INTRODUCTION 15pecially intent on protecting France and Italy. As Jonathan Lux-
moore and Jolanta Babiuch have argued, “the general anathema
reaffirmed in the 1949 Decree made practical discernments im-
possible. Above all, Pius XII lacked the will to go beyond legalis-
tic formulations.”42 In other words, the relegation of Catholics in
Communist countries to a “Church of Silence” followed not only
from the political repressions introduced by those countries’ new
leaders, but also from the concrete geopolitical and pastoral cal-
culations made by the Holy See.43
This is, for the most part, as far as the existing historiography
takes us. Yet Central and Eastern Europe in the 1950s constitut-
ed neither a pastoral vacuum nor a graveyard of martyrs for the
Roman Catholic Church. It is true that, following their imprison-
ment of successive head bishops, Communist regimes succeeded
in co-opting and steering many, if not most, Catholic initiatives.
The Vatican, too, seemed to be losing interest until Cardinal Ron-
calli’s arrival on the throne of St. Peter in 1958, whereupon the
new Holy Father initiated a turn toward dialogue and Ostpolitik.
This was visible already in the 1959 encyclical Ad Petri cathedram
(John XXIII’s first), which, while using the phrase “Church of Si-
lence,” couched it in a declaration of the Church’s readiness “to
forgive all freely and beg this forgiveness of God.”44
Reversing Pius XII’s policy of excommunication and contain-
ment, John XXIII thereby opened the door for serious diplomacy
and deal-making. Hansjakob Stehle has offered the best defini-
- Ibid., 94.
- As Peter C. Kent writes of Pius XII, “his advice to the churches and peoples
of eastern Europe was to refuse all cooperation with their Communist overlords in
spite of the fact that these Communists controlled all the power. Had he had less of
a predetermined agenda, he might have responded to more of the responsible ad-
vice which he was receiving from his advisors within the Secretariat of State”; Kent,
Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII, 10. - John XXIII, Ad Petri Cathedram (June 29, 1959), at http://www.vatican.va/
holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_29061959ad-petri
en.html; accessed May 2, 2014.