Hitler's Pope by John Cornwell
notes & commentary by William P. Meyers

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Vatican Secretary of State Pacelli visited the United States in October 1936. He met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and made a deal with him. Pacelli would silence Father Charles Coughlin, and the U.S. would establish official diplomatic relations with the Vatican.  Coughlin ceased his radio broadcasts on November 8th. During his stay Pacelli had visited most major U.S. cities. [176-177]

“Before leaving the United States, Pacelli entrusted the ever-helpful Spellman with $113,000, gifts pressed upon him by wealthy Americans during the trip, to invest for him personally. Mrs. Brady died not long after Pacelli’s departure and left the cardinal Secretary of State a personal legacy of $100,000. [178]

When Hitler threatened to invade Poland in 1939, “the Poles thought Pacelli was acting like an Italian; that he was pro-German and had no understanding of Poland and the Polish people.” In public the Pope (Pacelli, since March, as Pius XII) prayed for peace, but in private he urged the Polish government to turn over Danzig [now Gdask] and other territories to Germany. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Pius XII said nothing condemning Germany in September. [230-233]

Pius XII finally spoke on the war in Summi pontificates, aka Darkness Over the Earth, an encyclical issued October 20, 1939. He condemned secularism and “called for a new world order in which all nations recognized the kingdom of Christ.” He mentions the “cruelly slaughtered, though they bore no military rank,” although he had not condemned General Franco for his recent similar slaughters of civilian non-Catholics in Spain. [233-234]

In April 1941, when Germany invaded Yugoslavia, “Croat Fascists were allowed to declare an independent Croatia.” The Ustashe, under Ante Pavelic, commenced “the campaign of terror and extermination … against two million Serb Orthodox Christians and a smaller number of Jews, Gypsies, and Communists between 1941 and 1945.” In making Croatia purely Catholic, the atrocities were such that, “even hardened German troops registered their horror.” Pius XII knew of the atrocities and refused to intervene to stop them. [248-267]

Pius XII seemed to be a true believer in the cult of Our Lady of Fatima, with its adoration of Papal authority, its anti-communism, and its talk of battles in spiritual realms. “the dictators of Portugal and Spain, Salazar and Franco, had celebrated the cult as a rally-rousing emblem of Fascistic solidarity.” [273]

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