As with Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XI had barely been
made a cardinal when he was elected pope. Unlike his
noble predecessor, Pope Pius XI was born to a middle
class family in Milan in 1857. Baptized Achille, he studied
both at Milan and in Rome. Ordained a priest in 1879 at
Rome, he pursued his studies, achieving doctorates in
Theology, Cannon Law and Philosophy. He served as
Prefect of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan before being
sent to Rome to be the Prefect of the Vatican Library. In
1918 he was named Nuncio to Poland and Lithuania. After
two difficult years in that post he was brought back to Italy
to become Archbishop of Milan. In 1921 Achille Ratti was
raised to the cardinalate and the next year elected pope.
Pope Pius XI faced the twin evils of fascism and
communism. He has often been criticized for the
concordats or treaties he concluded with Italy and more
especially with nazi Germany. It is important to note that
the motivation behind the concordats was not, in any way,
to legitimize the regimes with which they were concluded,
but was rather an effort to give the Church the appropriate
legal authority, under international law, to protect and
support the Faithful. He had more success with Mussolini
than with Hitler who began to violate the terms of the
concordat, almost from day one, of the agreement. He has
also been criticized for looking with favour on Franco’s
Spain. But, here again, we must remember that the so-
called republicans of Spain were in fact hard-core
communists and that Clergy and Religious were brutally
hunted down in the Spanish Republic and exterminated.
Franco, at least, protected the Church and upheld Her
rights.
Over, and against the powers of the world, Pope Pius XI
established the Feast of Christ the King. As the nazi
regime in Germany became more and more strident in its
Anti-Semitism and racism, Pius XI countered with the 1937
encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge. Written in German with
the input of the German Bishop, (later Cardinal) Michael
von Faulhaber, the Pope condemned nazism as
incompatible with Christianity and famously stated,
“Spiritually we are all Semites.” Needless to say, the nazis
attempted to suppress the encyclical, which nevertheless
was read from every Catholic pulpit. The Pope followed
with Divini Redemptoris, which condemned the
totalitarianism and atheism of the Soviet Union.
God spared Pope Pius XI the full horrors of the Second
World War calling him home in 1939. He was succeeded
by his very able Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli who as
Pope Pius XII would lead the Church through some of the
darkest hours of the 20