Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI

May 31, 1857 - February 10, 1939

Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti was the Italian pope from 1922 to 1939. Ordained in 1879, he became a scholar and a paleographer. He headed Milan's Ambrosian Library in 1907 and the Vatican Library in 1914. Nuncio to Poland in 1919, he was made cardinal and archbishop of Milan in 1921 by Pope Benedict XV, whom he was elected to succeed on Feb. 6, 1922.

Pius' pontificate soon witnessed the rise to power of Benito Mussolini, who signed (Feb. 11, 1929) with him the Lateran Treaty that allowed the existence of the independent Vatican City state, over which the pope ruled. The papacy, in turn, recognized the establishment of the kingdom of Italy and announced permanent neutrality in military and diplomatic conflicts of the world. Pius further agreed that a pope would intervene in foreign affairs not as head of a sovereign state but as head of the church. Concurrently, a concordat established the validity of church marriage in Italy, provided compulsory religious instruction for Catholic schoolchildren, and declared Roman Catholicism to be Italy's exclusive religion. Later, violation of the treaty terms by Mussolini provoked an encyclical, Non Abbiamo Bisogno which denounced the claims of the totalitarian state.

With the aid of his secretaries of state, cardinals Gasparri (1922-30) and Pacelli (1930-39), he concluded concordats that strengthened and united Catholicism in countries suffering the aftereffects of World War I, including Latvia (1922), Poland (1925), Romania and Lithuania (1927), Prussia (1929), and Austria and Germany (1933). He signed the Reich Concordat with Adolf Hitler's newly formed Nazi government in Germany, hoping to alleviate the difficulties confronting German Catholics. From 1933 to 1936 he wrote several protests against the Third Reich, and his attitude toward fascist Italy changed dramatically after Nazi racial attitudes were introduced into Italy in 1938. He ordered the preparation of an encyclical criticizing National Socialist policies including those dealing with the Jews. Known as "The Lost Encyclical", Humani generis unitas (The Unity of the Human Race), was the result of Pius XI’s growing concern about the National Socialists and anti-Semitism. However, the encyclical was not published by Pius XI’s successor, Pope Pius XII, in fear of angering the Nazis and thus, endangering the Catholic community of Germany.

Notes:
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,61776+1+60249,00.html
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/papal/pius.xi/pius.xi.info.html

		Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti was the Italian pope from 1922 to 1939. Ordained in 1879, he became a scholar and a paleographer. He headed Milan's Ambrosian Library in 1907 and the Vatican Library in 1914. Nuncio to Poland in 1919, he was made cardinal and archbishop of Milan in 1921 by Pope Benedict XV, whom he was elected to succeed on Feb. 6, 1922.

		Pius' pontificate soon witnessed the rise to power of Benito Mussolini, who signed (Feb. 11, 1929) with him the Lateran Treaty that allowed the existence of the independent Vatican City state, over which the pope ruled. The papacy, in turn, recognized the establishment of the kingdom of Italy and announced permanent neutrality in military and diplomatic conflicts of the world. Pius further agreed that a pope would intervene in foreign affairs not as head of a sovereign state but as head of the church. Concurrently, a concordat established the validity of church marriage in Italy, provided compulsory religious instruction for Catholic schoolchildren, and declared Roman Catholicism to be Italy's exclusive religion. Later, violation of the treaty terms by Mussolini provoked an encyclical, Non Abbiamo Bisogno which denounced the claims of the totalitarian state.

		With the aid of his secretaries of state, cardinals Gasparri (1922-30) and Pacelli (1930-39), he concluded concordats that strengthened and united Catholicism in countries suffering the aftereffects of World War I, including Latvia (1922), Poland (1925), Romania and Lithuania (1927), Prussia (1929), and Austria and Germany (1933). He signed the Reich Concordat with Adolf Hitler's newly formed Nazi government in Germany, hoping to alleviate the difficulties confronting German Catholics. From 1933 to 1936 he wrote several protests against the Third Reich, and his attitude toward fascist Italy changed dramatically after Nazi racial attitudes were introduced into Italy in 1938. He ordered the preparation of an encyclical criticizing National Socialist policies including those dealing with the Jews. Known as "The Lost Encyclical", Humani generis unitas (The Unity of the Human Race), was the result of Pius XI’s growing concern about the National Socialists and anti-Semitism. However, the encyclical was not published by Pius XI’s successor, Pope Pius XII, in fear of angering the Nazis and thus, endangering the Catholic community of Germany.