Pius XII

Italian Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope. Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on March 2, 1876 in Rome, in a family connected with the Vatican. After graduating from high school in 1894, he entered the seminary. He studied philosophy, mathematics and Greek. From childhood, he showed a love of languages, in particular Latin. He also studied law.

In 1899 he was ordained a priest, and in 1902 he was a doctor of both laws (civil and canon). In the meantime, he began to climb the ranks of the Church. In 1914 he became secretary of the Congregation for the Church; in 1917 - nuncio in Munich and archbishop. In 1920 he became nuncio in Berlin and cardinal, and later Vatican secretary of state. In 1933, while still Eugenio Pacelli, he negotiated the Church's Concordat with the Third Reich.

Pius XII - Pope

In 1939, Pius XI died and the conclave elected him pope. He took the name of Pius XII . From the beginning of his pontificate, he made efforts to maintain peace. After the outbreak of World War II, he condemned the aggression of the Third Reich, but never reacted sharply to atrocities against Jews, for which he was repeatedly criticized - as well as compromising with the Nazis and Italian fascists. Many even call him "Hitler's Pope." He was sympathetic to Catholic dictatorships in Europe. He was the first pope to devote so much attention to the mass media and to establish a Vatican radio station in the Holy See. In 1951, he began the liturgical reform of the Catholic Church. He died in 1958 in the residence of Castel Gandolfo.