1. Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany from 1930 to 1945, during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II.
25 Facts About Cesare Orsenigo
1. 2.
Cesare Orsenigo was close to Achille Ratti, the Archbishop of Milan, and was appointed to the Vatican diplomatic corps when Ratti was elected Pope Pius XI, as nuncio to the Netherlands, Hungary, and Germany.
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Cesare Orsenigo believed in the Italian fascist ideal and hoped the German variety would develop into something similar.
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Cesare Orsenigo was a controversial figure among his contemporaries and remains the subject of historical criticism for his advocacy of "compromise and conciliation" with the Nazis, particularly about The Holocaust.
5.
Pius XII left the nunciature vacant after Cesare Orsenigo died in 1946, and he appointed Aloisius Joseph Muench to the post in 1951.
6.
Cesare Orsenigo attended a seminary in Milan and was ordained in 1896.
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Cesare Orsenigo became a priest at San Fedele in Milan, Ecclesiastical Censor, and Synodal Examiner.
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Cesare Orsenigo received episcopal consecration on 29 June 1922 from Pietro Gasparri, then Camerlengo and Cardinal Secretary of State.
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On 2 June 1925 Cesare Orsenigo was named apostolic nuncio in Hungary.
10.
Cesare Orsenigo received his confirmation letter from President Paul von Hindenburg.
11.
Cesare Orsenigo's nunciature was located in Berlin, although a separate nunciature existed in Munich due to its "peculiar status" dating back to 1871.
12.
On 16 February 1933, Cesare Orsenigo wrote to Pacelli that it would be "ingenuous and incoherent" to support the newly elected Nazi government, but that he feared open opposition would lead to a new Kulturkampf.
13.
Cesare Orsenigo reported that Hitler disagree with the neo-pagan wing of the Nazi party, as represented in Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the Twentieth Century.
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For example, anti-Nazi bishop Maximilian Kaller complained that Cesare Orsenigo "put the skids under me" by telling him to make amends with the Nazis.
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Cesare Orsenigo punished Bishop Clemens von Galen, who continued to publicly criticize the Nazi's euthanasia program, with a critical letter to Rome.
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Cesare Orsenigo soon began to report to the German Foreign Ministry with protest notes, which were regularly ignored by the German government, which continued with the introduction of restrictive measures against Catholics.
17.
On 4 May 1939, Orsenigo visited Adolf Hitler in Obersalzberg; Orsenigo was flown to Salzburg and had lunch at the Grand Hotel in Berchtesgaden before being transported to Hitler's residence, where the two spoke privately for an hour before having tea with von Ribbentrop and his aide V Hewel.
18.
In 1941, Cesare Orsenigo was contacted by Kurt Gerstein, a Protestant SS officer who had personally witnessed the extermination of Jews and wished to notify the Vatican.
19.
Cesare Orsenigo sent word to the Vatican that the protest of the Church had caused the Dutch deportations to end, even though precisely the opposite had occurred, and seizures, murders, and deportations of Catholics of Jewish heritage increased.
20.
On 1 November 1939, Cesare Orsenigo's authority was formally extended to Poland.
21.
Bishop Adam Stefan Sapieha of Cracow wrote to Cesare Orsenigo, telling him that a direct protest by the Pope was "indispensable".
22.
Phayer finds it "doubtful" that Cesare Orsenigo forwarded Sapieha's request to the Holy See.
23.
On 8 February 1945, after the destruction of the Nunciature due to a bombing, Cesare Orsenigo moved to Eichstatt, in Bavaria.
24.
The nunciature lost its official status in May 1945, with the defeat of Nazi Germany, although the Allied Control Council allowed Cesare Orsenigo to remain in Eichstatt.
25.
Cesare Orsenigo died in Eichstatt on 1 April 1946, leaving his aide de camp, Monsignor Carlo Colli, as the only remaining link between Pius XII and the German Church.