Pope Pius XII

Pope Venerable Pius XII
Bishop of Rome
Pius XII in 1951
Church	Catholic Church
Papacy began	2 March 1939
Papacy ended	9 October 1958
Predecessor	Pius XI
Successor	John XXIII
Previous post(s)	Pro-Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (1912–1914) Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (1914–1917) Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria (1917–1925) Titular Archbishop of Sardes (1917–1929) Apostolic Nuncio to Germany (1920–1930) Apostolic Nuncio to Prussia (1926–1929) Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio (1929–1939) Cardinal Secretary of State (1930–1939) Prefect of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (1930–1939) Archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica (1930–1939) Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber (1935–1939)
Orders
Ordination	2 April 1899 by Francesco di Paola Cassetta
Consecration	13 May 1917 by Pope Benedict XV
Created cardinal	16 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Personal details
Born	Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (1876-03-02)2 March 1876 Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died	9 October 1958(1958-10-09) (aged 82) Castel Gandolfo, Lazio, Italy
Education	Almo Collegio Capranica Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare State University, La Sapienza
Motto	Opus Justitiae Pax ("The work of justice [shall be] peace" [Is. 32: 17])
Signature
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Title as Saint	Venerable
Pope Pius XII's voice Message of Pope Pius XII at the opening of the Holy Year Recorded 1949
Other popes named Pius

Pope Pius XII (born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, Italian pronunciation: [euˈdʒɛːnjo maˈriːa dʒuˈzɛppe dʒoˈvanni paˈtʃɛlli]; 2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his election to the papacy, he served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany, and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with various European and Latin American nations, including the Reichskonkordat treaty with the German Reich.^[1]

While the Vatican was officially neutral during World War II, the Reichskonkordat and his leadership of the Catholic Church during the war remain the subject of controversy—including allegations of public silence and inaction concerning the fate of the Jews.^[2] Pius employed diplomacy to aid the victims of the Nazis during the war and, through directing the church to provide discreet aid to Jews and others, saved thousands of lives.^[3][4] Pius maintained links to the German resistance, and shared intelligence with the Allies. 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.^[5]

During his papacy, the Catholic Church issued the Decree against Communism, declaring that Catholics who profess the atheistic and materialist doctrines of communism are to be excommunicated as apostates from the Christian faith. The church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc. Despite all this, Stalin himself was still open to coordinating with Pius XII on the struggle against persecution of the Catholic church.^[6] He explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus.^[7] His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici Corporis Christi, on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform; and Humani generis, in which he instructed theologians to adhere to episcopal teaching and allowed that the human body might have evolved from earlier forms. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946.

After he died in 1958, Pope Pius XII was succeeded by John XXIII. In the process toward sainthood, his cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by Paul VI during the final session of the Second Vatican Council. He was made a Servant of God by John Paul II in 1990 and Benedict XVI declared Pius XII Venerable on 19 December 2009.^[8] Pacelli remains the last pope to take the regnal name of Pius to the present day.