Rise of Pacelli

Spectacular as any Wall Street "success story" was the career of the amiable mountain-climbing librarian, Achille Ratti, who in three years (1919-22) became first Archbishop, then Cardinal, then Pope. Last week the Catholic world celebrated still another success story. Eugenio Pacelli, 53, one who was hatted Cardinal but two months ago succeeded to the highest office in Catholic statesmanship, became Papal Secretary of State.

His predecessor and patron, Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Vatican Secretary of State under two popes for 15 years, framer of the Lateran Treaty between the Italian state and the Vatican, gave the young Cardinal his blessing, then retired to his stately villa (a present from Pope Pius) where he can sit in the sun, busy himself for the rest of his life with canonical law. By order of Il Duce, every public building in Italy was flag-draped to celebrate two simultaneous Catholic milestones; the first anniversary of the Lateran Treaty, the eighth anniversary of Pius XI's Pontificate.

Those wise in hierarchical ways were not surprised at the appointment of Cardinal Pacelli. Besides being the "most loved pupil" of Secretary-emeritus Gasparri, he can point to excellent Vatican connections. His father, Filippo, was Doyen of the consistorial advocates.

His brother Francesco was deeply concerned with the settlement of the Lateran Treaties. Through the hands of another brother Ernesto has passed most of the property purchased by the Holy See in recent years. Secretary Pacelli himself is a member of the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles.

After several years as a member of the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Affairs, he was sent by his patron, Cardinal Gasparri to Munich, where he pursued the pacific policies of Pope Benedict XV. In 1917 he conveyed the Papal Peace Note to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

In 1920 he became Papal Nuncio to Germany, added Lutheran Prussia to the list of states in the good graces of mother church. One task of particular delicacy faces him in the next months: powerful, anti-religious Soviet Russia.

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