Persecutions of The Catholic Church and Pius XII - Summary

Summary

The pontificate of Pius XII coincided with the Second World War (1939-1945) and the early stages of the Cold War. The Catholic Church was repressed under the Nazi Empire and then under the Soviet dominated Communist states established in Eastern and Central Europe following the war. The Catholic Church in Germany was systematically repressed by the Nazis and persecution was at its most severe in Nazi occupied Poland, where churches, seminaries and convents were systematically closed and thousands of priests and nuns were either murdered, imprisoned or deported.

Over sixty million Catholics were subjected to Stalinist rule from the Elbe river in Germany to Taiwan after World War II. Massive deportations of Catholic populations from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Church persecutions followed from the newly acquired territories. During the Joseph Stalin era, the Church experienced the most systematic persecutions in its history in these Eastern countries. According to John Cornwell, the Church was faced with a dilemma: compromise with the regimes in order to maintain a structure with which to survive or resist, or confront and risk annihilation. To save its faithful, the Vatican attempted both at varying times.

A few years after the death of Joseph Stalin, in 1953, persecution diminished in varying degrees in Poland and Yugoslavia.

In East Germany and Hungary, the Church was subjected to ongoing attacks, but was able to continue some of its activities, however on a much reduced scale. In Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, persecution continued to the point that the Church faced extinction. In the Soviet Union and mainland China, the Catholic Church largely ceased to exist, at least publicly, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. In the last months of his reign, diplomatic feelers from the Soviet Union indicated a possible Soviet willingness to improve relations with the Vatican.