ADSS 1.254 Tardini, Secretariat of State, notes: Preparations for Ribbentrop's visit

ADSS 1.254 Domenico Tardini, Sect State, notes

Reference: AES Germany 774

Location and date: Vatican, 09.03.1940

Summary statement: Preparations for Ribbentrop’s visit on 11.03,1940 done in secret.  Pope dreading the experience.  The meeting must not be exploited for Nazi propaganda.

Language: Italian

Text:

On Monday 11 March, von Ribbentrop will see the Holy Father.  The audience has been prepared secretly for some time.  Through the Prince of Hesse (I believe) (1) and through X (2).  The Holy Father submitted five points as desiderata of the Holy See (all prepared personally by himself and until now unknown to the Office).  The German Government declared that they could form the basis for an understanding.  The Ambassador (3) went yesterday (after all these months) to ask the Cardinal personally for an audience.  He said it would be a courtesy call, without éclat, but with … due honours.  The Holy Father, who had already been fully acquainted with X was very distressed.  He does not place much hope in this visit.  Today the Cardinal (after discussing the subject with me) advised His Holiness to hand Ribbentrop a written note as a précis of the conversation.  This is in order that the audience not be exploited by the Germans – a very likely thing – and to publish one day proof of what the Holy Father has deplored and has requested for the good of the souls and for the fulfilment of his apostolic duty. (4)

Notes: 

(1) Philipp, Landgrave of Hess (1896-1980) acted as an intermediary between Berlin and Rome through his marriage to Princess Mafalda of Savoy (1902-1944). He joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and was a supporter of Hitler until the Nazis turned against the German princely families.  Philipp was arrested in September 1943 and sent to KL Flossenburg.  He was moved several times later in the war until liberation in May 1945. Mafalda was arrested in Rome and eventually sent to KL Buchenwald and made to work in an armament factory where she died during an air raid in August 1944. 

(2) Not identified.

(3) Diego von Bergen (1872-1944), German Ambassador to the Holy See 1920-43.

(4) The documents relating to Ribbentrop’s visit did not concern the international situation, even if the Germans intended to use the visit as a means of consolidating the Berlin-Rome Axis.  The only topic of discussion for the Holy See was the condition of the Church in Germany and Poland.

See also ADSS 2.42: 17.03.1940 Pius XII to Cardinal Adolf Bertram, Breslau; 43: 22.03.1940 Pius XII to Cardinal Michael Faulhaber, Munich.

ADSS 1.223 Montini - notes on Christmas truce

 ADSS 1.223 Giovanni Montini, notes.

Reference: AES 8992/39

Location and date: Vatican, 07.12.1939

Summary statement: Michael Faulhaber (Munich) has intervened in favour of the Christmas truce.  Pope will try and obtain agreement of governments.

Language: Italian

Text:

During this morning’s audience, His Holiness ordered the Substitute to tell the Most Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State that His Eminence Cardinal Faulhaber (1) has begged the Holy Father to give his assistance in favour of the proclamation of a Christmas truce (without which, amongst other things, all Midnight Masses would be prohibited); and therefore His Holiness would like everything done to obtain the consent of the various Governments for the approval of the truce.

Handwritten note of Luigi Maglione, Secretary of State

07.12.1939

Yesterday I asked the Ambassadors of France and Germany and the Minister of Great Britain to sound out their governments (2).

Notes: 

(1) In a letter of 25.11.1939 Cardinal Faulhaber addressed the pope: “Your Holiness has probably already considered whether it would be possible to arrange a cease fire for all fighting and instructions for fighting, at least for Christmas Even and Christmas Day.  Those at the front as well as at home would welcome this most sincerely.”  In this way it would be possible to ask for the authorisation to ring the bells and to celebrate Midnight Mass.

(2) Francois Charles-Roux (1879-1961), French Ambassador to the Holy See 1932-40; Diego von Bergen (1872-1944), German Ambassador to the Holy See 1920-42; D’Arcy Osborne (1884-1964), UK Minister to the Holy See 1936-47.

ADSS 3.2.444 Hilary Breitinger to Pius XII

Polish Catholics in the territories "annexed" by Germany in the wake of the September 1939 invasion found themselves in a dire predicament.  Nazi policy was unambiguous in its determination to decapitate Polish society, culture, intelligentsia and the Catholic Church.  The forcible removal, arrest and murder of many of the clergy in the area known as the Warthegau left hundreds of parishes without priests and the regular life of the church ground to a halt.  Provision was begrudgingly made for the Volksdeutsche who were "resettled" into the area but even in this case there were insufficient clergy to meet the needs of German speaking Catholics.  

Polish speaking Catholics were barred from churches designated for Volksdeutsche Catholics, forbidden to use Polish in those parts of the Latin liturgy and devotions where the vernacular could be used, banned from confessing in Polish, and restricted from attending worship outside of a few hours once a week.

Hilary Breitinger (1907-1994), a Bavarian-born Franciscan friar, had worked with the German-speaking community in Poznan since 1934 at the request of Cardinal Hlond.  After the cardinal's flight from Poznan, Breitinger was recognised by newly constituted leadership of Reichsgau Wartheland as the official representative of the German-speaking Catholic Church in the area.  Pope Pius XII was in a difficult position.  Pastoral care of the Polish dioceses and parishes demanded some form of episcopal oversight.  Traditionally, the Holy See did not re-organise dioceses during war, but the decimation of the Polish Church was outside any normal experience.  Pius decided to appoint administrators who would care for dioceses without bishops until such time as a bishop could return or be replaced.  

In the meantime, the Vicar Capitular, or senior canon of the Cathedral in Poznan, Polish priest, Joseph Paech (1880-1942), was recognised as the official representative of the diocese.   Paech appears to have suffered something similar to a nervous breakdown under the pressure of trying to work with the Nazis.  In May 1942, On the advice of Cesare Orsenigo, the nuncio to Germany, Pius approved the appointment of Breitinger as Apostolic Administrator for Poznan. The Polish government in exile in London considered that act and a number of similar ones to be violations of the Polish-Vatican concordat of 1925 thus rendering it null and void.

In this document, dated 23 November 1942, Breitinger wrote to the pope expressing his anxieties over the state of the Church in the Wartheland, the attempts by the Nazis to split German-speaking Catholics from the rest of the Church in some sort of "Rome-free" organisation.  What makes this text so poignant is Brietinger's open mention of the frustration and hurt experienced by many Catholics - German and Polish - at the silence of the pope.  He says that even the Gestapo are amazed.  It is a very frank statement.  Breitinger sent two copies to Rome.  One was sent via the nuncio which did not appear to get to its destination.  The second was sent via Michael Faulhaber, archbishop of Munich who sent it to Rome.

As the Red Army drew closer to Poznan in late 1944 Breitinger left and returned to Germany.

The full text may be found in the pages section.

Hilary Breitinger OFM Conv, 

1907-1994