Intransigent anti-communism and/or pragmatic diplomacy? Pius XII’s Eastern policy between world war and cold war

Abstract

In an investigation involving Vatican sources that have recently been opened for research, the paper reassesses the story of the actual or alleged Vatican-Soviet attempts at rapprochement initiated during and after World War II with the aim to explore the considerations that shaped Vatican eastern policy at the end of the war. Ont he basis of a closer examination of the Orlemanski mission in the spring of 1944, the Flynn mission in March 1945, and the negotiations initiated in 1946 through Hungarian Jesuits it argues that despite Moscow’s brief apparent display of willingness to cooperate at the end of the war, the failure of actual attempts at rapprochement was primarily due to the Kremlin’s lack of interest. By contrast, the Vatican was truly open to dialogue, given the right conditions. Consequently, Pius XII’s Eastern policy is to be interpreted through the paradigm not of intransigence but traditional Vatican concordat policy. The term Ostpolitik, however, unless used with some distinguishing qualification, seems inappropriate to Pius xii’s stance on Eastern policy. Despite the similarities with the Vatican Ostpolitik of the 1960s, a close comparison shows up several basic differences.