Pope Pius XI
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Pope Pius XI was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of Vatican City upon its creation on 11 February 1929.
Photograph by Nicola Perscheid, c. 1922
The parents of Pius XI
The young Ratti as a newly ordained priest.
Ratti (centre) circa 1900 in the Alps on a tour.
Reichskonkordat
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The Reichskonkordat is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius X
Pope Pius XI
…from using contraception. To establish or maintain the position of the Catholic Church, Pius XI concluded a record number of concordats, including the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany, and he condemned their betrayals four years later in the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. During his pontificate, the longstanding…
The signing of the Reichskonkordat on 20 July 1933 in Rome (from left to right: German prelate Ludwig Kaas, German Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs Giuseppe Pizzardo, Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, Alfredo Ottaviani, and member of Reichsministerium des Inneren [Home Office] Rudolf Buttmann).
Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor of Germany in 1871 and launched the Kulturkampf Culture Struggle against the Catholic Church in Germany.
Pius XII, 1953