Pius XI

Pius XI (1857-1939), pope (1922-1939), who navigated a tortuous path for the Church during the turbulent years before World War II. Born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti in Desio, Italy, on May 31, 1857, he was educated at the Lombard College and the Gregorian University in Rome. He was professor of dogmatic theology at the seminary of Milan from 1882 to 1888, a staff member and ultimately director of the Ambrosian Library of Milan from 1888 to 1910, and subprefect and later prefect of the Vatican Library in Rome from 1911 to 1918. The following year he became papal nuncio in Poland and in 1921 was made a cardinal and archbishop of Milan. He succeeded Benedict XV as pope in 1922.

During his reign Pius XI issued several social encyclicals, including Casti Connubii (Christian Marriage), of December 30, 1930, discussing marriage and family life; the notable Quadragesimo Anno (Forty Years) of May 15, 1931, devoted to his view of the need for reconstruction of the social order; and Nova Impendet (Threatening News), of October 2, 1931, examining the worldwide economic crisis of the 1920s and early 1930s. Pius XI's pontificate is also notable for the signing of the Lateran Treaty with Benito Mussolini, whereby the 59-year retirement of the popes in the Vatican was brought to an end and the temporal authority of the papacy over Vatican City in Rome was established. Although Pius negotiated a treaty with the government of Mexico in 1929, whereby Roman Catholic churches in that country were permitted to resume services, relations between church and state later deteriorated once again. In 1933 he signed a concordat with Germany that protected the rights of the Church under the Third Reich but had the unfortunate effect of disarming certain opposition to Adolf Hitler both within and outside Germany. Thereafter, however, Pius repeatedly protested the offences of National Socialism against both law and the Church in Germany. An outspoken enemy of communism, he supported the regime of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Until 1938 the pope maintained friendly relations with the government of Mussolini but thereafter opposed the Italian and German governments and issued pleas against anti-Semitism and war. He died in Rome on February 10, 1939.