The relations between Pope Pius XI and Judaism are generally regarded as good, as the antebellum pontiff was particularly opposed to antisemitism. Certain favourable opinions of Pius XI were subsequently used to attack the perceived silence of Pope Pius XII, whom Achille Ratti regarded as his designated successor.
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The Opus sacerdotale Amici Israel was an interfaith organization which operated within the Catholic Church from 1926 to 1928. Its first request to the Church was that the word "perfidis", which described the Jews during the Good Friday Prayer for the Jews, be removed. Pope Pius XI was reportedly strongly in favour of the reforms and asked the Congregation of Rites to review the matter. Cardinal Schuster, who was among the Friends of Israel, was appointed to monitor this issue. The Roman Curia, however, is reported to have reacted very negatively to the proposal on the basis that if one change was made to the old liturgy it would open the door to other such proposals. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided to dissolve the association (25 March 1928).[1]
Edith Stein was a German-Jewish philosopher, a saint of the Catholic Church, who died at Auschwitz. In April 1933 she wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI, in which she denounced the Nazi regime and asked the Pope to openly denounce the regime "to put a stop to this abuse of Christ's name."
| “ | As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God, for the past eleven years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans. For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany which mock any sense of justice and humanity, not to mention love of neighbor. For years the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews. But the responsibility must fall, after all, on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in the face of such happenings.
Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself "Christian." For weeks not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany, and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s name." —Edith Stein, Letter to Pope Pius XI. |
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Martin Rhonheimer asserts that "Questioning the legitimacy of the Nazis’ racial policy, and possibly even slowing it down, required the condemnation from the very start of measures that discriminated against Jews and deprived them of their rights—as well as condemnation of the regime that instituted such measures. This is precisely what Edith Stein, bitterly aware that the German bishops were allowing themselves to be deceived, demanded of Pius XI in her now widely publicized letter of early April 1933." The timing of the letter coincides with the period when Hitler was trying to convince the bishops of his good will towards the Roman Catholic Church in order to obtain a Concordat which both sides signed in July 1933.[2] Stein's letter received no answer, and it is not known for sure whether Pius XI even read it.[3] William Doino asserts that Cardinal Pacelli sent a "sympathetic reply" to Stein's abbot but speculates that it may never have been received due to Nazi war time surveillance.[4] Pacelli's reply states "I leave it to you to inform the sender [Edith Stein] in an opportune way that her letter has been dutifully presented to His Holiness [Pope Pius XI]."[5]
Sept. 6, 1938, he says to some Belgian pilgrims that antisemitism "is a hateful movement, a movement that we cannot, as Christians, take any part in...Anti-Semitism is inadmissible". [6]
Pope Pius XI later warned a group of pilgrims that antisemitism is incompatible with Christianity.[7]"Mark well that in the Catholic 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 Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites".
In the 1939 issue of B'nai B'rith's National Jewish Monthly features him on the frontcover and writes, "Regardless of their personal beliefs, men and women everywhere who believe in democracy and the rights of man have hailed the firm and uncompromising stand of Pope Pius XI against Fascist brutality, paganism, and racial theories. In his annual Christmas message to the College of Cardinals, the great Pontiff vigorously denounced Fascism...The first international voice in the world to be raised in stern condemnation of the ghastly injustice perpetrated upon the Jewish people by brutal tyrannies was Pope Pius XI" [8]
Also of note is Pius XI's support for British efforts to help Jewish and other refugees...the Holy See sent out requests to its representatives throughout the world to assist those fleeing oppression and racial persecution;see Cardinal Pacelli's circular telegrams of November 30, 1938, and January 10, 1939 in Actes et Documents 6,pp.48–50, and Pius XI's letter to the cardinal archbishops of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Quebec, and Buenos Aires, pp. 50ff" [9]
In Jan. 1939, The Jewish National Monthly reports "the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where fine humanitarian statements by the Pope have been issuing regularly". When Mussolini's anti-Semitic decrees began depriving Jews of employment in Italy, Pius XI, on his own initiative, admitted Professor Vito Volterra, a famous Italian Jewish mathematician, into the Pontifical Academy of Science. [10].
After breaches in this agreement led the Church to forcefully condemn Nazism in the 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. This encyclical "condemned the neopaganism of the Nazi ideology – especially its theory of racial superiority".[11] The encyclical was drafted by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber with an introduction from the future Pope Pius XII who had previously submitted his own draft that Pius rejected for being too weak.[12][13]
The encyclical was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches and was the first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organization.[14][15]
The Nazis were infuriated, and in retaliation closed and sealed all the presses that had printed it and took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy."
According to Bokenkotter Nazi reprisals against the Church in Germany followed thereafter, including "staged prosecutions of monks for homosexuality, with the maximum of publicity". According to Catholic scholars Ehler and Morrall the initial Nazi response to the encyclical, a cry for the denunciation of the Concordant due to the Pope's interference ("but on second thoughts the Government did not do so"), the persecution of the Church lessened in subsequent years with the attitudes of both sides stabilising during the war.
This was in part influenced by the number of Catholics who now came under the orbit of German control in the wake of the Anschluss and the extension of occupied territories, leading to a Catholic population that now at least equalled that of Protestants. After the war the Concordat remained in place and the Church was restored to its previous position.[14]
When Lord Rothschild, a prominent British leader, organized a protest meeting in London against Kristallnacht, Eugenio Pacelli, Vatican secretary of state, acting on behalf of Pius XI, who was then ill, sent a statement of solidarity with the persecuted Jews; the statement was read publicly at the meeting" [16]
When Pius XI died on February 10, 1939 the world praised him for his opposition to the Nazi and Fascism regimes, as well as for his opposition to antisemitism [17].
On Feb. 12, 1939, Bernard Joseph wrote on behalf of the Executive Jewish Agency to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem: "'In Common with the whole of civilized humanity, the Jewish people mourns the loss of one of the greatest exponents of the cause of international peace and good will...More than once did we have occasion to be deeply grateful...for the deep concern which he expressed for the fate of the persecuted Jews of Central Europe. His noble efforts on their behalf will ensure for him for all time a warm place in the memories of the Jewish people wherever they live' [18]
Feb. 17, 1939, the Jewish historian Cecil Roth publishes the obituary "Pope Pius and the Jews: A Champion of Toleration" in the Jewish Chronicle of London, in which he "wrote movingly of his private audience with the aged pontiff, during which Pius XI assured Roth of the papacy's opposition to anti-Semitism. Roth hailed Pius XI as that 'courageous voice raised unfalteringly and unwearingly...protesting oppression, condemning racial madness...This was an aspect which he appreciated to the full, and earned his memory an undying claim to the gratitude of the Jewish people'" [19]