Pius XII - The Holy See
The Holy See [Vatican web site]
Pius XII and the Jewish Holocaust- Catholic Information Centre
Hitler's Pope: The secret history of Pius XII [Review] - First Things

WINSTON CHURCHILL asked Britain's most prestigious Roman Catholic family to lobby the Vatican during the Second World War in a bid to persuade it to abandon its support for Adolf Hitler.
Previously undiscovered documents found by The Telegraph show that ministers asked Lord Fitzalan, the uncle of the then Duke of Norfolk, to urge the Pope to denounce the Nazis and support the Allied cause. The 1940 papers reveal the frustration of the British government in the face of the Pope's refusal to attack the fascist powers of Germany, Italy and Japan.

The discovery of the letters in the Public Records Office, south-west London, will embarrass the Vatican, which is currently seeking to canonise Pope Pius XII, who has been dubbed "Hitler's Pope" because of his failure to speak out against Nazism. They also undermine the arguments of papal apologists who claim that the Allies understood the reasons for the Pope's silence because they appreciated he was in an impossible position.

One letter to Lord Fitzalan from Lord Halifax, the former Foreign Secretary, contrasts the valuable contribution made by British Catholics to the war effort with the Pope's continued silence on the issue. Lord Halifax warned Lord Fitzalan that the Pope's policy of appeasement was leaving Catholics outside Britain with the impression that a Europe dominated by Hitler was the Pope's preferred outcome to the war.

He wrote: "If the Catholics of, say, Belgium, Holland and France could be persuaded that somehow Nazism was reconcilable with their religious faith and moral outlook, then a potentially powerful centre of resistance to Nazi plans of domination would be removed."

Lord Halifax asked Lord Fitzalan to secure a papal denunciation of Hitler or, failing that, a statement in praise of the Allies from another influential Catholic body. He wrote: "It would be presumptuous in me to suggest His Holiness should make further pronouncements or when he should do so . . . However, Catholics everywhere need to be strengthened by authority in their resistance to Nazi blandishments, and have their conviction of the necessity of an Allied victory renewed or reinforced." Significantly, Lord Halifax mentioned that he had chosen not to write to Vatican diplomatic representatives.

The Telegraph has discovered copies of diplomatic telegrams in which the Foreign Office, through its papal envoy, Francis D'Arcy Goldolphin Osbourne, attacked a number of Vatican initiatives, such as the decision to ban any mention of Germany from official radio broadcasts.

One FO note stated: "Whatever pressure may have been exercised on the Vatican, His Majesty's Government cannot but regard the decision reached as deplorable and one which is not consistent with the best interests of the Vatican itself. What in the day of triumph for justice and fair-dealing will be the feeling of Catholics the world over towards the church if it can be said of it that after at first standing against Nazi paganism it eventually agreed by its silence to assist in discrediting the principles upon which it is founded?" Thousands of Catholics, including members of the clergy, were tortured and murdered by the Nazis because of their direct opposition to Hitler's regime.

Owen Chadwick, whose book Great Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War remains a definitive work, said: "This is an interesting and significant find. The letter to Lord Fitzalan is particularly valuable because it proves that there was genuine concern about the Vatican's stance. Some apologists for the Pope have tried to claim that the Allies hyped up their concern in diplomatic communications because they knew Nazi spies were reading their mail."

The current Duke of Norfolk, a prominent Catholic who is a second cousin to Lord Fitzalan, said: "I am personally unaware of the approach to Lord Fitzalan. You have to remember I was in the Forces at the time and would have been busy with other things. It is not something I would like to comment on while the debate about Pius XII is still at a very sensitive stage. The extermination of the Jews was horrible and savage but there are those that argue that Pius was in an impossible position."

Lord Fitzalan, a former Conservative MP and Viceroy of Ireland, died in 1947.

Additional articles on London Telegraph Website:

28 February 2000: [International] Vatican defence of wartime role angers Israelis
20 October 1999: [International] Inquiry into Vatican's wartime role
11 October 1999: [International] Vatican plan to beatify pope shelved
17 September 1999: [International] Wartime Pope 'was pawn of Hitler'
21 May 1999: Catholics in secret talks over Lords
13 October 1996: The cloak and dagger Duke of the Cold War
12 September 1997: [International] Vatican keeps files closed over 'Nazi collaboration'

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