The Pope's Last Crusade (33 page)

13
Hitler's trip on May 2
“Rome Ready for Hitler, An Elaborate Welcome,”
The
(London)
Times,
May 2, 1938, 1.

14
Ambassador William Phillips, accompanied
William Phillips diaries (MS AM2232), HLHU, 2539.

14
“I only hope the poor wretches . . .”
William Phillips letter to FDR, May 8, 1938, William Phillips diaries (MS AM2232), HLHU, 2539.

14
The
Times
of London described the event
“Dictators Meet,”
The
(London)
Times
, May 4, 1938, 1.

15
LaFarge's newspaper also reported
“Rome Ready for Hitler, An Elaborate Welcome,”
The
(London)
Times,
May 2, 1938, 1.

15
“What a curious sensation . . .”
LaFarge to Margaret, May 3, 1938, LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

16
“I suppose he exploded!”
Ibid.

16
“Just as I had anticipated”
Ibid.

16
He was haunted
LaFarge, “Europe Revisited,” 215.

17
“Britain has written off . . .”
Robert F. Post, “British Bid Czechs to Give Nazis More,”
NYT,
May 3, 1938, 13.

17
“If Great Britain . . .”
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
255.

18
“If I send . . .”
LaFarge to Talbot, May 17, 1938, GUL, 21-2.

19
“Sad things appear . . .”
Carlo Confalonieri,
Pius XI, A Close-Up
(Altadena, CA: The Benzinger Sisters Publishers, 1975), 303.

20
The Great War, as World War I was known
Arnaldo Cortesi, “Pope Pius Avoids Meeting Hitler,”
NYT,
April 30, 1938, 31.

20
The newspaper reported facetiously
Confalonieri,
Pius XI,
303.

22
A
New York Times
reporter said
“Pope Canonizes Three Saints,”
NYT,
April 18, 1938, 1.

23
“Despite his eighty years . . .”
Ibid.

23
Cardinal Carlo Salotti told him
The passage about the pope's medical treatment comes from Thomas B. Morgan,
A Reporter at the Papal Court
(New York: Longman, 1937), 287–292.

24
Milani, a respected physician
E-mail correspondence with Alfredo Serangeli, director Archivio Storico “Innocenzo III,” Segni, Italy, February 5, 2012.

24
The pope's American
Morgan,
Reporter at the Papal Court,
288–289.

24
“we cannot look upon . . .”
Confalonieri,
Pius XI,
xv.

25
The pope had clashed
Frank J. Coppa, “The Papal Response to Nazi and Fascist Anti-Semitism: From Pius XI to Pius XII,” in
Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945
, ed. Joshua D. Zimmerman (London: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 265–286.

25
Vatican commentaries . . . censured Nazi regulations
Ibid.

26
The encyclical,
With Deep Anxiety
Nazism, http://www.vatican.va.

26
He vowed retaliation
Otto Pies,
The Victory of Father Karl
(London: Victor Gollancz, 1957), 39–40, cited in Joseph M. Malham,
By Fire into Light: Four Catholic Martyrs of the Nazi Camps
(Brussels: Peeters Publishers, 2002), 160.

26
“Our brothers were . . .”
Arnaldo Cortesi, “Pope Foresees Break with Reich and Plans Appeal to the World,”
NYT,
June 21, 1937, 1.

27
The pope planned to broaden
Fattorini,
Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican,
51.

27
Mountain climbing involved
The pope's early years, mountain climbing, and descriptions are based on and quoted from Morgan,
Reporter at the Papal Court,
57, 81–83, 111–126. For more on the Alps, see Nicholas Shoumatoff and Nina Shoumatoff,
The Alps: Europe's Mountain Heart
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001).

32
“There are two crosses . . .”
Charles R. Gallagher,
Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 75.

33
The world would know
Confalonieri,
Pius XI,
303.

34
“You must be Father LaFarge . . .”
Draft copy of article prepared for
America,
July 1938, GUL 38-3.

34
His opinion was sought after in Paris
, GUL, 21-2.

34
“It is hard to explain
. . .” Anne O'Hare McCormick, “A Human Enigma Casts a Long Shadow,”
NYT,
May 8, 1938.

36
“
Bleiben Sie Hier, bitte,
”
LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3, and LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
description of trip from Paris until Rome, 253–284.

37
“One glance out the window . . .”
LaFarge undated notes, LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

42
Before dawn that Saturday morning,
Edward L. James, “Europe Boiling Again, Czech Election Today,”
NYT,
May 22, 1938, 59.

43
“We are living through . . .”
Ibid.

43
When Sir Neville Henderson
Robert P. Post, “Rebuff to Britain by Reich,”
NYT,
May 21, 1938, 34.

43
All this was going on
Description of Czech train ride, LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
264.

43
“Half paralyzed with fear . . .”
Ibid.

44
LaFarge “slept amid maps . . .”
Ibid.

44
But the Nazi newspaper
. . . The Associated Press, “Press Issues an Appeal,”
NYT,
May 22, 1938, 34

45 “‘
The Führer . . . knows . . .'
”
David Irving,
Goebbels—Mastermind of the Third Reich
(London: Parforce Ltd, 1996), 457.

45
“In all this excitement . . .”
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
265, and LaFarge letter to Talbot, May 15, 1938, GUL, 21-2.

46
“IMPOSSIBLE EXAGGERATE . . .”
LaFarge cable, May 27, 1938, LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

46
“It has been a common . . .”
“Nazi Terror Drive Goes on in Vienna,”
NYT,
May 23, 1938, 1.

47
Attending the Eucharistic Congress
Frederick T. Birchall, “Catholics Worship in Danube Pageant,”
NYT,
May 28, 1938, 8.

48
Jesus, he said . . .
Moshe Herczl,
Christianity and the Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry
(New York: New York University Press, 1993).

48
LaFarge saw Pacelli
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
265–266.

48
The medieval citadel
The hill is named for St. Gellert who set out to convert Hungarians to Catholicism. Hungarians did not prove to be receptive; in the year 1046, pagans hurled him, his carriage and his horses into the Danube from the hill that now carries his name.

48
The candlelight shimmered
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary
, 266, and Birchall, “Catholics Worship,” May 28, 1938.

49
“A city and a nation . . .”
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
266.

49
He prayed for peace
“The Pope's Broadcast to Budapest,”
The
(London)
Times,
May 30, 1938.

49
As he spoke those words
Reuters in
The
(London)
Times
, May 30, 1938.

50
“The story isn't told . . .”
Anne O'Hare McCormick, “A Human Enigma.”

51
“to all races and conditions . . .”
LaFarge,
Interracial Justice,
194.

52
“Magnificent slogans . . .”
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
270–272.

53
“You know, we were having . . .”
Ibid., 270.

53
“Nothing I had seen . . .”
Ibid., 271.

53
“Mosquitoes have been abolished . . .”
Ibid.

53
Mussolini's construction projects
Borden Painter,
Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 94.

54
On Wednesday, June 22
“Memo on Conversation with Holy Father, June 25, 1938,” LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

54
McCormick had asked
Ibid.

55
McCormick and LaFarge entered
“Visit to Castel Gandolfo, June 22, 1938,” LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

55
Then two days later
“Memo on Conversation with Holy Father, June 25, 1938,” LaFarge Papers, GUL, 38-3.

56
LaFarge was overwhelmed
John LaFarge, “The New Holy Father Will Face Grave Problems,”
America,
February 25, 1939, 490.

56
“I was mystified . . .”
LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
272.

56 “
a sense of wonder . . .”
Ibid.

58
After a while, an attendant
An account of the meeting is in LaFarge,
Manner Is Ordinary,
272–274; also see Jim Castelli, “Unpublished Encyclical Attacked Racism, Anti-Semitism,”
National Catholic Reporter,
December 15, 1972, 8; memos June 22, 1938, and June 25, 1938, GUL, 38-3; and memo of LaFarge to Talbot, July 3, 1938, GUL 38-3; Edward S. Stanton Collection, BLBC.

59
“a natural vigor . . .”
LaFarge, “The New Holy Father Will Face Grave Problems,”
America,
February 25, 1939, Ibid.

59
LaFarge went further
LaFarge,
Interracial Justice,
11.

62
“The Rock of Peter . . .”
Memo of LaFarge to Talbot, July 3, 1938, 38-3.

63
Pius XI envisioned
Herbert Matthews, “Papal Summer Home Nearly Completed,”
NYT,
February 5, 1933, E2.

64
“Always the twentieth century
. . .”
Popular Mechanics
56, no. 5 (November 1931): 722–727.

65
“This is the first . . .”
Arnaldo Cortesi, “Pope Speaks to World in Greatest Broadcast,”
NYT,
February 13, 1931, 1.

65
The pope's first words
“Latin Text of Pope's Speech,”
NYT,
February 13, 1931, 14.

65
“Listen all people . . .”
“Text of Pope's Radio Talks,”
Washington Post,
February 13, 1931, 5.

65
When he was done
The Associated Press, “Pope's Talk Translated,”
NYT,
February 13, 1931, 14.

65
“Listeners in the United States . . .”
“150 Stations Carry Program to Nation,”
NYT,
February 13, 1931, 15.

66
“Few events in the history
. . .”
New York Herald,
February 13, 1931, http://www.vatican.va/news_services/radio/multimedia/storia_ing.html.

67
During Hitler's visit to Rome
The Associated Press, “Führer and Duce Political Talks Ended,”
NYT,
May 7, 1938.

68
President Roosevelt was keenly interested
For a discussion of Phillips as undersecretary of state and of other U.S. diplomats dealing with Germany during the period, see Erik Larson's
In the Garden of the Beasts
(New York: Crown Publishers, 2011).

69
Like so many others
For a look at State Department treatment of Jews in the period, see Peter Eisner's “Bingham's List: Saving the Jews from Nazi France,”
Smithsonian Magazine
, March 2009, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Binghams-List.html.

70
News media had been calling
John Cornwell,
Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
(New York: Penguin, 2008), 177.

71
The White House reported
“Pacelli Lunches with Roosevelt,”
NYT,
November 6, 1936.

71
The president recalled the meeting
The FDR anecdote is from Charles R. Gallagher,
Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 87.

72
Two days later
“Cardinal Pacelli Departs for Rome,”
NYT,
November 8, 1936, 1.

72
Suddenly, Pope Pius XI
The Associated Press, “The President's Speech,”
NYT,
October 5, 1937.

72
Even if “the Pope . . .”
Owen Chadwick,
Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 17–19.

72
Eugenio was born in 1876
Cornwell,
Hitler's Pope,
19.

73
“I am of average height . . .”
Ibid.

73
He began his religious studies
Ibid., and Hubert Wolf,
Pope and Devil. The Vatican Archives and the Third Reich
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2010), 33–37.

74
“was a devotee of [Richard] Wagner's . . .”
Unpublished notes of Bishop Joseph P. Hurley Papers, ACDSA.

76
Pius, who never conducted business on the telephone
Chadwick,
Britain and the Vatican,
50.

77
“National Socialism is more menacing . . .”
Dorothy Thompson, “On the Record,”
Washington Post,
February 13, 1939, 9.

77
“Perhaps your Holiness . . .”
Fattorini,
Hitler, Mussolini, and the Vatican,
65.

78
Divinis Redemptoris
did criticize
See http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/
documents/hf_pxi_enc_19031937_divini-redemptoris_en.html.

78
Your Holiness, he told the pope
Fattorini,
Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican,
66.