Pope Pius XII Foreign Relations After World War II - USA

USA

President Harry Truman believed that permanent peace can only be achieved on a Christian basis, and informed the Pope, "Your Holiness, we are a Christian Nation, as the US Supreme Court decided more than half a century ago" and re-appointed Myron C. Taylor as a representative to the Holy See. Vatican relations with America were cordial and largely free of conflict. Joseph P. Kennedy, father of John F. Kennedy, attended the Papal coronation as representative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. William Henry O'Connell of Boston was the first Cardinal invited by the new Pope after his election. Cardinal George Mundelein of Chicago was his second guest. In 1936, then Cardinal Pacelli was the first Pope to ever visit the United States. He toured the nation with Bishop Francis Spellman, visiting twelve of sixteen ecclesiastical provinces and meeting with seventy-nine bishops. He gave a policy address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.. He had meetings with President Roosevelt which ... led to a resumption of de facto diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the USA, which had been in limbo since 1868.

Pius had left the initiative to the American President, realizing the complicated situation he faced in the American Congress, which had refused to approve a Papal minister in 1868, thus de facto closing the doors for an American presence at the Vatican. He privately protested repeated American bombings of Rome. After the war, Pius supported the Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower administrations to rebuild war-torn Europe and to defend freedom.

In a well-publicized appeal, he wrote to President Eisenhower to spare the lives of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, sentenced to death because of alleged espionage for the Soviet Union.

Pius invited Americans, Europeans, Africans and Asians in the Italian-dominated Vatican Curia. He encouraged young Americans to enter Vatican service. To provide better training and international exposure of American theology students, he welcomed the establishment of a large seminary exclusively for Americans in Rome. It was opened and blessed by him in the presence of virtual all American bishops. He was close to Francis Spellman, a friend of Domenico Tardini. Spellman was the first American ever to work in the Secretariat. In 1931, Pacelli consecrated him to be the first American bishop in Saint Peter's Basilica. Spellman was elevated to the seat of New York immediately after the election of Pope Pius XII. Spellman, who accompanied a groups of American pilgrims to Rome in October 1958, was also the last American and one of the last foreign dignitaries to see Pope Pius before his death on October 9, 1958.