Pope Pius XII planned immediate resignation if Nazis arrested him
April 23, 2009
Pope Pius XII left instructions that his resignation should take effect immediately, and the Holy See should move to Portugal, if he was seized by the Nazi regime. Father Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit scholar researching the Vatican archival record on the wartime Pope, has unearthed the instructions. "It would have been disastrous if the Church had been left without an authoritative leader," said Father Gumpel. Therefore, when he learned of Hitler's plan to arrest him, Pope Pius XII determined that "the person who would leave the Vatican under these conditions would not be Pius XII but Eugenio Pacelli." He made provisions for the election of a new Pontiff after Vatican leaders sought the comparative safety of Portugal.
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