The Pope and Mussolini (91 page)

36.
“Of all the ‘facts’ that took place in these fatal years,” wrote Dino Grandi (1985, p. 459), “this was the most crucial one.”

37.
Ciano 2002, pp. 203–4 (March18, 1939); Chenaux 2005, p. 273; De Cesaris 2010, pp. 251–53; Casella 2010, p. 290. The following month, reporting the new pope’s decision to remove Pizzardo from the position and to create the commission of archbishops, Charles-Roux observed that the impression in Rome was that the pope had made the move to put himself “in the good graces of the Fascist regime.” MAEI, vol. 267, 172–73, Charles-Roux à Bonnet, 13 avril 1939. The reports of the bishops on relations between Fascist authorities and local Catholic Action groups are found in ASV, AESS, pos. 576, fasc. 607, ff. 179r–190v.

CHAPTER 29: HEADING TOWARD DISASTER

1.
Emmanuel Mounier, quoted in Ventresca 2013, p. 149.

2.
ASMAE, APSS, b. 42, Pignatti a Ciano, 21 aprile 1939.

3.
Morgan 1941, pp. 241–42; Chadwick 1986, p. 56.

4.
Fattorini 2007, p. ix.

5.
ASMAE, APSS, b. 43, Ministero degli Affari Esteri a Pignatti, 26 aprile 1939. At the same time Ciano’s office received a report from the Italian consulate in Munich, telling of the dramatic change in the local press attitude toward the new pope. Previously, the consul reported, the German press had been suspicious of Pacelli, thought to be too close to the old leadership of the Center Party from his days in Munich and Berlin, and nostalgic for the days when the Church was the dominant political influence in Bavaria. But now, in light of his first actions as pope, he was being presented in a positive light. ASMAE, APSS, b. 43, “Atteggiamento nazionalsocialista nei confronti del nuovo Pontefice,” Munich, 27 aprile 1939.

6.
Bottai 2001, p. 148 (19 maggio 1939).

7.
There is a large literature on the papal action against Action Française. Prévotat (2001) offers a thorough examination. Spadolini (1972, pp. 291–96) published Gasparri’s account of the battle.

8.
ASMAE, APSS, b. 44, Pignatti a Ciano, 17 luglio 1939.

9.
Pius XII also let the nuncio know that, as secretary of state, he had done all he could to prevent Pius XI from protesting the appearance of the swastika during Hitler’s visit to Rome, but to no avail. ASMAE, APSS, b. 43, Tamaro, R. Legazione d’Italia, Berna, al R. Ministero degli Esteri, telespresso n. 3461/1236, 21 luglio 1939.

10.
Papin 1977, p. 67.

11.
Parsons 2008, p. 92.

12.
Ventresca 2013, pp. 153–54, 166.

13.
ACS, MI, DAGRA, b. 1320, Roma, 11 novembre 1940.

14.
Salvatore Costanza, “Gli eterni nemici di Roma,”
La Difesa della razza
2:16 (20 giugno 1939), p. 30; Mario de Bagni, “Cristo e i cristiani nel talmud,”
La Difesa della razza
2:14 (20 maggio 1939), pp. 8–9; Carlo Barduzzi, “Cattolici e giudei in Francia,”
La Difesa della razza
2:14 (20 maggio 1939), pp. 26–27; Cassata 2008, p. 127.

15.
On April 1, four days after Mussolini made his request, Pope Pius XII addressed a congratulatory telegram to General Franco. “Raising our heart to God, We rejoice with Your Excellency for Catholic Spain’s greatly desired victory.” The new pope concluded by offering his blessing to Franco and the Spanish people. Franzinelli 1998, p. 173. Two weeks later the pope followed up with a radio broadcast to the Spanish people, saying, “With immense joy We address ourselves to you, most beloved children of Catholic Spain, to express our paternal congratulations for the gift of peace and the victory with which God has deigned to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, shown in such great and generous suffering.” Fattorini 2007, p. 104.

16.
ARSI, TV, b. 28, fasc. 2228, Tacchi Venturi a Luigi Maglione, 28 marzo 1939. The Italian ambassador expressed his own delight with the new pontiff following his meeting with him in mid-November. The pope, he told Ciano, “said that our country gives him great satisfaction. He praised the Italians’ spirit of religiosity, morality, and hard work, insisting on declaring himself satisfied with everything.” Casella 2010, p. 343.

17.
Antonio Messineo, in CC 1940 IV, pp. 216–19. The letter of complaint, from Giorgio Del Vecchio, and Tardini’s reply, are discussed by Sale (2009, p. 149), based on correspondence found in the archives of the journal.

18.
ADSS, vol. 9, 1974, n. 289, Tacchi Venturi au Cardinal Maglione, 10 août 1943.

19.
ADSS, vol. 9, 1974, n. 296, Cardinal Maglione au Père Tacchi Venturi, 18 août 1943.

20.
ARSI, TV, 36, n. 2660, Tacchi Venturi a Umberto Ricci, 24 agosto 1943. This letter is also published in ADSS vol. 9, annex to n. 317.

21.
ADSS, vol. 9, 1975, n. 317, Tacchi Venturi au Cardinal Maglione, 29 août 1943.

22.
Caretti 2010, pp. 148–49.

23.
ADSS, vol. 9, n. 368, Cardinal Maglione, notes, Vatican, 16 octobre 1943.

24.
Gilbert 1985, pp. 622–23;
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189
. The Jews in Italy during the war included approximately 35,000 native Italian Jews and 10,000 recent refugees from Nazi-controlled areas. The estimate of conversions in Italy in the period 1938–43 is from “Jews in Italy 04: Holocaust Period 1938–1945,”
Encyclopaedia Judiaca
online,
http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/it/EncJud_juden-in-Italien04-holocaust1938–1945-ENGL.html
.

EPILOGUE

1.
Santarelli 1991; Romersa 1983, pp. 269–73.

2.
Ciano had spent the last months as Mussolini’s ambassador to the Holy See.

3.
Moseley 1999, pp. 176–247.

4.
A huge literature has been spawned dealing with Mussolini’s last days. My account here is based largely on Milza (2000, pp. 935–47) and Bosworth (2002, pp. 410–12). It seems that the letter Mussolini was reported to have written from Como to his wife may have been a later invention of Rachele’s. On this, see Luzzatto 1998.

5.
Innocenti 1992, pp. 116–17.

6.
Pardini 2007, pp. 439, 455–59; Festorazzi 2004, pp. 260–61.

7.
Innocenti 1992, pp. 169–70.

8.
NYT, March 19, 1956, p. 31.
The Washington Post
(March 19, 1956, p. 26) reported that, while the Jesuit died a forgotten man, it was he who had “engineered the Lateran Pact” in 1929.

9.
Gemelli’s eulogy for the pope, published in his journal,
Vita e pensiero
, offered the most Fascist interpretation possible of Pius XI’s sympathies. The obituary ended, rather jarringly, with a paean not to the man it was supposed to be eulogizing but to Mussolini, recalling “the gratitude that Italian Catholics owe to the incomparable Man, whom Pius XI called the Man Providence had him meet.” Ranfagni 1975, p. 216. Father Coughlin, for his part, engaged in a similar attempt to give the most pro-Fascist possible image to Pius XI following his death. “Pius XI Saved Western Civilization from Reds, Declares Fr. Coughlin,” BG, February 12, 1939, p. 8; “Coughlin Says Pope Was Europe’s Savior,” NYT, February 13, 1939, p. 2. With Allied troops chasing the Germans out of Rome in June 1944 and continuing their march north, Father Gemelli, and many like him, desperately tried to convince the victors that he had never been a Fascist. In July, speaking with Don Domenico Rigoni, an old acquaintance from the days before Mussolini’s rise to power, he trotted out arguments that he would soon use with anyone who would hear them: if he had done anything to please Mussolini and the other Fascist leaders, it was only because he was forced to do so to protect the Catholic University; he was really an anti-Fascist, a Christian Democrat. Don Rigoni stopped him. “No, my friend. You were a Fascist and it’s useless for you to deny it.” ACS, MI, FP “Gemelli,” Milano, 10 luglio 1944.

10.
Bocci 2003, p. 505.

11.
Mysteriously, the papers of the commission dealing with Gemelli subsequently went missing. On Gemelli’s struggle to keep his position following the war, and the support given him by the Vatican, see Parola 2003.

12.
Phillips 1952, pp. 231–33.

13.
Ventresca 2013.

14.
Cornwell 1999.

REFERENCES

Note: All references to contemporaneous newspapers, magazines, and journals are cited in full in the endnotes
.

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Le pape Pie XI et l’opinion (1922–1939)
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Alvarez, David. 2002.
Spies in the Vatican: Espionage and Intrigue from Napoleon to the Holocaust
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Amal, Oscar L. 1985.
Ambivalent Alliance: The Catholic Church and the Action Française, 1899–1939
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Annuario Pontificio per l’anno 1940
. 1940. Vatican City: Tipografia Vaticana.

Aradi, Zsolt. 1958.
Pius XI, the Pope and the Man
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Aubert, Roger. 2000. “Le Cardinal Mercier aux conclaves de 1914 et de 1922.”
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Baima Bollone, Pierluigi. 2007.
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Baratter, Lorenzo. 2008.
Anna Maria Mussolini: L’ultima figlia del Duce
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Baudrillart, Alfred. 1996.
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———. 2003.
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Baxa, Paul. 2006. “A Pagan Landscape: Pope Pius XI, Fascism, and the Struggle over the Roman Cityscape.”
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association
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Bedeschi, Lorenzo. 1973.
Don Minzoni il prete ucciso dai fascisti
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Bendiscioli, Mario. 1982. “Paolo VI (Giovanni Battista Montini).” In
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Beyens, Eugène-Napoléon. 1934.
Quatre ans à Rome, 1921–1926; fin du pontificat de Benoît XV—Pie XI—les débuts du fascisme
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Biffi, Monica. 1997.
Mons. Cesare Orsenigo nunzio apostolico in Germania (1930–1946)
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Binchy, David A. 1970.
Church and State in Fascist Italy
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Biocca, Dario. 2012. “Casa Passarge: Gramsci a Roma (1924–6).”
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Blet, Pierre. 1996. “Le Cardinal Pacelli, secrétaire d’état de Pie XI.” In
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