Having witnessed a pope give up the burdens of the office, we might do well to recall one who resolutely bore those burdens to his deathbed. Except among students of the modern papacy, Pius XI (Achille Ratti) remains an obscure figure. His pontificate (1922-1939) has been overshadowed by that of his controversial successor, Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), whose silence in the face of Nazi genocidal policies during World War II has generated a veritable library of popular and academic studies, including two biographies in the past few months alone. It is an irony of history that the pope who was vocal in attacking Nazism and fascism is less well-known than the pope who was not.
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