Cardinal Pacelli Takes Office

...Then Pacelli became popular in Germany, and he induced even Berlin to ask for a nuncio...

...The nuncio's diplomacy, following the point of view of the Holy Father, identified itself with the Christian mission of bringing assistance in cases of distress, of exchanging prisoners, of finding dispersed soldiers, of securing the commutation of death sentences passed by military courts, of feeding thousands of persons...

...CARDINAL PACELLI TAKES OFFICE By IGINO GIORDANI WHEN Cardinal Gasparri retired from the post of Secretary of State at the Vatican and took possession of the small villa presented to him by the Pope, his pupil, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, began the direction of Papal foreign affairs with the purpose of continuing the enlightened diplomacy inaugurated by the retiring statesman "with a more modern and keen policy"-as a cardinal pointed out...

...The chancelor then continues: In that letter the Pope recalled his own incessant efforts to induce the peoples to disperse the fratricidal arms, and he assured the emperor that his further efforts would be directed to putting an end to the immense disaster of the war...

...President Hindenburg expressed a similar view in his statement on the occasion of the nuncio's departure...

...Pacelli was accustomed to speak in the most correct German to the German people...

...In an official document drawn up at the Fulda Congress, the German bishops recognized this success "which remains as an unforgettable memory and a very honorable monument...

...The Pontiff is anxious above everything to urge the hour of peace so longed for, and meanwhile to diminish, through incessant efforts, the very sorrowful results of the war...

...Pacelli's meeting with Kaiser Wilhelm II, June 29, 1917, is famous also because of the inexactness with which the ex-emperor told of the event in his memoirs...

...Pius XI was right in saying that all Germany rejoiced in that...

...His elevation was in reward for thirteen years of effort, a work which included the negotiation of the Papal concordat with Bavaria and which came to its climax in the negotiation last year of the concordat with Prussia...

...He became known for a scrupulous care for details, and at the same time for a spirit of initiative, stimulated by an intelligent love of the Church and by a Christian vision of the world...

...On that occasion the late Cardinal Gasquet said that Sardis was a see of very good auspices...

...In 1914 he was appointed as a secretary of the Congregation by Pius X. Benedict XV, who had known Pacelli in earlier days, commandeered him to preach peace during the most critical period of the world war, and named him nuncio to Munich, raising him to the post of archbishop of Sardis...

...Pacelli had understood, as few can, the German spirit and the necessities of Germany...

...In this way Pacelli himself recalls his conversation with Wilhelm during the period while the two were alone together...

...The young diplomat moved upward rapidly in his field...

...At that very moment, while Italian and Papal flags in Rome announced the first anniversary of the Lateran Treaty, the long visit paid by Turati, secretary-general of the Fascist party, to the Pope, followed next morning by dispositions in favor of a more Christian education for girls and boys, and the gift presented to the Pope by the royal government, stressed the closer relations between Church and state which started with the king's visit to the Vatican...

...We know that Pacelli exhorted the emperor to do his best to put an end to so many evils, even if he were obliged in doing so to renounce some of Germany's aims...

...The facts of the interview are to be found in the memoirs of Bethmann-Hollweg, then chancelor, which correspond with the nuncio's own version...

...He said: To cooperate in this task of pacification is the mission entrusted to me by the Pontiff in this momentous period...

...He recalled Pacelli's work for peace and his cooperation in this work with Stresemann, and recognized "the noble conception Pacelli had of his office, his wise objectivity, his inflexible sense of justice, his generous humanity, his great love for his neighbor...

...The great success of his work-which although connected with politics, maintained itself in a religious sphere-was indicated by the joy with which Germany greeted the announcement of the nuncio's appointment, last December, as a cardinal...

...Bethmann-Hollweg, who received a copy of the message, assured the nuncio, in a general way, of the desire of his government for peace...

...When the nuncio presented his credentials in the royal palace of Ludwig III at Munich later in the same month, he characterized his own task, "in that sorrowful hour," as one of working toward "a true and durable peace" among nations on the basis of Christian wisdom...

...His German speeches have been collected-as an especial honor-in a charming book by Ludwig Kaas (Berlin 1930...

...He himself, in June, 1920, became the Pope's first nuncio in Berlin...

...Even today he is admired as a man who acts after reflection, as one with an acute sense of religious duty...

...The Holy Father himself consecrated the young prelate in the Sistine Chapel, May 3, 1917, and presented him with a golden cross, decorated with precious stones, together with a splendid edition of canon law...

...Pacelli was active in Papal affairs of state during the critical period of the separation of Church and state in France and at the time when the question of the French protectorate in the East was causing discussion...

...While acting as the secretary of Monsignor, afterward Cardinal, Gasparri, the young Pacelli collaborated with his teacher in the monumental work of the codification of canon law...

...He published what was considered a remarkable pamphlet on the subject...

...This work of Christian pacification was continued after the war, during the most delicate period of the relations between Germany and the Allies, chiefly France...

...On June 19-the chancelor continues-the nuncio was received at the headquarters by the emperor, and he formally remonstrated against the deportation of Belgian workers...

...Bethmann-Hollweg explains that Monsignor Pacelli was charged with delivering a Papal letter to the emperor, and that for that reason "he came to Berlin...

...Pacelli, who had been ordained a priest in 1899, at the age of twenty-three, was named to the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, a section of the State Department...

...Cardinal Pacelli is the brother of Marquis Francis Pacelli, who negotiated the Lateran conventions with Mussolini...

...The emperor expressed the opinion that the Holy Father should emanate a solemn act, directed not to the governments, but to the peoples, ordering a constant prayer and constant work toward peace...

...It was shortly after Pacelli had secured the degree of doctor of civil and canon law at the pontifical school of Apollinaris in Rome and had started teaching canon law in the Roman seminary that Monsignor Gasparri brought him into the offices of the secretary of state...

...The emperor gave him assurances...

...Urged by Monsignor Pacelli to speak more precisely, the chancelor said his government was ready to accept a limitation of armaments, the establishment of an international court of arbitration, the independence of Belgium and the modification of the frontier of Alsace and Lorraine in favor of France...

...As for myself, a few days after I was obliged to resign...