Selected Quotes of Pope Pius XII

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GUEST COLUMN

Selected Quotes of Pope Pius XII

January 2008
By Margherita Marchione

Sr. Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., a Fulbright Scholar and Professor Emerita of Italian Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University, is a member of the Religious Teachers Filippini. She is the author of several books on Pope Pius XII, most recently, Did Pope Pius XII Help the Jews? (Paulist Press, 2007). Her autobiography, The Fighting Nun, was published by Cornwell Books in 2000.

On his birthday, March 2, 1939, Eugenio Pacelli became the 262nd successor of St. Peter and took the name of Pius XII. In his first address to the cardinals, he spoke about peace. Years later, aware that Hitler was a pathologically obsessed anti-Semite who flew into a rage whenever the word "Jew" was mentioned, the Pope admitted: "Frequently it is with pain and difficulty that a decision is made as to what the situation demands: prudent reserve and silence or, on the contrary, candid speech and vigorous action."

On January 25, 2007, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone strongly defended Pope Pius XII against critics who charge that the Pontiff failed to protect Jews during the Holocaust: "Research done by independent historians confirms that Pope Pius XII took extraordinary steps to save Jewish lives.... The proofs are in the Vatican archives." Recently, when I sent documentation about the controversy surrounding Pius XII's actions to Camillo Cardinal Ruini, he responded: "Notwithstanding all the opposition, the Cause for Beatification of Pius XII will proceed."

Pius XII spoke out on many issues of moral concern and of public policy. He was not "silent," and his courageous acts during World War II are incontestable. He was a highly respected 20th-century Church leader. For nearly two decades, Pope Pius XII addressed words of wisdom to the faithful. Among his papal statements are the following:

The Aged: "People are inclined to reprove the elderly for what they no longer do, instead of reminding them of what they have done and recognize the wisdom of their judgments."Art: "Art helps men, notwithstanding all the differences of character, education and civilization...to pool their respective resources in order to complement one another."

Conscience: "Christian morality must be taught to youth and inculcated in the youthful consciences by those who, in the family or in the school, have the obligation to attend to their education."

Education: "It is never too early to mold the character and habits of a child. Education begins at the cradle; and the first school, which nothing can replace, is that of the domestic hearth."

Family: "In the order of nature, among social institutions there is none that is dearer to the Church than the family.... Parents must give their children a wealth of faith and the atmosphere of hope and charity."

Harmony: "If three notes are sufficient to fix with their harmony the tonality of a musical composition, the song of spring could be condensed into three notes, the harmony of which brings his soul in tune with God Himself: faith, hope and charity."

Love: "God's masterpiece is man, and to this masterpiece of love, He has given a power to love unknown to irrational creatures: personal, conscious, free; that is to say, subject to the control of his responsible will."

Matrimony: "In the life of a wedded couple an essential nourishment of happiness is their mutual trust in sharing thoughts, aspirations, worries, joys and sorrows."

Peace: "Nothing is lost with peace. Everything may be lost with war. Let men come again to understand one another. Negotiating with good will and with respect for their reciprocal rights, they will perceive that honorable success is never precluded to sincere and constructive negotiations."

Prayer: "One finds God in prayer. He is a kind Father who will open to you His arms and heart."

Reason and Faith: "The homage which reason renders faith does not humiliate reason but honors it and exalts it, for the highest achievement of the progress of human civilization is that it facilitates the path of faith as it evangelizes the world."

The State: "The more conscientiously the competent authorities of the State respect the rights of the minority, the more surely and effectively can it demand of its members that they carry out loyally the civic duties which are shared with other citizens."

War on War: "If ever a generation had to feel deep down in its conscience the cry ‘War on war!' it is certainly the present one. Gone, as it has, through an ocean of blood and tears, such as was perhaps never known in the past, it has lived war's unspeakable atrocities so intensely that the recollection of so many horrors cannot but remain impressed in its memory and in the depths of its soul."