PIUS XII

born March 2, 1876, Rome, Italy died Oct. 9, 1958, Castel Gandolfo original name Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli Italian head of the Roman Catholic church during World War II and the years of postwar reconstruction (reigned 193958), who dealt with contemporary moral and theological issues in innumerable addresses and in several encyclicals. His ideas on international structures and reforms in liturgy and biblical studies were important, but his conduct during World War II has been the subject of controversy. Additional reading J.O. Smit, Pope Pius XII (Eng. trans. 1951); Oscar Halecki and J.F. Murray, Pius XII: Eugene Pacelli, Pope of Peace, rev. ed. (1954); and N. Padellaro, Portrait of Pius XII (Eng. trans. 1956), are conventionally laudatory and are works written in Pius' lifetime. English translations of two works of C. Falconi, The Popes in the 20th Century from Pius X to John XXIII (1968), and The Silence of Pius XII (1970), assume an impartial manner but are basically hostile to Pius. R. Hochhuth, Der Stellvertreter (1963; The Representative, 1963; U.S. title, The Deputy, 1964), is a bitterly hostile caricature. Other works include: S. Friedlander, Pius XII and the Third Reich: A Documentation (Eng. trans. 1966); J. Nobecourt, Le Vicaire et l'histoire (1964); D. Tardini, Pio XII (1960, Eng. trans. 1961); and W.A. Purdy, The Church on the Move: The Characters and Policies of Pius XII and John XXIII (1966). For the relationship between Pius XII and U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt see Wartime Correspondence Between President Roosevelt and Pope Pius XII, with introduction and notes by Myron C. Taylor (1947, reprinted 1975).