For what is Pope Pius XII remembered?

Answer 1

A:

Pius XII was pope of the Catholic Church from March 1939 to his death in October 1958. He opposed the German invasion of Poland, criticised the Nazi atrocities, and was instrumental in saving many from the gas chambers, but some point to his relative silence on the Holocaust, perhaps unfairly.

In the only instance that ex cathedra papal infallibility has been explicitly invoked, he announced the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

Pius XII accepted the rhythm method as a moral form of family planning, although only in limited circumstances. In Humani Generis he acknowledged that evolution might accurately describe the biological origins of human life, while criticising those who "imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution... explains the origin of all things."

In modern times no head of the church was so indulgent in favouring members of his own family as Pius XII. Paul Hoffman (Anatomy of the Vatican) says that nepotism again became quasi-official in the Vatican under Pius XII, whose three nephews all played important roles during his pontificate and formed a tight little group that wielded great power in the Vatican. They all served on the boards of directors of many financial and business corporations that were controlled by the Vatican or by other church bodies. A nephew, Prince Marcantonio Pacelli, was for many years President of the Banco di Roma per la Svizzera, a subsidiary of the Vatican Bank.

Paul Hoffman (Anatomy of the Vatican) suggests that Pius XII permitted, even encouraged, reports that he was having mystical experiences. L'Osservatore Romano quoted a high churchman, Federico Cardinal Tedeschini, as revealing that the pope had witnessed a repetition of the miracle of Fatima. While walking in the Vatican gardens, the prelate had affirmed, Pius XII had seen visions of the Virgin Mary and of the sun dancing in the sky, a replay of the famous phenomena in the fields outside the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917, as reported by three children. Church authorities later acknowledged the apparitions, either in the belief that Pope Pius really had seen this vision, or in order to humour the aging pontiff. In 1954, Pius XII disclosed that Jesus had appeared at his bedside during a recent illness and said to him that his time was not yet up. When the story found its way into the press, the Vatican had to confirm it officially.