barbarian German legislation. <ref>Confalioneri 352</ref> In the same speech, he counter-attacked again the Italian government for attacking [[Catholic Action]] and even the [[papacy]] itself. ''Qui mange du Pape, en meurt'' - who eats from the pope, is dead! <ref>Confalioneri 352</ref>
The text of a possible encyclical [[Humani Generis Unitas]], ''The Unity of the Human Society,'' that Pius XI commissioned to denounce racism in the USA, Europe and elsewhere, colonialism and and the violent German nationalism was published by Georges Passelecq and Berard Suchecky under the title ''L'Encyclique Cachee De Pie XI'' <ref>La Decouverte, Paris 1995</ref> Following Vatican custom, His successor [[Pope Pius XII]], who according to the authors, was not aware of the text before the death of his predecessor, <ref>Letter of Father Maher to Father La Farge, March 16, 1939</ref> choose not to publish this encyclical. However, his first encyclical [[Summi Pontificatus]] (October 12, 1939), published after the beginning of WWII, has the identical title ''On the Unity of Human Society'' and uses many of the arguments of the text, avoiding all of the negative characterisation of the Jewish people and religion contained in the proposed text of the encyclical.<ref>[[Summi Pontificatus]]</ref>
[[Summi Pontificatus]] sees [[Christianity]] being universalized and opposed to racial hostility and superiority. There are no real racial differences, because the [[human race]] forms a unity, because "one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth".
* ''What a wonderful vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God. . . in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end;. . . in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all''.<ref>Pius XII, Enc. Summi Pontificatus 3;</ref>
[[Pope Benedict XVI]] has decreed that from [[September 18]] [[2006]], all documents related to the pontificate of Pope Pius XI be made available to researchers. According to the prefect of the Historical Archives of the Secretariat of State, and the prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, this makes available to historical research, within the limits of the regulations, all documentary sources up to February 1939 conserved in the various series of archives of the Holy See, and principally in the Vatican Secret Archives and in the Archives of the Second Section of the Secretariat of State (formerly the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs).
==Death and burial==
[[Image:PiusXItomb.jpg|thumb||350px|left|''The sarcophagus of Pope Pius XI'']]
Pope Pius had been ailing for a while, when, on November 25, 1938, he suffered two [[heart attack]]s within several hours. He had serious breathing problems and had to stay in his apartment. <ref>Confalonieri 356</ref> There he developed the idea, of labelling two of his best bottles of wine to “my successor in the year 2000”. <ref>Confalonieri 356</ref> It is not known, if [[Pope John Paul II]] ever received them. He gave his last address to the [[Pontifical Academy of Sciences]], which he had founded. He spoke without prepared text on the relation between science and the Catholic religion. This is considered to have been his last major pontifical address. <ref>Confalonieri 358</ref> A young priest tried to influence him to take his medicine, reminding him of the old Roman saying ''Principiis obsta'' (Resist the beginnings) but the pope smiled and said, you forgot the second part, ''sero medicina paratur,'' it’s too late for medicine. In February 1939, the situation of the pontiff visibly degenerated. Pius had major pain and difficulties walking. When he tried to raise from his bed, he was unable to do so, because of increased breathing problems. On February 7, the team of doctors announced to the papal staff, that the pontiff would soon depart from them. <ref>Confalonieri 365</ref> He was now aided by a team of several doctors, the professors Milani, Rocchi, Bonamone, Gemelli and Bianchi, specialists from all over Italy. <ref>Confalonieri 365</ref> They informed [[Pius XII | Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli]] and [[Paul VI | Monsignore Giovanni Battista Montini]] that heart insufficiency combined with bronchial attacks had hopelessly complicated the already poor outlook. The Pope himself made plans for continued audiences with [[Domenico Tardini]], as if he would regenerate within short time, although, unable to breathe normally, he lost his ability to move and even to turn in his bed. His last words to those near him were spoken with clarity and firmness: My soul parts from you all in peace <ref>Confalonieri 373</ref> Pope Pius XI died at 5:31 A.M. (Rome Time) on [[February 10]] [[1939]], aged 81. He was buried in the crypt at [[St. Peter's Basilica]], in the main chapel, close to the [[Saint Peter's tomb|Tomb of St. Peter]].
==Legacies==
A [[Chile]]an glacier bears Pius XI's name.<ref>[http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=col&article_path=/columnists/articles/annArticles/ann070120_1.htm ''Durango Herald'' report on glacier bearing Pius XI's name]</ref>
The [[Achille Ratti Climbing Club]], based in the [[United Kingdom]], was founded by Bishop T. B. Pearson in 1940 and was named after Monsignor Achille Ratti.
Pius XI will be remembered as the pope who reigned between the two great wars of the 20th century. He was a mountain climber and many peaks in the [[Alps]] were named after him, he having been the first to scale them<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D02EED61130EE3ABC4F53DFB4668389639EDE ''The New York Times''. Tuesday, 7th February, 1922, Page 1 (continued on page 3)], 3059 words.</ref>. The onetime librarian also reorganized the Vatican archives. Nevertheless, Pius XI was hardly a withdrawn and bookish figure.
[[Image:Tomb of Pius XI.jpg|thumb||330px|right|''The marble figure of Pope Pius XI on top of his sarcophagus'']]
Pius XI fought the two ascendant ideologies of communism and fascism. His success in fighting them was limited and there is much controversy over the concordats he entered with European regimes to improve the situation of the Catholic Church. At the outset, it was clear that he found communism to be the greater of the two evils but in his later years, there is no doubt that he was repelled by the momentum of Nazi Germany, not only in its opposition to the Catholic Church but also in the ferocity of its attacks on the Jewish people.
Whatever the results of his activism, Pius XI did not sit by idly and was fully engaged until the end. A theological conservative, he strove to improve the condition of the Church, through the negotiation of the concordats (treaties) in Europe and to increase its strength worldwide through vigorous missionary work. He also reiterated the social teachings of Leo XIII in his encyclical ''Quadregesimo Anno'', issued in 1931.
This pope was determined to increase the profile of the papacy from the time of his ''Urbi et Orbi'' blessing following his election, the first of its kind since Pius IX became a prisoner of the Vatican. After the Vatican had regained its status as a state in 1929, he flexed its muscles through the treaties he negotiated and by raising his voice in protest when the terms were violated, albeit to little avail.
A man of stature, he possessed an iron will and did not hesitate to assert his position. The strong-willed pontiff was succeeded by his charismatic Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII), a diplomat who would continue Pius XI's struggle against fascism as a prisoner of the Vatican during World War II.
== See also ==
* [[List of encyclicals of Pope Pius XI]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
*Confalonieri, Carlo. ''PIO XI - Visto Da Vicino''. 1957. Translated by: Regis N. Barwig. ''PIUS XI - A Close Up''. 1975. Altadena, California: The Benzinger Sisters Press.
*{{cite book |title=The Oxford History of Christianity |last=Manners |first=John |authorlink= |year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0192803360 |pages=770 pages }}
* Lucio D'Orazi,'' Il Coraggio Della Verita Vita do Pio XI,'' Edizioni logos,Roma, 1989
* Mrg R Fontenelle ''Seine Heiligkeit Pius XI.'' Alsactia, France, 1939
*{{cite book |title=Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy |last=Marchione |first=Margherita |authorlink= |year=1997 |publisher=Paulist Press |location=Mahwah, NJ |isbn=0809104857 |pages=272 pages }}
* Josef Schmidlin ''Papstgeschichte,'' Vol I-IV, Köstel-Pusztet München, 1922-1939
* Morgan, Thomas B. ''A Reporter At The Papal Court - A Narrative of the Reign of Pope Pius XI''. 1937. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.
{{History of the Roman Catholic Church}}
{{Catholicism |uncollapsed}}
{{History of the Roman Catholic Church}}
{{Catholicism |uncollapsed}}
==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
*[http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/index.htm Vatican Website for Pope Pius XI]
*[http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pope0259.htm Catholic Forum Biography]
*[http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/METs/METs_Main_02.html Vatican Museum Biography]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoJcvhxonEI Portion of an Italian documentary on Pope Pius XI's missing encyclical (subtitled)]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_D_pNtsiBY&eurl=] - YouTube footage of Pope Pius XI speaking (in Italian)
*[http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=91914 [[Pope Benedict XVI]] opens the Archives for the pontificate (1922-1939) of Pope Pius XI - VATICAN CITY, July 2, 2006] "...researchers will be able to consult ''all'' the documents of the period kept in the different series of archives of the Holy See, primarily in the [[Vatican Secret Archives]] and the Archive of the Second Section of the [[Secretariat of State (Vatican)|Secretariat of State]]...."
{{start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Andrea Cardinal Ferrari]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archbishop of Milan]]|years=1921 – 1922}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Eugenio Tosi]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Benedict XV|Benedict XV]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=1922 – 1939}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Pius XII|Pius XII]]}}
{{end}}
{{Popes}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Pope Pius XI
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Ratti, Ambrogio Damiano Achille
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Pope of the Roman Catholic Church
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[May 31]] [[1857]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Desio]], [[Italy]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[February 10]] [[1939]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Apostolic Palace]], [[Vatican City]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pius 11}}
[[Category:Pope Pius XI]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Diplomats of the Holy See]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Milan]]
[[Category:20th century Roman Catholic archbishops]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Milan]]
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:Pius popes]]
[[Category:Sovereigns of Vatican City]]
[[Category:Theology]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Pope Pius XII]]
[[Category:Treaties of the Holy See]]
[[Category:Catholic theology and doctrine]]
[[Category:Holy See]]
[[Foreign relations of the Holy See]]
[[Category:History of the Papacy]]
[[Category:Pope Paul VI]]
[[Category:Pope Pius XI]]
{{Link FA|fi}}
[[az:XI Piy]]
[[be:Пій XI, папа рымскі]]
[[bg:Пий XI]]
[[ca:Pius XI]]
[[cs:Pius XI.]]
[[cy:Pab Pïws XI]]
[[de:Pius XI.]]
[[et:Pius XI]]
[[es:Pío XI]]
[[eo:Pio la 11-a]]
[[eu:Pio XI.a]]
[[fr:Pie XI]]
[[ga:Pápa Pius XI]]
[[gl:Pío XI, papa]]
[[ko:교황 비오 11세]]
[[hr:Pio XI.]]
[[io:Pius 11ma]]
[[id:Paus Pius XI]]
[[is:Píus 11.]]
[[it:Papa Pio XI]]
[[he:פיוס האחד עשר]]
[[jv:Paus Pius XI]]
[[pam:Papa Pius XI]]
[[ka:პიუს XI]]
[[sw:Papa Pius XI]]
[[la:Pius XI]]
[[lb:Pius XI. (Poopst)]]
[[hu:XI. Pius pápa]]
[[mr:पोप पायस अकरावा]]
[[nl:Paus Pius XI]]
[[ja:ピウス11世 (ローマ教皇)]]
[[no:Pius XI]]
[[oc:Piu XI]]
[[pl:Papież Pius XI]]
[[pt:Papa Pio XI]]
[[ro:Papa Pius al XI-lea]]
[[ru:Пий XI (папа римский)]]
[[sq:Papa Pio XI]]
[[simple:Pope Pius XI]]
[[sk:Pius XI.]]
[[sl:Papež Pij XI.]]
[[sr:Пије XI]]
[[fi:Pius XI]]
[[sv:Pius XI]]
[[tl:Pío XI]]
[[th:สมเด็จพระสันตะปาปาปิอุสที่ 11]]
[[tr:Pius XI]]
[[uk:Пій XI]]
[[vec:Papa Pio XI]]
[[vls:Paus Pius XI]]
[[war:Papa Pío XI]]
[[zh:庇護十一世]]