All Roads Lead to Rome? Pope Pius XII and Non-Confessional Internationalism During and After the Second World War (1944–1948)

Abstract

Religion is the great absentee in the history of internationalism. Earlier studies have begun to highlight the critical role played by religious internationalism in the making of the modern world, but the relations between non-confessional internationalism and religious actors have, to date, been completely overlooked. This article explores the relationship between non-confessional internationalism and Catholicism, with the intention of enriching both the history of internationalism and that of Catholicism in the twentieth century. Specifically, it focuses on the relationship between a number of non-confessional internationalist actors – from the Paneuropean Union and other world and European federalist movements to war refugees – and Pope Pius XII, between 1944 and 1948. Based on the recently opened Vatican archives, the following pages address three fundamental issues: (1) What did the Pope represent in the internationalist imagination? (2) Why did non-confessional internationalists seek contact with him? (3) How did the Pope respond to the requests for support that he received? As a whole, the requests for support examined in this paper clearly show the centrality of Pius XII in the imagination – and strategies – of non-confessional internationalism in the 1940s, including popular internationalism. Between 1944 and 1948, all roads really seemed to lead to Rome.