Name

In Italian, the first four letters of the name Pacelli spell peace. The world hoped last week, after that name was converted to Pius XII, that the first acts of its owner might help bring it.

Germany, having plumped hard for a "nonpolitical" Pope, was rewarded with a man who was not only potentially the most political of all the Cardinals, but also one who, as Papal Nuncio to Germany from 1920 to 1929, knows plenty about specifically German politics. The German press was as flat and as quiet as a Cardinal's hat over the choice. The official Italian press, having urged an Italian Pope, was politely thankful. In Britain, France, the U. S. and many another libertarian State, there was universal joy that the man who had helped shape the brave, humane policies of Pius XI had taken the same name as a symbol of continuity.

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