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Pius XII: romanità, prophesy and charisma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Oliver Logan
Oliver Logan*
Affiliation:
School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Summary

The modern popular cult of the Pope, which originated with the ‘disinherited’ papacy of Pius IX, reached its acme with Pius XII. Phases of intensification of this cult, which was linked to other ‘devotions’, those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary, served to mobilize the Catholic masses at critical junctures for the Catholic Church and in the face of what were perceived as political threats. Pius XII had to animate ‘movement’ in an age proclaimed to be one of a unique crisis of civilization. The projection of him as a charismatic figure was linked to that of Rome as a sacred centre and as the very fulcrum of world history. The Catholic activist ethos of ‘movement’ and also the presentation of the interchange between Pius XII and the Crowd had features in common with Fascist rhetorics, but ultimately the cult of the ‘victim-Pope’ represented an inversion of the crasser forms of power-imagery.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 3 , Issue 2: Charisma and the cult of personality in modern Italy , November 1998 , pp. 237 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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References

Notes

1. Vecchi, Aldo, ‘Linee di spiritualità nei documenti pontificii da Pio IX a Pio XII’, in Spiritualità e azione del laicato cattolico italiano, Antenore, Padua, 1969, pp. 359–402, pp. 366–9.Google Scholar

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25. OR, 12–14 March 1944.Google Scholar

26. OR, 7 June 1944.Google Scholar

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41. For the latter, see OR, 2 September 1950, passim. Google Scholar

42. OR, 25–27 June 1950, passim. Google Scholar

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47. Riccardi, , Roma, pp. 3–58; Logan, Oliver, ‘Christian Civilization and Italic Civilization; Italian Catholic Theses from Gioberti to Pius XII’, in Swanson, Robert (ed.), The Church Retrospective. Papers read at the 1995 Summer Meeting and the 1996 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, Boydell, Woodbridge, 1997, pp. 475–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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49. Pius XII, address to Romans, , 28 March 1948.Google Scholar

50. ‘L'immortale mandato’, OR, 12 March 1948, p. 1; Costantini address; Oddone, A. SJ, ‘La perenne vitalità del Papato’, CC, 1949(1), 15 January, pp. 125–37 pp. 130–7;Google Scholar

51. OR, 4 March 1939, p. 1.Google Scholar

52. “‘Pastor Angelicus’”; ‘“Defensor Civitatis’”, OR, 12 March 1944, p. 1.Google Scholar

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55. Marazzitti, Mario, ‘Cultura di massa e valori cattolici: il modello di “Famiglia Cristiana’”, in Riccardi, (ed.), Pio XII, pp. 307–33, pp. 324–6.Google Scholar

56. Giordani, , Pio XII, p. 389.Google Scholar

57. Mondrone, D. SJ, ‘Colei che salverà l'Italia’, CC, 1948(1), 3 January; id., ‘La “Peregrinatio Mariae” tra i segni dell'età ch'è sua’, CC, 1948(3), 18 Sept, pp. 561–74; ‘Voci ed echi’, OR, 1 April 1948, p. 2; Pius XII, address to Romans, 10 January 1952, pp. 357–8.Google Scholar

58. Address of Lombardi in Piazza Venezia, 30 May 1948, reported in ‘Cronaca 27 maggio–9 giugno 1948’, CC, 1948(2), pp. 652–3; Mondrone, D. SJ, ‘La definizione dommatica dell'Assunta’, CC, 1950(3), 19 August, pp. 474–86, pp. 474–9.Google Scholar

59. Pius XII, proclamation, 26 June 1950, OR, 26–27 June 1950, p. 1.Google Scholar

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