Pope Pius XII's Neutrality Essay

This was agreed on the 20th July through the Concordat agreement between state and Vatican. Their actions in the end, regarding the Church, proved to be effective indeed for he obtained his ultimate goal – eliminate political opposition – by granting something that didn’t carry substantial drawbacks itself.

He stated that the bible had nothing to do with earthly justice. In the HRE, the church officials viewed the spread of Protestantism in Germany (which they viewed as heresy) was causing the rebellion to happen. As Michael Eisenhart is possibly a church official and views the rebellion as a part of Protestantism’s teaching. “…through certain citizens here who adhere to the heresy of Luther, it has come about that bad, false teaching has greatly got the upper hand.”(Doc 5) The church viewed this event as an event caused because of the teaching of a “heretic.” In the end, the nobles crushed the rebellion and killed about seventy five thousand peasants. This event strengthened the strength of nobles and Protestantism lost its appeal in the lower classes.

The contribution of Pope John XXIII has been profound, as many of his initiatives and actions are still resonating today. His acceptance of Jesus’ words “I came to save all nations.” Represented his motivation to do well and bring peace upon the world. He was an advocate of Christian unity, social justice, human rights and the promotion of world peace. It is through his development of the Second Vatican Council, his contribution to ecumenism and his empathy for humanity that Pope John XXIII made a significant impact upon the development and expression of Christianity.

“Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality”.1 These are the words of President Woodrow Wilson during his “Declaration of Neutrality” on August 19, 1914. Something crazy would happen, the United States would enter The Great War a three years later. A lot of things influenced the United States to finally get to their eventual declaration of war on Germany. The two factors I thought most significant were: the United States’ economic interests favoring Great Britain and Wilson’s insatiable need to have a voice at the peace talks in Europe.

John Cornwell argues in his book Hitler’s Pope: the Secret History of Pius XII that the Pope helped legitimize the Nazi regime and that he did not speak out against or try to stop the Holocaust. Cornwell made the claim that Pius was anti-Semitic and did not care about European Jews; all he really desired was more centralized power for the Papacy.8

America had no intention of entering WWI as President Woodrow Wilson had declared their policy of neutrality in 1914 after the continent of Europe had erupted in conflict. President Wilson aimed to deal with all participants in the war in a fair way that did not show signs of allegiance to either side as he tried to help find a way towards peaceful resolution. Happenings in Europe soon changed Wilson’s view of neutrality. Many American lives had been lost at sea after the sinking of the Lusitania and other ships due to Germany’s unrestricted submarine attacks. Germany refused to alter their methods which forced Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war in 1917.

World War II, which only lasted about five years, changed the course of history forever, and affected millions of lives. Among the major nations that were involved in the war, Benito Mussolini and his Italian army sought to settle their differences with many nations. Benito’s fascist views, his idea of a nation built by one race, and his relationship with Adolf Hitler ultimately led to his involvement in the war. His responsibility, in essence, was to ally himself with the superpowers of the world, and lead his people into a war that they could not fight.

As soon as World War One broke out, Woodrow Wilson, the president at that time immediately declared the United States neutral to maintain the nation’s stability. President Wilson thought the United States should take no part in a war where they were not affected. But, as the war carried on it was evident that a stance of neutrality was just clearly not the case. Even though they were not fighting in World War I, the United States were definitely involved. Whether it be loaning goods to a party of the war or rising turmoil with a belligerent nation, America did take part in the war before their actual entry. Voluntary or involuntary, the United States involved themselves in the war in many ways , most definitely contradicting Wilson’s policy of neutrality.

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

With this propaganda the Nazi attacked the churches and their members between 1934 and 1936. The Nazis shut down Catholic schools, the Hitler Youth absorbed several youth groups, and the Gestapo arrested dozens of Catholic priests and accused them of immorality. This anti-Catholic campaign produced a defensive reaction from the Church. In March 1937, Pope Pius XI issued a papal encyclical entitled Mit Brennender Sorge (‘With Burning Anxiety’), in which the Pope condemned the violations of the Reichskonkordat and criticized the racial policies of the regime and the lack of justice or natural law in the Nazi state. This marked the beginning of the resistance that the Catholic Church put up against the Nazi regime.

One is a faith that billions of people have worshiped for hundreds of years, and the other is a regime based on racist theories. Catholicism and Nazism. These two congregations have more in common than anyone could have imagined. Both had principles and theories. History shows that both parties shared hatred and sought out those they disapproved of for questioning, torture and even execution. The medieval Catholic Church and Nazi Party had common motives. However, those in disagreement argue that one is a faith and the other is politics. The actions of the Nazi Party were distinct replications of those of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, which is a reminder to all that any prevailing party, whether it be political or religious, can command a threatening power.

Since this speech took place during the Holocaust, Pius XII had no choice but to share his words what he thought of this disaster that was taking place. However this speech about the extermination of society and racism was very vague towards his audience, thus lead to confusion towards the crowd; he however also addressed that Russia was a threat to Germany which triggered Hitler to start targeting the Catholics. Yet in 1965, a document called Nostra Aetate came out from the Catholic Church which focuses on the relationships between the Jews and Catholics but never did mention the Holocaust at all in the document. Later in 1998 the Vatican then, decided to apologize for its treatment towards the Jews in the Holocaust. Relating these two documented events that firstly went to super vague to very clear, states that the reason why Pius XII wanted his speech to be unclear towards his audience is so that the Nazis wouldn’t have targeted him, as he never showed arrogance towards the Jews and the Nazis; but lived in fear to see if he was targeted next. However the reason why the Vatican decided to publish a very clear document about their opinions in the later years, was because they knew this war was over so they decided to apologize to the Jews on how they mistreated them, this makes the Vatican’s look like cowards as the people in 1942 thought

The mandate of Article(s) 231 and 232 , (respectively titled “The War Guilt Clause” and “Reparations”) of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919 served as unintentional catalysts for the arise of revisionism in post-war Germany, and its fall out of the international order following the Paris Peace Conference. These two articles politically, socially, and economically ravaged Germany, and created societal circumstances in which a totalitarian dictatorship (the National Socialist German Workers Party or “Nazi” party) gained popularity and was viewed as necessary in order for Germany to be restored to its former status as an economic and political world power. The national humiliation and economic burden that Articles 231 and 232 created injured German pride, strained its economy and triggered a resentful and hostile outlook to the “new peace” that the Allied leaders believed they had formulated. The German people viewed this as a “dictated peace” (Diktat) that had been enforced on them. It was seen by Germany as an unfair, un-justified and un-realistic punishment for losing the war, and instead of creating a long-term and prosperous peace on the European continent, the guilt and reparations of Articles 231 and 232 ignited a flame of vengeance in Germany that would evolve into an ultra-nationalist inferno and consume the world into a second and even more devastating and savage war.

Throughout the period of World War II, many Jewish people had fled to Israel seeking a place for sanctuary due to Hitler’s reign of terror, but who knew that one of the most largest movements in the history of Europe would cause one of the biggest renowned issues that still remains today. We can easily conclude that both Palestinian and Israeli people both believe that Israel is a land of sacred, where both religions had made history in this land. Although one of the biggest issues that still remains today is who really deserves the land the most. The Palestinian people currently live in the land of Israel before the Jews had made their movement, but after letting in countless Jewish refugees into their land, the Jewish people had realized

pain is being inflicted. His early images of purgatory, show Keats in a bind of