CrucisPope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII was born Eugenio Pacelli on 2 March 1876 in Rome. A career diplomat who served as nuncio to Germany and then as Cardinal Secretary of State, he was elected pope in March 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and led the Church through that conflict and the tense early years of the Cold War. His conduct during the war, especially regarding the persecution of the Jews, has been much discussed: he directed and permitted the sheltering of many Jews in Rome and elsewhere, yet has also been criticized for not speaking out more openly against the Holocaust, a debate that continues among historians.
A man of deep piety and vast learning, he was a prolific teacher whose encyclicals shaped Catholic life for a generation, notably on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, on Scripture, and on the sacred liturgy. In 1950 he solemnly defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, the only exercise of papal infallibility since 1870. He died at Castel Gandolfo on 9 October 1958.
Selected quotes
“The conscience is the most secret core of man, where he is alone with God; guard it pure, and you will never walk in darkness.”
“Worship is not the work of the lips alone but of the heart; offer yourself with Christ upon the altar, and your whole life becomes a liturgy.”
“Truth does not bend to the age; the Church guards the faith unchanged precisely because she loves the souls of every changing generation.”