Pius XII Mistaken Vatican Peace Initiatives

The Vatican Peace Initiative
As there was no nuncio to Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the German Empire. Once in Munich, he conveyed the papal initiative to end the War to German authorities.[13] He met with King Ludwig III on May 29, and later with Kaiser Wilhelm II.[14] and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, who replied positively to the Papal initiative. Pacelli saw “for the first time a real prospect for peace”.[15] However, Bethmann-Hollweg was forced to resign and the German High Command, hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until September 20. Pacelli was “extraordinarily disappointed and depressed”,[16] since the German note did not include the concessions promised earlier. For the remainder of the war, he concentrated on Benedict’s humanitarian efforts.[17]
After the war, during the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 Pacelli was one of the few foreign diplomats to remain in Munich. According to Pascalina Lehnert, who was personally there at the time, Pacelli calmly faced down a small group of Spartacist revolutionaries, who had entered the nunciature by force in order to take his car. Pacelli told them to leave the extraterritorial building, to which they responded, "only with your car". Pacelli, who had previously ordered to disconnect the starter, permitted the car to be towed away, after he was informed that the Bavarian government had promised to return the vehicle at once. [18] Several versions of this incident and alleged later incidents are much more colorful, but, according to the relator in the beatification process in the Vatican, "mostly based on imagination"[19] The popular view may also overlook his cordial relations with socialist politicians like Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann, and his prolonged secret negotiations with the Soviet Union (see below). “Pacelli is simply too intelligent to be irritated by something like this” opined the Bavarian representative at the Vatican.[20]

Eugenio Pacelli at the Imperial Headquarters with the peace proposal of Benedict XV to Emperor Wilhelm II
On the night of Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, Franz Matt, the only member of the Bavarian cabinet not present at the Bürgerbräu Keller, was having dinner with Pacelli and Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber.[21] The American diplomat Robert Murphy, then in Munich, writes that "all the foreign representatives at Munich, including Nuncio Pacelli, were convinced that Hitler's political career had ended ignominiously in 1924. When I ventured to remind His Holiness of this bit of history (in 1945), he laughed and said: 'I know what you mean - papal infallibility, Don't forget, I was only a monsignor then'."[22]
The Vatican Peace Initiative
As there was no nuncio to Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the German Empire. Once in Munich, he conveyed the papal initiative to end the War to German authorities.[13] He met with King Ludwig III on May 29, and later with Kaiser Wilhelm II.[14] and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, who replied positively to the Papal initiative. Pacelli saw “for the first time a real prospect for peace”.[15] However, Bethmann-Hollweg was forced to resign and the German High Command, hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until September 20. Pacelli was “extraordinarily disappointed and depressed”,[16] since the German note did not include the concessions promised earlier. For the remainder of the war, he concentrated on Benedict’s humanitarian efforts.[17]
After the war, during the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 Pacelli was one of the few foreign diplomats to remain in Munich. According to Pascalina Lehnert, who was personally there at the time, Pacelli calmly faced down a small group of Spartacist revolutionaries, who had entered the nunciature by force in order to take his car. Pacelli told them to leave the extraterritorial building, to which they responded, "only with your car". Pacelli, who had previously ordered to disconnect the starter, permitted the car to be towed away, after he was informed that the Bavarian government had promised to return the vehicle at once. [18] Several versions of this incident and alleged later incidents are much more colorful, but, according to the relator in the beatification process in the Vatican, "mostly based on imagination"[19] The popular view may also overlook his cordial relations with socialist politicians like Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann, and his prolonged secret negotiations with the Soviet Union (see below). “Pacelli is simply too intelligent to be irritated by something like this” opined the Bavarian representative at the Vatican.[20]

Eugenio Pacelli at the Imperial Headquarters with the peace proposal of Benedict XV to Emperor Wilhelm II
On the night of Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, Franz Matt, the only member of the Bavarian cabinet not present at the Bürgerbräu Keller, was having dinner with Pacelli and Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber.[21] The American diplomat Robert Murphy, then in Munich, writes that "all the foreign representatives at Munich, including Nuncio Pacelli, were convinced that Hitler's political career had ended ignominiously in 1924. When I ventured to remind His Holiness of this bit of history (in 1945), he laughed and said: 'I know what you mean - papal infallibility, Don't forget, I was only a monsignor then'."[22]

Pius had a mistaken view at Munich that Hitler would eclipse. At the beer hall putsch , the Pontiff believed he was to see the last of Hitler. He was reminded of this mistaken prediction in 1945 of papal infallibility and stated laughingly, "I was only a monsignor then." Note the text above taken from the wiki article and the photos. Note the Nazi cartoon as the caricature of Pius as a Judeophile . This dispels the longstanding vilifying of Pius as silent on the fate of the Jews. The Nazis thought otherwise of this Pontiff as a Judeophile ,their only too outspoken advocate.