Ambrogio Damiano Achille
Ratti was born in Desio on 31st May, 1857. He went to the seminary
at Milan and later obtained a doctorate in theology at the Gregorian
University.
Ratto worked as a parish
priest until moving to the Ambrosian Library in Milan. In 1912 Pope
Pius X appointed him assistant librarian at the Vatican. Later he
became head of the Vatican Library.
In 1918 Pope Benedict XV
sent Ratti to Poland and after the First
World War witnessed the invasion by the Red
Army. In 1921 he was appointed as Cardinal Archbishop of Milan.
The following year he became Pope Pius XI.
Pius XI published thirty
encyclicals covering subjects such as education, marriage and social
problems. In 1929 he signed the Lateran Treaty with Benito
Mussolini
which brought into existence
the Vatican state.
Pius XI condemned the Nuremberg
Laws in July, 1938, and was preparing an encyclical against anti-Semitism,
when he died on 10th February, 1939. His successor, Pius
XII, decided not to speak out against the atrocities being carried
out in Nazi Germany.
(1)
Hiliare
Belloc, letter to Wilfred Blunt (20th March, 1922)
I had a long conversation with him. He is a remarkable
man - far superior
to his predecessor. He is full of experience of Europe & knows
England well - which is rather a rare advantage at the Vatican &
should prove very useful in the near future. He reads English continually
& familiarly and French & German as a matter of course. His
questions to me were very central & to the point & he took
a lively interest in the effects of the war on our society and government.
I could only give him very gloomy replies, for indeed I see no hope
of recovery.
There is something like
a very definite pact - understood rather than expressed - between
the Vatican now & the Italian government.
The first great religious procession since 1870, through the streets
of Rome took place while I was there: it was the carrying of the body
of St Philip Neri through the streets on the third centenary of his
canonization and hundreds of thousands turned out in honour of it:
a most extraordinary sight! The French Embassy had a specially decorated
balcony on the Palazzo Farnese - which is typical of this moment of
transition in which we live - as was also the fact that they were
all present in a special Tribuna at the High Mass at St Peter's.
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