Robert Leiber
Encyclopedia
Robert Leiber, S.J. close advisor to Pope Pius XII
, a Jesuit priest from Germany
was Professor for Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome
from 1930-1960. Leiber was, according to Zuccotti, "throughout his entire papacy his private secretary and closest advisor".
and in Berlin. While Professor at the Gregorian, he continued advising Pacelli, who was then Cardinal Secretary of State
. After Pacelli was elected to the papacy as Pope Pius XII in 1939, Leiber helped and advised him until the Pope's death on October 9, 1958. Leiber assisted the Pope in researching the topics for his speeches and radio messages.
Leiber was one of an "impromptu band of willing Jesuits" whom Pius XII employed "checking and double-checking every reference" in his written works. Leiber, stationed at the Pontifical Gregorian University, three miles from the Vatican
, complained after Pius XII's death that he was often expected to "drop whatever he was doing and hasten to the Vatican", taking public transportation.
After World War II
, Pius XII charged Leiber and Bea with investigating the activities of Gertrud Luckner
(later declared Righteous among the Nations
), the pioneer of a German Catholic philo-Semitic and pro-Israel movement. The Holy Office in 1948 issued a monitum (warning) to the group, due to its concerns that the group's pro-zionist activities were "encouraging religious indifferentism (the belief that one religion is as good as the next)". Leiber concluded in April 1950 that there was nothing theologically wrong with the work of Luckner; Bea went further, actually affirming it.
In an October 1958 meeting, Leiber turned down a position offered by new Pope John XXIII
in light of his health, suggesting Augustin Bea
instead. He authored several books and articles on Church history and on the Reichskonkordat
. After suffering acute asthma
attacks for many years, Robert Leiber died in Rome in 1967.
Addressing Vatican students, I congratulate you for being under the sun in the shadow of the Vatican, was one of his favourite quotes.
's plan" to set up a "ratline"
—an escape route from Europe for fascists. Leiber wrote to the Austrian bishop around the time of Operation Barbarossa
, telling bishop Hudal to "look at the [ratline] mission as a crusade". According to a history professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University
, Leiber had no direct authority to correspond with Hudal as such, but "Leiber's role as one of Pius XII's closest confidantes allowed the German Jesuit to act as the pope's intermediary and messenger". Hudal maintained contact with Leiber and other Vatican officials during and after the war.
Despite (or because of) his historical training, Leiber destroyed all of his personal papers before his death, rather than leave them for posterity. Leiber confided to van Room that he had destroyed his papers because he feared they "would cast Pius in an unfavorable light".
Leiber was in the confidence of German ambassador to the Vatican, Ernst von Weizsäcker
(later tried at Nuremberg), who informed Leiber that the priest-assistant of Cesare Orsenigo
was a member of the Nazi party.
, frequently writing and speaking publicly, always as a "staunch defender" of Pius XII. Leiber wrote an article, published on March 27, 1963 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the main argument of which was that Pius XII had little, and generally unreliable information about the Holocaust.
As Lieber related to Dutch historian Ger van Roon, Leiber believed that Pius XII chose not to speak out about the Holocaust because he "wanted to play the peacemaker during the war" by maintaining Vatican neutrality and independence. On this point, Leiber and Francis d'Arcy Osborne, another contemporary close to Pius XII, are in agreement. During the war, Pius XII's surrounding himself with German advisers—including Leiber, but also Ludwig Kaas
, Pasqualina Lehnert
, and Augustin Bea
, his confessor—attracted the attention of US State Department historian George Kent and others, who questioned Pius XII's neutrality on the basis of this germanophilia.
Leiber asserted in 1961 that Pius XII personally ordered superiors of church properties to open their doors to Jews. As exhaustive studies of Susan Zuccotti and others have shown, no written evidence of this has yet emerged. Historians such as Phayer argue that those Catholic institutions in Italy and elsewhere that admitted Jews did so "independently, without the Vatican's instructions". For his statistics on the number of Jews he claimed Pius XII to have saved, Leiber relied on fellow Jesuit Beato Ambord; the original compilation of the numbers is unknown. A more recent study by Dwork and Pelt concurs with Zuccotti, concluding: "Sam Waagenaar challenged Leiber. On the basis of our research, we find Waagenaar's refutation convincing. Pope Pius XII did nothing. Many convents and monasteries helped—but not to the extent that Pius's close associate Robert Leiber claimed".
Above all, Leiber denied that the disbanding of the German Catholic Centre Party
had been a quid pro quo
for the signing of the Reichskonkordat
. Leiber wrote in 1958 that "[Pacelli] wished that [the party] could have postponed its dissolution until after the signing of the concordat. The mere fact of its existence, he said, might have been of use at the negotiating state".
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, a Jesuit priest from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
was Professor for Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
from 1930-1960. Leiber was, according to Zuccotti, "throughout his entire papacy his private secretary and closest advisor".
Biography
Before 1924, Leiber worked with Ludwig Pastor on the publication of his 20-volume Papal History. From 1924 until 1929, he was advisor to Eugenio Pacelli while he was Nuncio in MunichApostolic Nuncio to Bavaria
The Apostolic Nunciature to Bavaria was an ecclesiastical office of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria. It was a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative was called the Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria, a state – consecutively during the nunciature's existence – of the Holy Roman Empire,...
and in Berlin. While Professor at the Gregorian, he continued advising Pacelli, who was then Cardinal Secretary of State
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Cardinal Secretary of State—officially Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope—presides over the Holy See, usually known as the "Vatican", Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia...
. After Pacelli was elected to the papacy as Pope Pius XII in 1939, Leiber helped and advised him until the Pope's death on October 9, 1958. Leiber assisted the Pope in researching the topics for his speeches and radio messages.
Leiber was one of an "impromptu band of willing Jesuits" whom Pius XII employed "checking and double-checking every reference" in his written works. Leiber, stationed at the Pontifical Gregorian University, three miles from the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, complained after Pius XII's death that he was often expected to "drop whatever he was doing and hasten to the Vatican", taking public transportation.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Pius XII charged Leiber and Bea with investigating the activities of Gertrud Luckner
Gertrud Luckner
Gertrud Luckner was a christian resister against the Nazism and a righteous among the Nations.-Early life and Education:...
(later declared Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
), the pioneer of a German Catholic philo-Semitic and pro-Israel movement. The Holy Office in 1948 issued a monitum (warning) to the group, due to its concerns that the group's pro-zionist activities were "encouraging religious indifferentism (the belief that one religion is as good as the next)". Leiber concluded in April 1950 that there was nothing theologically wrong with the work of Luckner; Bea went further, actually affirming it.
In an October 1958 meeting, Leiber turned down a position offered by new Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
in light of his health, suggesting Augustin Bea
Augustin Bea
Augustin Bea, SJ was a German scholar at the Gregorian University specializing in biblical studies and biblical archeology. He was confessor of Pope Pius XII. In 1959, Pope John XXIII made him cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first President of the Secretariat for Promoting...
instead. He authored several books and articles on Church history and on the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
. After suffering acute asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
attacks for many years, Robert Leiber died in Rome in 1967.
Addressing Vatican students, I congratulate you for being under the sun in the shadow of the Vatican, was one of his favourite quotes.
Ratline involvement
According to Phayer, Leiber "sparked new life into HudalAlois Hudal
Alois Hudal was a Rome-based bishop of Austrian descent. He was for thirty years head of the small Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and until 1937, an influential representative of the Austrian Church...
's plan" to set up a "ratline"
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...
—an escape route from Europe for fascists. Leiber wrote to the Austrian bishop around the time of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, telling bishop Hudal to "look at the [ratline] mission as a crusade". According to a history professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University
Pontifical Gregorian University
The Pontifical Gregorian University is a pontifical university located in Rome, Italy.Heir of the Roman College founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola over 460 years ago, the Gregorian University was the first university founded by the Jesuits...
, Leiber had no direct authority to correspond with Hudal as such, but "Leiber's role as one of Pius XII's closest confidantes allowed the German Jesuit to act as the pope's intermediary and messenger". Hudal maintained contact with Leiber and other Vatican officials during and after the war.
Despite (or because of) his historical training, Leiber destroyed all of his personal papers before his death, rather than leave them for posterity. Leiber confided to van Room that he had destroyed his papers because he feared they "would cast Pius in an unfavorable light".
Leiber was in the confidence of German ambassador to the Vatican, Ernst von Weizsäcker
Ernst von Weizsäcker
Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1943, and as German Ambassador to the Holy See from 1943 to 1945...
(later tried at Nuremberg), who informed Leiber that the priest-assistant of Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany from 1930 to 1945, during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II...
was a member of the Nazi party.
Statements on Pius XII and the Holocaust
After the war, Leiber became actively involved in the debates over the legacy of Pius XII during the HolocaustThe Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, frequently writing and speaking publicly, always as a "staunch defender" of Pius XII. Leiber wrote an article, published on March 27, 1963 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the main argument of which was that Pius XII had little, and generally unreliable information about the Holocaust.
As Lieber related to Dutch historian Ger van Roon, Leiber believed that Pius XII chose not to speak out about the Holocaust because he "wanted to play the peacemaker during the war" by maintaining Vatican neutrality and independence. On this point, Leiber and Francis d'Arcy Osborne, another contemporary close to Pius XII, are in agreement. During the war, Pius XII's surrounding himself with German advisers—including Leiber, but also Ludwig Kaas
Ludwig Kaas
Ludwig Kaas was a German Roman Catholic priest and politician during the Weimar Republic.-Early career:Born in Trier, Kaas was ordained a priest in 1906 and studied history and Canon law in Trier and Rome. 1906 he completed a doctorate in theology and in 1909 he obtained a second doctorate in...
, Pasqualina Lehnert
Pasqualina Lehnert
Madre Pascalina Lehnert , born Josefina Lehnert, was a German Roman Catholic nun who served as Pope Pius XII's housekeeper and secretary from his period as Nuncio to Bavaria in 1917 until his death as pope in 1958. She managed the papal charity office for Pius XII from its beginning in 1944 to 1958...
, and Augustin Bea
Augustin Bea
Augustin Bea, SJ was a German scholar at the Gregorian University specializing in biblical studies and biblical archeology. He was confessor of Pope Pius XII. In 1959, Pope John XXIII made him cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first President of the Secretariat for Promoting...
, his confessor—attracted the attention of US State Department historian George Kent and others, who questioned Pius XII's neutrality on the basis of this germanophilia.
Leiber asserted in 1961 that Pius XII personally ordered superiors of church properties to open their doors to Jews. As exhaustive studies of Susan Zuccotti and others have shown, no written evidence of this has yet emerged. Historians such as Phayer argue that those Catholic institutions in Italy and elsewhere that admitted Jews did so "independently, without the Vatican's instructions". For his statistics on the number of Jews he claimed Pius XII to have saved, Leiber relied on fellow Jesuit Beato Ambord; the original compilation of the numbers is unknown. A more recent study by Dwork and Pelt concurs with Zuccotti, concluding: "Sam Waagenaar challenged Leiber. On the basis of our research, we find Waagenaar's refutation convincing. Pope Pius XII did nothing. Many convents and monasteries helped—but not to the extent that Pius's close associate Robert Leiber claimed".
Above all, Leiber denied that the disbanding of the German Catholic Centre Party
Centre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
had been a quid pro quo
Quid pro quo
Quid pro quo most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back,...
for the signing of the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
. Leiber wrote in 1958 that "[Pacelli] wished that [the party] could have postponed its dissolution until after the signing of the concordat. The mere fact of its existence, he said, might have been of use at the negotiating state".