Pope Pius XII and Poland includes Church relations from 1939 to 1958. Pius XII became Pope on the eve of the Second World War. The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the conflict and was followed soon after by a Soviet invasion of the Eastern half of Poland, in accordance with an agreement reached between the dictators Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. The Catholic Church in Poland was about to face decades of repression, both at Nazi and Communist hands. The Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland was followed by a Stalinist repression which was particularly intense through the years 1946–1956. Pope Pius XII's policies consisted in attempts to avoid World War II, extensive diplomatic activity on behalf of Poland and encouragement to the persecuted clergy and faithful.
In Poland, Pius XII made "one of his most controversial decisions" regarding the reorganization of dioceses during World War II.
Background
Catholicism had a presence in Poland stretching back almost 1,000 years. By 1939, around 65% of Poles professed to be Catholic. The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the Second World War. Britain and France declared war on Germany as a result of the invasion, while the Soviet Union invaded the Eastern half of Poland in accordance with an agreement reached with Hitler. The Catholic Church in Poland was about to face decades of repression, both at Nazi and Communist hands."Hitler's Pope?" ; by Sir Martin Gilbert; The American Spectator; 18.8.06 Poland's allegiance to the papacy gave its plight an international dimension, of which both the Nazi and Soviet occupying powers were aware. In Poland, the Church was well organised, and clergy were respected. Garlinski wrote that the Polish Church's "thousand year link with Rome afforded it some protection. The German Reich contained 30 million Catholics, who recognised the Pope's authority... and [each German ruler], however strongly opposed to Rome, had to take account of this..."
First months of the papacy Pope Pius XII succeeded Pius XI in March 1939, on the eve of World War Two. The new Pope faced the aggressive foreign policy of Nazism, and perceived a threat to Europe and the Church from Soviet Communism, which attacked religion—"each system attacked religion, both denied freedom and the victory of either would be a defeat for the Church", wrote Garlinski. After his March 1939 election to the papacy, Pope Pius XII was mostly concerned with the possible outbreak of a new war, starting with the Polish–German conflicts. "Nothing is lost with peace, everything may be lost in a war", was his message immediately after his election.
Consequently, he tried to mediate, not by engaging in border or other disputes, but by creating a readiness to communicate and negotiate on all sides. The Pope himself attempted to invoke a conference of five belligerents, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, excluding the Soviet Union.Stehle 213 Italy was willing, Germany showed little interest, France and the UK were open but hesitant. Poland felt safe and informed the Holy See, that she managed to keep the Soviet Union disinterested in the dispute with Germany, thus strengthening the Polish position. The Vatican disagreed with this optimistic assessment, and urged communication and caution. After the media reports of a surprising arrangement between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Polish Ambassador Kazimierz Papée informed the Vatican, that the Hitler-Stalin Pact actually strengthened the Polish position, because the Soviet Union showed no more interest in European conflicts.
World War Two Nazi–Soviet invasion of Poland Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the West on 1 September 1939 and a period of brutal occupation commenced. Racist Nazi ideology targeted the Jews of Poland for extermination and categorized ethnic Poles (mostly Catholics) as an inferior race. Jews were rounded up into Ghettos or sent to extermination camps. The ethnic Polish intelligentsia were also targeted for elimination, with priests and politicians alike murdered in a campaign of terror. Forced labour was also extensively used. The Red Army invaded Poland from the East on 17 September 1939.Encyclopædia Britannica: Poland – World War II The Soviets were also responsible for repression of Polish Catholics and clergy, with an emphasis on "class enemies". Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union was launched in June 1941, shattering the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, and bringing Eastern Poland under Nazi domination.Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Poland – World War II Norman Davies wrote:Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003 The Nazi plan for Poland entailed the destruction of the Polish nation. This necessarily required attacking the Polish Church, particularly in those areas annexed to Germany. According to Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw, in his scheme for the Germanization of Eastern Europe, Hitler made clear that there would be "no place in this utopia for the Christian Churches".Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London p.661
Policy of Pope Pius XII Pius XII lobbied world leaders to avoid war and then sought to negotiate a peace, but was ignored by the belligerents, as Germany and Russia began to treat Catholic Poland as their colony. In his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus of 20 October 1939, Pius stated that all races and cultures are of equal value, because the creator did not create inequality,Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1939), pp. 413–153. and responded to the invasion. The encyclical attacked Hitler's war as "unchristian" and offered these words for Poland:SUMMI PONTIFICATUS – Section 106
The Polish episcopate led by Cardinal August Hlond, who had repeatedly urged the Holy See to issue protests, warnings, or condemnations, was "deeply grateful". Still, the papal protest, radio reports, L'Osservatore Romano documentaries and other protests issued later did little or nothing to alleviate the suffering of the Polish people and clergy in the following war years under German and Soviet occupation. In fact the persecutions got worse. The Pope therefore chose his words carefully, because of his basic belief, expressed later that became his policy during the war:
Every word from Us should be carefully considered and weighted in the very interest of those who suffer, as not to make their position even more difficult and more intolerable than previously, even though inadvertently and unwillingly."
Though Pius had assisted with the drafting of the anti-Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, which remained binding through the war, he did not repeat it during the war, and, wrote Garlinski, he was conscious that Hitler's expansion brought 150 million Catholics under the control of the Third Reich, and that conditions for Catholics outside of Poland could be adversely affected by his pronouncements. This "restrained and reasoned stance", wrote Garlinski, though justified in the long term, "did not suit the Poles" who expected more forthright language against the Nazis. The Holy See refused German requests to fill the bishoprics of the annexed territories with German bishops, claiming that it would not recognise the new boundaries until a peace treaty was signed. But these diplomatic actions were not considered sufficient on the ground in Poland, where more forthright statements were expected.
France and other countries beseeched the Holy See to protest the unprovoked aggression of the invasion, and, possibly, condemn national socialism and communism anew. According to Stehle, the Vatican under-secretary Giovanni Battista Montini refused, on the basis that any word against Germany or Russia would be dearly paid for by the Catholics in the occupied territories.Stehle 216 Earlier, Pope Pius XII, in order to remain impartial during the war, had ordered Vatican officials and L'Osservatore Romano, to use terms like "socialism", "communism" and "national socialism" factually not degradingly.Stehle 211He thus reserved for the Papacy, which often issued its own news items there, the sole right, to issue possible condemnations and warnings.
German and Polish bishops urged condemnations, arguing, that the enemies of the Church insinuated that the Vatican had given up on Poland. At the same time, Adam Stefan Sapieha, the outspoken Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków, Poland, and, after the premature flight of Cardinal August Hlond into exile, leading representative of the Church in Poland, and others were equally afraid, that Papal condemnations could aggravate the already very difficult situation for Polish clergy and faithful. Poles in exile asked for strong condemnations while those in the countries were more cautious. While Church diplomacy worked in quiet ways, the official papal radio station, Vatican Radio was rather frank in its reporting, especially in its transmissions in Polish, Lithuanian and other local languages in the occupied areas. But this backfired, as one Lithuanian bishop protested:
These reports should be stopped at once. They only incite local occupation authorities and hurt the persecuted Church in great measure. We know what our situation is like, what we need is news from the Catholic world and Catholic teachings."Actes III, 241 4,257
Unknown at the time were the extensive diplomatic activities of the Holy See on behalf of Poland. During World War II, the Vatican spent more political and diplomatic efforts on Polish matters, than any on other nation in the world: The eleven volumes of the Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale list some five-hundred and eightyone documents on Poland. They include communication with German and allied authorities, the Polish government in London exile and of apostolic administrators in the "Warthegau"most but not all of them in Actes III, volumes 1,2 The Holy See was aware of complaints against its quiet diplomacy. Asked, why the Vatican had not published it documents and protests, Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione replied
They have not made public so that the faithful are not subjected to even more fierce persecutions. Isn't this what has to be done? Should the father of Christianity increase the misfortunes suffered by the Poles in their very own country."
On 30 September 1939 the L'Osservatore Romano reported that the Pope had spoken to the Polish community in Rome: Thousands hundred of thousands of people are suffering at this very moment and a great many have already been sacrificed in this war, which, as you know, we have tried to prevent with all possible means. A vision of deep senseless horror and dark despair passes before our eyes, a multitude of fugitives and wanderers who have no motherland, no home anymore. We hear the heart-rending cry of mothers and brides, weeping for their loved ones, slain on the battlefield. We hear the desperate complaints of those of old age, and those who are weak in health, deprived of all help and nursing. We hear the children weep for their parents, who are no more, the cry for help of the wounded and the death rattle of the dying, many of whom never belonged to the fighting forces. We feel their sufferings, their misery and their mourning as our own. The love of the Pope for his children knows no restriction or borders. He wishes that all children of the Church feel at home with the father who loves all equally. This paternal love cares for he afflicted and wishes to care too, for each one of you. This is however not the only comfort. In the eyes of God, of his Vicar, of all decent men, you possess other treasures, which are not kept in steel safes but in your heart and in your soul, first of all, the glory of military courage,....