Humani Generis Unitas - History

History

In June 1938, Pius XI summoned American Jesuit John LaFarge to prepare a draft of Humani Generis Unitas, which LaFarge and two other Jesuits—Gustav Gundlach and Gustave Desbuquois—worked on in Paris; the draft was approximately 100 pages long. Another Jesuit translated the draft encyclical into Latin, presenting it to Vladimir Ledochowski, then the General of the Society of Jesus—who had chosen Gundlach and Desbuquois for the project. The draft encyclical was delivered to the Vatican in September 1938.

Some secondary sources—as well as Cardinal Tisserant the Dean of the College of Cardinals—claim that Humani Generis Unitas was on Pius XI's desk when he died of a heart attack on February 10, 1939.

Pope Pius XII, who succeeded Pius XI, did not promulgate the encyclical in the exact form of the draft left by Pius XI. Critics of Pius XII—notably John Cornwell in his controversial work Hitler's Pope—have cited his failure to promulgate the encyclical as evidence of his alleged silence toward anti-Semitism and The Holocaust, though a revised form of the encyclical was issued by Pius XII in October 1939 and analysis of the encyclical figures prominently in most comparisons of the policies of Pius XII and his predecessor.

Pope Benedict XVI decreed in June, 2006 that all documents from the reign of Pius XI in the Vatican Secret Archives should be opened, and on September 18, 2006 over 30,000 documents were made available to researchers.