Still all quiet on the Pius front 2013-2016

For all sorts of reasons I have not been able to post for the last couple of months.  My school is preparing for its Sesquicentenary next year and I am involved on various committees and projects that seem to take up more and more time.  Many have the moments been when I have thought I should sit down and write something, but more often than not, it has been a case of "tomorrow", the end of today has left me yearning only for the sofa!  

Now, back to it!

I have commented before that under Pope Francis there has been a serious "slow down" on talk and action on the possible canonisation of Pius XII.  It has not changed in the three years since I last wrote on this topic.  It is almost as though the academic world has adopted a "wait and see" approach, an approach I can well understand.  

Over the last ten or so years, after the high-water mark of the revisionist and apologists attempt to re-configure historical debate on Pius along non-historical lines, mainstream academia has, it would appear, reached the point where there is nothing more to be said at present.  Research continues, but, as in my case, I suspect it is moving into other related areas.  My own study has taken more and more into ADSS, and the "usual" work of historians, namely the little discoveries and nuances that help add a highlight on this point or a shadow on that point.  There have several major works published by serious historians - Coppa, Fattorini, Kertzer, Kornberg, Madigan, Ventresca, Wolf, to name some - that have, in their own field, added to our collective knowledge.

The "elephant in the room" has been and remains, the closed archives of Pope Pius XII contained in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano.  We have waited for years, and, I suspect, we will continue to wait.  2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013 ... Whatever the reasons for the delays, most of us believe that there will be no major change in the general direction research has headed over the last half century.  This direction was confirmed when the archives for Pope Pius XI were opened between 2003 and 2006.

I will continue to post my reading of ADSS if only because I remain convinced that the published documents still contain many nuggets that shed light on the reasoning behind the many different layers of the Vatican diplomatic efforts firstly, to prevent a war, and secondly to contain it once it started.

Over and over again, the documents reveal patterns of diplomacy, negotiation and responsibility, that did not change over the course of the war years.  If I have reached only one conclusion from the ADSS, it is that Pope Pius XII while not knowing everything, was arguably the best informed person in Europe.  However, that knowledge grew incrementally, and in a non-consistent manner - he became aware of events from across Europe as they arrived in Rome, and often not in chronological order and often seemingly unrelated.  It was the responsibility of the Secretariat of State to attempt to create meaning and patterns out of the material that arrived, and that could often be devilishly difficult to do.  Only in one area did the Pope have as clear and consistent a picture of German intention as was possible.  That area was the evolution of German policy towards the Jews.

From a research point of view I have to thank so many people who have posted and maintained entire libraries of online resources.  My study of ADSS would simply not be possible without access to the mostly gratis resources that have been made available.  For that I am most grateful and offer my deepest thanks.

All very quiet on the Pius front

Today is the feast of St Eugenio, name day of Pius XII.

Work commitments have made it difficult to keep posting  on the subjects related to Pope Pius XII.  However, given the significance of the day I thought it worth while making a few comments on what appears to have been a lull or even a "cease fire" in what has been about a decade and half of energetic polemic and a growing academic discussion over Eugenio Pacelli. 

Cyberspace has been very quite for about three months.  My google alerts have been getting  fewer and fewer and the content of what has been coming through has been fairly innocuous. I suggest a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly, Frank Coppa and Robert Ventresca's biographies of Pius XII have been published and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.  The scope and scale of historical work done by both authors is impressive for its depth and detail along with balanced interpretation and analysis.  It is hard to argue against scholarship of this calibre.

Secondly, I believe that the arguments of those who have been very vocal in the recent past decrying and demonising those historians who did their job, and did it well, have been comprehensively answered and deconstructed.  To remain a proponent of the over-used and generalised statements "Pius did everything possible to save the Jews of Europe" and "Pope Pius XII saved 860,000 Jews" is to place oneself well and truly outside any form of mainstream discussion.  In effect, these positions have been shown to be effectively bankrupt and without historical basis.

Thirdly, the interest in the subject appears to have "gone off the boil".  The wait for the archives of Pacelli's papacy continues.  However, the energy to explore what is currently available has waned.  And this is a significant "reality check" for those who want clear answers now.  Research into the available material is only in the early stages.  It will take years to explore the archives of the pontificate of Pope Pius XI and his Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli.  Out of this will come new insights and nuances that will help shed light on Pacelli's papacy; but it demands great patience and discipline, something most of the apologists lack.

Fourthly, there is what I describe as the "Francis effect".  The new pope does not appear to have the interest that his two immediate predecessors had in the debates over Pius XII.  I do not believe this indicates disinterest, but rather it is not high on his priority list at present.  This many change, but current indicators seem to suggest that this will not likely be the case.  What may happen is a direction to the archivists to speed up the process, but this is moving into wishful thinking.

Thank you to those who have written to me with questions.  I hope to get answers for you shortly.

Robert Ventresca's "Soldier of Christ"

I finished reading Robert Ventresca's "Soldier of Christ" a few weeks ago and was asked recently to write a review of the book for an academic journal.  I was very happy to do so.  If you have not read the book - do so.  I believe it will be the standard general biography of Pope Pius XII for some time.  Even when the ASV files for Pacelli's papacy are made available Ventresca's book will still be the most helpful English-language guide.  Coupled with Frank Coppa's slimmer, but equally well-written "The Life and Pontificate of Pope Pius XII: Between History and Controversy", historians, students and the general reader, have at their disposal an excellent resource.  

But!  Reader beware.  Ventresca treats his audience as adults and expects them to use their minds to make their own judgements.  

Kertzer reviews Ventresca's new book on Pius XII

Since it's publication several months ago, Soldier of Christ by Robert Ventresca continues to make very positive headlines throughout the world.  Ventresca may have finally succeeded where many others have come to grief, in writing the a comprehensive and balanced biography of Pius XII using the available material.  In any case Ventresca's book, along with Frank Coppa's slighter volume, look like being the best biographies of Pius for some time to come.  It remains to be seen if another book written after the archives are opened will cause significant change.

Keeping in mind that the archival material for Pius XII's pontificate are still under embargo, until at least later this year according to earlier comments from the ASV, Ventresca's work may have some areas that will need expansion with the help from primary material that could emerge.  However, the review of Ventresca's book that appears in the current online edition of the Jesuit magazine America suggests that this book is balanced, non-polemical, scholarly and built on sound historiography.  The reviewer is David Kertzer of Brown University, Rhode Island, a recognised expert in Vatican-Italian-Jewish history.  

Kertzer's review is positive and offers Ventresca a major plaudit when he says that the author allows the reader to judge for themselves on some of the major issues that have coloured, and which still do, Pacelli's life and papacy.  

I have a copy that I have just started reading and I look forward to the rest of the book.

Frank Coppa's biography of Pius XII

Earlier this month I was approached to write a "blurb" for Professor Frank Coppa's new biography on Pope Pius XII.  I was honoured to do so. 

The book will be published by the Catholic University of America Press in February 2013.

I endorse it for several reasons.  Most significantly, this is a work that follows in the manner set out by Jose Maria Sanchez in his important book Pius XII: Understanding the Controversy (2002).  Coppa sets out to produce the life story of Pacelli using the available historical record. He treads a careful line between incorporation of essential material and exclusion of interesting but tangential information.  There is an excellent "setting of the scene" in the opening chapter that makes clear just how important context/s are in order to obtain a valid and historically accurate biography of the man and pope.

Placing the war years into the fuller context of Pius' 82 years, Coppa has helped the general reader and historian alike, gain perspective, something sorely needed, and does much to help ease the tensions surrounding study of Pacelli.  The lessons I learned revolved around two points: firstly, the articulate examination of papal politics including the much misunderstood neutrality; and secondly, the equally articulate presentation of the greater part of Pacelli's pontificate, the post-war and Cold War years 1945-1958.

I enjoyed reading Coppa's book.  I have placed it alongside Sanchez.  It should have a place on the book shelf of anyone seriously interested in a balanced and authoritative biography of Pope Pius XII.