World War I, which is often called the real end of the 19th century, was also a major turning point in the history of modern Roman Catholicism. Since ancient times the church had been accustomed to ordering its relations with secular society through negotiations with kings and emperors, who would preferably be members of its own fellowship. The war and the revolutions attending it brought about the end of the ruling dynasties of Germany (Hohenzollern), Austria-Hungary (Habsburg), and Russia (Romanov) and thus forced the church to come to terms with new democratic, communist, and fascist regimes. Of special significance was a series of pacts with the Fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini. In 1929 the church and the Italian government signed the Lateran Treaty, which regularized relations between them and recognized an independent Vatican City under papal authority, thus finally settling the “Roman Question.” In 1933 the church concluded a concordat with Nazi Germany, hoping to protect its own interests and those of German Catholics; this hope proved ill-founded, and the church’s relations with Adolf Hitler and his regime deteriorated.
In the years leading up to World War II, the church’s relations with Italy and Germany were shaped not only by the desire to protect Catholic interests in those countries but also by a hostility toward communism, which was shared by both popes of this period, Pius XI (reigned 1922–39) and Pius XII (reigned 1939–58). Although the papacy often spoke out against communism during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), it was silent on the subject during World War II, when Pius XII adopted Benedict XV’s policy of strict neutrality. Although criticized during and after the war for its position, the papacy had enunciated its opposition to the secularist and racist programs of the totalitarian regimes, most notably in Pius XI’s encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (“With Deep Anxiety”), which was read from Catholic pulpits in Germany on Palm Sunday (March 14) in 1937. Pius planned other pronouncements condemning Nazism but died before he could deliver them. His successor, Pius XII, who played a much more controversial role during the war, has been criticized for failing to speak out more forcefully against the genocidal policies of the Nazis. His strongest statement against genocide was regarded as inadequate by the Allies, though in Germany he was regarded as an Allied sympathizer who had violated his own policy of neutrality. Pius also approved efforts to help the Jews and ordered that the Jews of Rome be given refuge in the city’s religious houses. After the war, the Vatican was involved in extensive humanitarian efforts. Pius, however, was criticized for not having done more. A cautious and experienced diplomat who feared that bold actions would cause more harm than good, he was not a prophet at a time when the world may have needed one.
As a diplomat and former papal secretary of state, Pius was obliged, under the pressures of World War II, to clarify and refine the church’s teachings on war and peace as well as to work out a strategy of survival. In the encyclical Mystici corporis Christi (June 29, 1943; “Mystical Body of Christ”) he sought to explain the nature of the church and its relationship to nonbelievers, and in Divino afflante Spiritu (September 30, 1943; “Inspired by the Divine Spirit”) he reinvigorated Catholic scholarship by approving the limited use of modern methods of historical criticism in biblical studies.
Pius also approved liturgical reform, inviting greater lay participation in the service in Mediator Dei (November 20, 1947; “Mediator of God”). After the war he continued to oppose communism, becoming increasingly strident and threatening communists with excommunication. In the last years of his papacy he also moved away from his more liberal encyclicals and showed his more conservative nature. In 1950 he became the first pope since Vatican I to exercise the right of defining doctrine, proclaiming the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary to be a dogma binding on all members of the church. Earlier in the same year, in the encyclical Humani generis (August 12, 1950; “Of the Human Race”), he had given a reproof to various theological trends that appeared to be reviving the ideas and methods of Modernism. The Second Vatican Council
From these two papal promulgations of 1950, many observers were ready to conclude that in the second half of the 20th century Roman Catholicism would assume an essentially defensive posture in relation to the modern world. Those who had come to that conclusion were compelled to revise it by the pontificate of John XXIII (reigned 1958–63) and by the Second Vatican Council, commonly referred to as Vatican II. During his brief reign, Pope John issued several important encyclicals. Of special interest is Mater et magistra (“Mother and Teacher”), published on May 15, 1961, which explicitly aligned itself with Rerum novarum of Leo XIII in calling for justice and the common good as the norms of social conduct. Two years later, in Pacem in terris (April 11, 1963; “Peace on Earth”), John addressed himself not only to members of the church but to “all Men of Good Will.” In this encyclical he formulated, more completely than any previous pope had done, a social philosophy of peace among people and between nations.
John XXIII.© Bettmann/Corbis
This spirit of reform and social concern animated Vatican II, which John convoked but did not live to see to its conclusion. The council brought about drastic changes in the life and worship of the church, encouraging the use of the vernacular in the liturgy and greater lay participation everywhere. Perhaps even more historic were its actions regarding those outside the Roman Catholic Church. To Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians the council extended the hand of fraternal understanding instead of denouncing them as heretics. To the Jewish community it addressed words of reconciliation and regret for the anti-Semitism of the Christian past. To the world religions it spoke of the church’s admiration for the spiritual values that had been preserved in traditions that did not know the name of Christ. And to all people, believers and unbelievers, the council expressed its respect for the integrity and freedom of humanity and its repudiation of coercion as a means of bringing people to faith. Underlying all this was its Declaration on Religious Freedom (December 7, 1965; Dignitatis humanae), which was based on the philosophy of the dignity of the human person and the right to religious freedom. In its importance for the development of the church, Vatican II will probably rank with the Councils of Nicaea (325), Chalcedon (451), and Trent (1545–63). Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Michael Frassetto Aftermath of the council
The legacy of Vatican II remains a divided one. For some Catholics, the promise of far-reaching reform remains unfulfilled; for others, the council went too far, undermining the traditional beauty of church teachings and liturgy. This ambiguity was apparent during the papacy of Paul VI (reigned 1963–78), when many of the reforms of the council were implemented, most notably in the liturgy. The Latin mass was replaced by the vernacular mass, altars were turned around so that the priest faced the congregation, and greater participation by the laity in the celebration of the mass was instituted. Paul improved relations with the Orthodox Church and with non-Christian faiths. In the encyclical Populorum progressio (March 26, 1967; “Development of Peoples”) he called for social justice and denounced the excesses of capitalism, which led conservatives to accuse him of being a Marxist. The encyclical Sacerdotalis caelibatus, issued on June 24, 1967, affirmed clerical celibacy, and Humanae vitae (“Of Human Life”) issued on July 25, 1968, forbade the use of artificial birth control. These controversial encyclicals, which confirmed the church’s more traditional teachings, alienated many Catholics and led some priests to renounce their vows, just as the progressive reforms of the pope and the council also led to the schism in 1988 of the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the movement to restore the Latin mass.