Pope Pius XII

Epic card · No. 10613

Pope Pius XII (Italian: Pio XII; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958. His pontificate spanned World War II, the Holocaust, and the first years of the Cold War. He is the most recent Pope to take the name Pius. Born, raised, educated, ordained and resident for most of his life in Rome, prior to his papacy he was secretary of the Vatican's Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, nuncio to Germany, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, and Cardinal Secretary of State for the Holy See, in which capacity he was entrusted with negotiating treaties with other sovereign states. The Vatican was officially neutral during World War II. The Reichskonkordat — the treaty Pacelli had signed with Nazi Germany — and Pius' actions during the war remain the subject of debate, including accusations of public silence and inaction concerning the fate...

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