Pope pius xii biography videos about muhammad

In this episode of the Catholic Link podcast, Fr. George Elliot discuss how the season of Advent is a preparation to celebrate the birth of Christ. One means of preparation for the Solemnity could be to practice fasting. Rob makes the distinction George to discuss some tips and things to be aware of when having conversations about sensitive issues.

Prudence is a key virtue in this regard. Firstly, it's important to discern if the topic in question George to discuss the connection between our mental health and spirituality. Once again we have the tension to hold two seemingly conflicting things. As Catholics, we understand that the human person is a World War I would seem him keeping a running tally of prisoners of war for the Vatican.

After the chaos of the Armistice, Pacelli requested to be transferred somewhere safe, placing him in a Swiss sanitorium. Pacelli became the nuncio to Germany in June of and many of his staff from Munich continued to serve under him. When the Weimar Republic seemed consigned to dissolution, Pacelli was recalled to Rome. About UCTV. Copy the following code and paste it into your web page to embed this video:.

Pope pius xii biography videos about muhammad

Like what you learn? Watch programs from:. Explore more in this series: Holocaust Living History. Dalin wrote "of the forty-four speeches Pacelli gave in Germany as papal nuncio between and , forty denounced some aspect of the emerging Nazi ideology". As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed concordats with a number of countries and states.

Immediately on becoming Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli and Ludwig Kaas took up negotiations on a Baden Concordat which continued until the spring and summer of Catholicism had become the sole recognized religion; the powerful democratic Catholic Popular Party , in many ways similar to the Centre Party in Germany, had been disbanded, and in place of political Catholicism the Holy See encouraged Catholic Action.

It was permitted only so long as it developed "its activity outside every political party and in direct dependence upon the Church hierarchy for the dissemination and implementation of Catholic principles". They also ensured that canon law would be recognized within some spheres e. As the decade began Pacelli wanted the Centre Party in Germany to turn away from the socialists.

Roosevelt , who appointed a personal envoy—who did not require Senate confirmation—to the Holy See in December , re-establishing a diplomatic tradition that had been broken since when the Pope lost temporal power. Pacelli made reference to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today". Klieforth, that Hitler was 'an untrustworthy scoundrel and fundamentally wicked person', to quote Klieforth, who also wrote that Pacelli 'did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, and This was matched with the discovery of Pacelli's anti-Nazi report, written the following year for President Roosevelt and filed with Ambassador Joseph Kennedy , which declared that the church regarded compromise with the Third Reich as 'out of the question'.

Historian Walter Bussmann argued that Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI — who was nearing death at the time [ 57 ] —from condemning the Kristallnacht in November , [ 58 ] when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin. Most noteworthy among the 50 speeches is his review of Church-State issues in Budapest in A year before his papal election, on 26 January , the Cardinal Secretary of State officiated at the baptism of the Infante Juan Carlos King of Spain from to , in a ceremony held at the Palazzo Malta in Rome.

The Reichskonkordat was an integral part of four concordats Pacelli concluded on behalf of the Vatican with German States. The state concordats were necessary because the German federalist Weimar constitution gave the German states authority in the area of education and culture and thus diminished the authority of the churches in these areas; this diminution of church authority was a primary concern of the Vatican.

As Bavarian nuncio, Pacelli negotiated successfully with the Bavarian authorities in He expected the concordat with Catholic Bavaria to be the model for the rest of Germany. However, Pacelli obtained less favorable conditions for the church in the Prussian Concordat of , which excluded educational issues. A concordat with the German state of Baden was completed by Pacelli in , after he had moved to Rome.

There he also negotiated a concordat with Austria in The Reichskonkordat , signed on 20 July , between Germany and the Holy See, while thus a part of an overall Vatican policy, was controversial from its beginning. It remains the most important of Pacelli's concordats. It is debated, not because of its content, which is still valid today, but because of its timing.

A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state, because he had hoped to strengthen the legal position of the church. As nuncio during the s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between and he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but the opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim.

In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of the church and the Catholic Centre Party.

He sent his vice chancellor Franz von Papen , a Catholic nobleman, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat. Between and , Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the Reichskonkordat. Most notably, early in , Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber , to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat ; this was to become Pius XI's encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge.

The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Catholic Church documents. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and read from every German Catholic Church pulpit on Palm Sunday , it condemned the paganism of the Nazi ideology. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum on 17 April Pope Pius XI died on 10 February Several historians have interpreted the conclave to choose his successor as facing a choice between a diplomatic or a spiritual candidate, and they view Pacelli's diplomatic experience, especially with Germany, as one of the deciding factors in his election on 2 March , his 63rd birthday, after only one day of deliberation and three ballots.

According to rumours, he asked for another ballot to be taken to ensure the validity of his election. After his election was indeed confirmed, he chose the name Pius XII in honour of his immediate predecessor. His coronation took place on 12 March There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis. Pacelli took the same papal name as his predecessor, a title used exclusively by Italian Popes.

He was quoted as saying "I call myself Pius; my whole life was under Popes with this name, but especially as a sign of gratitude towards Pius XI. It would be a much bigger tragedy, if Cardinal Pacelli dies, because there is only one. I pray every day, God may send another one into one of our seminaries, but as of today, there is only one in this world.

Cardinal Maglione, a seasoned Vatican diplomat, had reestablished diplomatic relations with Switzerland and was for twelve years nuncio in Paris. After the death of Maglione in , Pius left the position open and named Tardini head of its foreign section and Montini head of the internal section. He also supported the elevation of Americans such as Cardinal Francis Spellman from a minor to a major role in the church.

American appointees included Joseph P. Hurley as regent of the nunciature in Belgrade , Gerald P. For the first time, numerous young Europeans, Asians and "Americans were trained in various congregations and secretariats within the Vatican for eventual service throughout the world". Only twice in his pontificate did Pius XII hold a consistory to create new cardinals , in contrast to Pius XI, who had done so 17 times in as many years.

The first occasion on 18 February yielded the elevation of a record 32 new cardinals, almost half of the College of Cardinals and reaching the canonical limit of 70 cardinals. In his second consistory on 12 January , it was expected that his closest co-workers, Msgrs. Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Montini would be elevated [ ] and Pius XII informed the assembled cardinals that both of them were originally on the top of his list, [ ] but they had turned down the offer, and were rewarded instead with other promotions.

The two consistories of and brought an end to over five hundred years of Italians constituting a majority of the College of Cardinals. With few exceptions, Italian prelates accepted the changes positively; there was no protest movement or open opposition to the internationalization efforts. But it is His will, that the worship He instituted and practised during His life on earth shall continue ever afterwards without intermission.

For He has not left mankind an orphan. He still offers us the support of His powerful, unfailing intercession, acting as our "advocate with the Father". He aids us likewise through His Church, where He is present indefectibly as the ages run their course: through the Church which He constituted "the pillar of truth" and dispenser of grace, and which by His sacrifice on the cross, He founded, consecrated and confirmed forever.

The church has, therefore, according to Pius XII, a common aim with Christ himself, teaching all men the truth, and offering to God a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice. This way, the church re-establishes the unity between the Creator and His creatures. These reforms and writings of Pius XII were intended to establish Eastern Orientals as equal parts of the mystical body of Christ, as explained in the encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi.

With the Apostolic constitution Sedis Sapientiae , Pius XII added social sciences , sociology , psychology and social psychology , to the pastoral training of future priests. Pius XII emphasised the need to systematically analyze the psychological condition of candidates to the priesthood to ensure that they are capable of a life of celibacy and service.

He included a "pastoral year", an introduction into the practise of parish work. Pius XII wrote in Menti Nostrae that the call to constant interior reform and Christian heroism means to be above average, to be a living example of Christian virtue. The strict norms governing their lives are meant to make them models of Christian perfection for lay people.

Pius XII explained the Catholic faith in 41 encyclicals and almost messages and speeches during his long pontificate. Mystici Corporis Christi clarified membership and participation in the church. The encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu opened the doors for biblical research. His magisterium was far larger and is difficult to summarize. In numerous speeches Catholic teaching is related to various aspects of life, education, medicine, politics, war and peace, the life of saints, Mary , the Mother of God , things eternal and contemporary.

He also gave a new freedom to engage in theological investigations. The encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu , published in , [ ] emphasized the role of the Bible. Pius XII freed biblical research from previous limitations. He encouraged Christian theologians to revisit original versions of the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. Noting improvements in archaeology , the encyclical reversed Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, which had only advocated going back to the original texts to resolve ambiguity in the Latin Vulgate.

The encyclical demands a much better understanding of ancient Hebrew history and traditions. It requires bishops throughout the church to initiate biblical studies for lay people. The Pontiff also requests a reorientation of Catholic teaching and education, relying much more on sacred scriptures in sermons and religious instruction. This theological investigative freedom does not, however, extend to all aspects of theology.

According to Pius, theologians, employed by the Catholic Church, are assistants, to teach the official teachings of the church and not their own private thoughts. They are free to engage in empirical research, which the church generously supports, but in matters of morality and religion, they are subjected to the teaching office and authority of the church, the Magisterium.

As a young boy and in later life, Pacelli was an ardent follower of the Virgin Mary. Based on the Portuguese mystic Alexandrina of Balazar 's requests, he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in On 1 November , Pius XII invoked papal infallibility for the first time since by defining the dogma of the Assumption of Mary , namely that she "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory".

The dogma was preceded by the encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae , which requested all Catholic bishops to express their opinion on a possible dogmatization. On 8 September , the encyclical Fulgens corona announced a Marian year for , the centennial of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Pius XII delivered numerous speeches to medical professionals and researchers.

He also took on issues like the uses of medicine in terminally ill persons, medical lies in face of grave illness, and the rights of family members to make decisions against expert medical advice. Pope Pius XII often reconsidered previously accepted truth, thus he was first to determine that the use of pain medicine in terminally ill patients is justified, even if this may shorten the life of the patient, as long as life shortening is not the objective itself.

Pope Pius XII developed an extensive theology of the family, taking issue with family roles, sharing of household duties, education of children, conflict resolution, financial dilemmas, psychological problems, illness, taking care of older generations, unemployment, marital holiness and virtue, common prayer, religious discussions and more. He accepted the rhythm method as a moral form of family planning , although only in limited circumstances, within the context of family.

To Pius XII, science and religion were heavenly sisters, different manifestations of divine exactness, who could not possibly contradict each other over the long term. He was energetic on this point and regretted that in the case of Galileo. In , Pius XII promulgated Humani generis , which acknowledged that evolution might accurately describe the biological origins of the human form, but at the same time criticized those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution Catholics must believe that the human soul was created immediately by God.

Since the soul is a spiritual substance, it is not brought into being through transformation of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person. In an address given on 14 September , Pope Pius XII said that the church does not regard the execution of criminals as a violation by the State of the universal right to life:.

When it is a question of the execution of a condemned man, the State does not dispose of the individual's right to life. In this case it is reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned person of the enjoyment of life in expiation of his crime when, by his crime, he has already disposed himself of his right to live. The church regards criminal penalties as both "medicinal", preventing the criminal from re-offending, and "vindictive", providing retribution for the offense committed.

Pius defended the authority of the State to carry out punishment, up to and including the death penalty. Pius XII taught that the masses were a threat to true democracy. In such a democracy, liberty is the individual's moral duty and equality is the right of all people to honorably live in the place and station that God has assigned them.

On 1 June , one day before the Italian institutional referendum on whether to abolish or keep the Italian monarchy, Pius XII delivered a sermon on St. Peter's Square. While he did not directly mention monarchy or republicanism, given the context, his speech was nonetheless widely seen as endorsing Umberto II in the referendum, with it being difficult to misunderstand his plea.

The problem is whether one or the other of those nations, of those two Latin sisters [elections were taking place in France on the same day] with several thousands of years of civilization will continue to learn against the solid rock of Christianity, One of these two alternatives shall occur according to whether the names of the champions or the destroyers of Christian civilization emerge victorious from the urns.

After the referendum was successful and the Italian monarchy was abolished, Pius privately agreed with his envoy Myron Taylor " Pius XII issued 41 encyclicals during his pontificate—more than all his successors in the past 50 years taken together—along with many other writings and speeches. The pontificate of Pius XII was the first in Vatican history that published papal speeches and addresses in vernacular language on a systematic basis.

Until then, papal documents were issued mainly in Latin in Acta Apostolicae Sedis since Because of the novelty of it all, and a feared occupation of the Vatican by the German Wehrmacht , not all documents exist today. In , a number of papal documents were burned or "walled in". Several encyclicals addressed the Eastern Catholic Churches. Orientalis Ecclesiae was issued in on the 15th centenary of the death of Cyril of Alexandria , a saint common to Eastern Christianity and Latin Churches.

Pius XII asks for prayer for better understanding and unification of the churches. Orientales omnes Ecclesias , issued in on the th anniversary of the reunion, is a call to continued unity of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church , threatened in its very existence by the authorities of the Soviet Union. Sempiternus Rex was issued in on the th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon.

It included a call to oriental communities adhering to Miaphysite theology to return to the Catholic Church. Orientales Ecclesias was issued in and addressed to the Eastern Churches, protesting the continued Stalinist persecution of the church. Several Apostolic Letters were sent to the bishops in the East. Mary, the mother of God, was the subject of encyclical letters to the people of Russia in Fulgens corona , as well as a papal letter to the people of Russia.

Pius XII made two substantial interventions on the media. His discourse The Ideal Movie , originally given in two parts to members of the Italian cinema industry, offered a "sophisticated analysis of the film industry and the role of cinema in modern society". Pope Pius XII canonized numerous people, including Pope Pius X —"both were determined to stamp out, as far as possible, all traces of dangerous heterodoxy " [ ] —and Maria Goretti.

He beatified Pope Innocent XI. The first canonizations were two women, the founder of a congregation for women, Mary Euphrasia Pelletier , and a young laywoman, Gemma Galgani. Pelletier had a reputation for opening new ways for Catholic charities, helping people in difficulties with the law, who had been neglected by the system and the church.

Galgani was a virtuous woman in her twenties, said to have the stigmata. During World War II Pius saw his primary obligation as being to ensure the continuation of the " Church visible " and its divine mission. He followed a strict public policy of Vatican neutrality for the duration of the conflict mirroring that of Pope Benedict XV. In , Pius XII turned the Vatican into a centre of aid which he organized from various parts of the world.

Pius XII had genuine affection for Germany, though not the criminal element into whose hands it had fallen; he feared Bolshevism, an ideology dedicated to the annihilation of the church of which he was head, but his sympathies lay with the Allies and the democracies, especially the United States, into whose war economy he had transferred and invested the Vatican's considerable assets.

Summi Pontificatus was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, in October and established some of the themes of his pontificate. The papal letter denounced antisemitism, war, totalitarianism, the attack on Catholic Poland and the Nazi persecution of the church. Pius XII reiterated church teaching on the "principle of equality"—with specific reference to Jews: "there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision".

Following themes addressed in Non abbiamo bisogno ; Mit brennender Sorge and Divini redemptoris , Pius wrote against "anti-Christian movements" and needing to bring back to the church those who were following "a false standard Who among "the Soldiers of Christ" — ecclesiastic or layman — does not feel himself incited and spurred on to a greater vigilance, to a more determined resistance, by the sight of the ever-increasing host of Christ's enemies; as he perceives the spokesmen of these tendencies deny or in practice neglect the vivifying truths and the values inherent in belief in God and in Christ; as he perceives them wantonly break the Tables of God's Commandments to substitute other tables and other standards stripped of the ethical content of the Revelation on Sinai, standards in which the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the Cross has no place?

Pius wrote of a persecuted church [ ] and a time requiring "charity" for victims who had a "right" to compassion. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote: [ ]. The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the "beginnings of sorrows" The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace.

With Italy not yet an ally of Hitler in the war, Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Catholic Church. Pius avoided explicit denunciations of Hitlerism or Stalinism , establishing the "impartial" public tone which would become controversial in later assessment of his pontificate: "A full statement of the doctrinal stand to be taken in face of the errors of today, if necessary, can be put off to another time unless there is disturbance by calamitous external events; for the moment We limit Ourselves to some fundamental observations.

In April , the Vatican advised the U. This, Phayer wrote, was regarded as a "betrayal" by many Polish Catholics and clergy, who saw his appointment of Hilarius Breitinger as the apostolic administrator for the Wartheland in May , an "implicit recognition" of the breakup of Poland; the opinions of the Volksdeutsche , mostly German Catholic minorities living in occupied Poland, were more mixed.

There was a well-known case of Jewish rabbis who, seeking support against the Nazi persecution of Polish Jews in the General Government Nazi-occupied Polish zone , complained to the representatives of the Catholic Church. The church's attempted intervention caused the Nazis to retaliate by arresting rabbis and deporting them to the death camp.

Subsequently, the Catholic Church in Poland abandoned direct intervention, instead focusing on organizing underground aid, with huge international support orchestrated by Pope Pius XII and his Holy See. Those intelligence materials were used by Pius XII on 11 March during a formal audience with Joachim von Ribbentrop Hitler's foreign affairs adviser when Pope was "listing the date, place, and precise details of each crime" as described by Joseph L.

Lichten [ ] after others. With Poland overrun, but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, Pius continued to hope for a negotiated peace to prevent the spread of the conflict. The similarly minded U. President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-established American diplomatic relations with the Vatican after a year hiatus and dispatched Myron C.

Taylor as his personal representative. According to Hitler biographer John Toland , following the November assassination attempt by Johann Georg Elser , Hitler said Pius would have wanted the plot to succeed: "he's no friend of mine". The Vatican agreed to send a letter outlining the bases for peace with England and the participation of the Pope was used to try to persuade senior German Generals Franz Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch to act against Hitler.

Pius warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in When Mussolini learned of the warnings and the telegrams of sympathy, he took them as a personal affront and had his ambassador to the Vatican file an official protest, charging that Pius XII had taken sides against Italy's ally Germany. Mussolini's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience".

When, in , the Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop led the only senior Nazi delegation permitted an audience with Pius XII and he asked why the Pope had sided with the Allies, Pius replied with a list of recent Nazi atrocities and religious persecutions committed against Christians and Jews, in Germany, and in Poland, leading The New York Times to headline its report "Jews Rights Defended" and write of "burning words he spoke to Herr Ribbentrop about religious persecution".

At a special mass at St Peters for the victims of the war, held in November , soon after the commencement of the London Blitz bombing by the Luftwaffe , Pius preached in his homily: "may the whirlwinds, that in the light of day or the dark of night, scatter terror, fire, destruction, and slaughter on helpless folk cease. May justice and charity on one side and on the other be in perfect balance, so that all injustice be repaired, the reign of right restored".

Pius attempted, unsuccessfully, to dissuade the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from joining Hitler in the war. This interpretation assuaged American Catholics who had previously opposed Lend-Lease arrangements with the Soviet Union. In March , Pius XII established diplomatic relations with the Empire of Japan and received ambassador Ken Harada , who remained in that position until the end of the war.

In June , diplomatic relations were established with the Nationalist government of China. This step was envisaged earlier, but delayed due to Japanese pressure to establish relations with the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei regime. The first Chinese Minister to the Vatican , Hsieh Shou-kang, was only able to arrive at the Vatican in January , due to difficulties of travel resulting from the war.

He remained in that position until late The Pope employed the new technology of radio and a series of Christmas messages to preach against selfish nationalism and the evils of modern warfare and offer sympathy to the victims of the war. The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society; at the very end of the speech, Pius XII mentioned "the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline".

He is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews. He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals. In calling for a 'real new order' based on 'liberty, justice and love', Graham each concluded such claims were an intentional creation of the British Political Warfare Executive.

In , Pius XII issued a Christmas message in which he warned against rule by the masses and against secular conceptions of liberty and equality. As the war was approaching its end in , Pius advocated a lenient policy by the Allied leaders in an effort to prevent what he perceived to be the mistakes made at the end of World War I.

At their meeting, the Pope acknowledged the justice of punishing war criminals, but expressed a hope that the people of Italy would not be punished, preferring that they be made "full allies" in the remaining war effort. When the war was raging, Pius spoke out very often to condemn the false race theory. Cornwell asserts that the Pope did little to challenge the progressing holocaust of the Jews out of fear of provoking the Nazis into invading Vatican City.

In his Summi Pontificatus first papal encyclical, Pius reiterated Catholic teaching against racial persecution and antisemitism and affirmed the ethical principles of the " Revelation on Sinai ". At Christmas , once evidence of the mass-murder of Jews had emerged, Pius XII voiced concern at the murder of "hundreds of thousands" of "faultless" people because of their "nationality or race" and intervened to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries.

Upon his death in , Pius was praised emphatically by the Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir , and other world leaders. But his insistence on Vatican neutrality and avoidance of naming the Nazis as the evildoers of the conflict became the foundation for contemporary and later criticisms from some quarters. His strongest public condemnation of genocide was considered inadequate by the Allied Powers, while the Nazis viewed him as an Allied sympathizer who had dishonoured his policy of Vatican neutrality.

In , the newly elected Pope Pius XII appointed several prominent Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican after they had been dismissed from Italian universities under Fascist leader Benito Mussolini 's racial laws.