Question 3.40

3.40 In 1945 you came into the world during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII.

ROBERT CARDINAL SARAH

When I was a child, I knew that there was a pope at the head of the Church, because I used to hear his name at Mass. I was convinced that I would never see that unreachable summit. I imagined the successor of Peter as a man living in some sort of paradise, and all those who worked with him, too. I considered them saints and true models of Christian life. Far-off Rome appeared to be a bit of heaven. …

At the minor seminary in Bingerville, I began to understand better the significance of the papal office. That was where I learned about the death of the pope, on October 9, 1958, when we had just begun the school year. I was afraid because I understood that it was an important moment for the Church.

Furthermore, Pius XII was very popular in Africa.

That pope was a very dignified man. The accusations concerning his role during the war seem to me to be a terrible injustice. Far from the ideological polemics, the historians have begun their work of research. Recently I appreciated very much the studies published by the Englishman Gordon Thomas and by the Frenchman Pierre Milza. The testimonies of thousands of Jews, who were protected in the monasteries of Rome at his personal orders, even in the papal apartments of the Vatican and in the summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, are extraordinary. Pius XII wanted to save people who were doomed to death. His diplomatic silence was motivated by the desire not to aggravate the awful tragedy that was playing out at that time. In dealing with mad and dangerous dictators, words can sometimes prove counterproductive.

In another setting, I myself was able to experience persecution in Guinea during the reign of Sékou Touré. I therefore know from experience that bloody, repressive regimes are complex problems and that it is not enough to speak out publicly in order to fight against a dictatorship.

Indeed, the pope feared that Hitler’s policy against the Jews might become even more barbaric and that the Polish and German Christians would suffer the consequences of that horrible violence.

Of course I am not an expert on this matter, nor do I claim to summarize such a difficult subject. The horror of the Holocaust is still a mystery of iniquity.

At the ecclesial level, as soon as he was elected, Pius XII decided to recall, through his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus, dated October 20, 1939, that his first duty was to bear witness to the truth: “The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past, has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably to a drift towards chaos. Before all else, it is certain that the radical and ultimate cause of the evils which We deplore in modern society is the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well for individual and social life as for international relations; We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God, Almighty Creator and Father of all, supreme and absolute Lawgiver, all-wise and just Judge of human actions. When God is hated, every basis of morality is undermined” (SP 28). Pius XII was already confronted with the beginnings of the problems with which we are familiar: the denial of God and moral relativism.

I can also say that Pius XII was more of an innovator than the superficial critics of his conservatism would have you believe. His encyclical Fidei donum, published in April 1957, on the renewal of the missions, inspired in part by the example of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, then archbishop of Dakar and apostolic delegate for French Africa, was very important for the development of evangelization. The Supreme Pontiff wished to reawaken the Bride of Christ by inviting the most ancient Church of the East to become involved in a missionary effort and by encouraging European priests to go and serve for a time in a mission diocese. The encyclical was written especially with a view to Africa. At that time, there was a dire lack of apostles and evangelizers on that continent. Thanks to Pius XII, priests were able to leave their dioceses of origin to help regions of the world that lacked clergy. In Guinea, after the foundational work of the Holy Ghost Fathers, the priests whom we have called since then fidei donum (the gift of faith) made possible a remarkable development of the Catholic faith.

For my continent, the figure of this pope remains even more historical because he was the first to consecrate African bishops, in particular, Bernardin Gantin. His interest in a native episcopal hierarchy was real.