Filippo Cortesi (8 Octobter 1876 – 1 February 1947) was the
Apostolic Nuncio to Poland
The Apostolic Nuncio to Poland is one of the oldest nuncios, appointed by the Pope as apostolic representative to the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. Three nuncios to Poland went on to be elected pope. Three were cardinals at the time of their a ...
from December 24, 1936 to February 1, 1947. Cortesi earlier served as nuncio to Paraguay in the interim. Cortesi was the only nuncio to Poland never to become a
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
.
Biography
As nuncio to Paraguay, Cortesi arranged a prisoner exchange between
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
and
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
during the
Chaco War
The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko ÑorairõBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Cortesi presented the
Supreme Order of Christ
The Supreme Order of Christ ( it, Ordine Supremo del Cristo) was the highest order of chivalry awarded by the pope. According to some scholars, it owes its origin to the same Order of Christ of the Knights Templar, from which came the Order of ...
, the highest papal order, to Argentine President
Agustín Pedro Justo
Agustín Pedro Justo Rolón (26 February 1876 – 11 January 1943) was an Argentine military officer, diplomat and politician, who served as the president of Argentina from 1932 to 1938 during the Infamous Decade. Justo took part in the coup of ...
on behalf of
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
later that year.
On April 30, 1939, on the eve of the
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
, Cardinal Secretary of State
Luigi Maglione
Luigi Maglione (2 March 1877 – 22 August 1944) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935 and served as the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Pius XII from 1939 until his death. Pius ...
sent a message—worded by Mussolini and personally approved by Pius XII—to Cortesi supporting the return of Danzig to Germany.Cornwell, 1999, p. 231. Cortesi replied by cable, questioning the wisdom of such a concession, but Maglione ordered him to pass it on to the Polish president. The following day Pius XII issued a "last appeal in favor of peace" entreating the "governments of Germany and Poland do their utmost to avoid every incident and abstain from taking any step capable for worsening the present tension".
Cortesi submitted Pius XII's mediation plan to Foreign Minister
Józef Beck
Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Poles, Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minist ...
, but received "an evasive answer because the Poles do not favor mediation as a means of solving the Danzig problem". Cortesi arrived in Rome on June 22 with noncommital replies from all five countries involved in the mediation, and met with Maglione over the mediation and also the rift between Polish and German Catholics. On June 26, Cortesi met with Pius XII personally to convey the negative reactions of President
Ignacy Mościcki
Ignacy Mościcki (; 1 December 18672 October 1946) was a Polish chemist and politician who was the country's president from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history. Mościcki was the President of Poland when Germany ...
and Foreign Minister Beck to Pius XII's proposal to transfer Danzig to Germany. Cortesi's relaying of Pius XII's proposal to give Danzig to Germany was long remembered in Poland, particularly when the Communist government came into conflict with the pope after the war.
Cortesi fled his
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
nunciature on September 5, following the
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
and arriving in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
.Gallagher, 2008, p. 95. The Vatican received word from Cortesi on September 22 from Bucharest, having been "completely cut off from the Catholics in Poland".''New York Times''. 1939, September 23. "Future of Poland Worries Vatican". p. 5. At that time, all the Polish bishops—with the exception of Cardinal
August Hlond
August Hlond (July 5, 1881 – October 22, 1948) was a Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, who was Archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno in 1926 and Primate of Poland. He was then appointed as the Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw in 194 ...
, the
primate of Poland
This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.
Although Pius XII said that he would not formally recognize the government-in-exile (then in Paris) until he received a full report from Cortesi,
Kazimierz Papée
Dr. Kazimierz Papée (sometimes Anglicized Casimir, January 10, 1889 - January 19, 1979) was the ambassador from Poland to the Holy See from 1939 to 1958, during and after World War II. Due to the Invasion of Poland (1939), Nazi invasion of Poland ...
, the ambassador from Poland, remained accredited to the Holy See. Pius XII recognized the government-in-exile "with as much formality as is possible under the circumstances" on October 7, aided by the "convenient fact" that Cortesi was due to retire and could not return to Warsaw in any case.''New York Times''. 1939, October 8. "Pope Recognizes the Polish Regime". p. 34. The ''New York Times'' reported that Cortesi "will not return to Warsaw even if a new Polish state is formed, but will return to Rome and await his almost certain elevation to the Cardinalate". The ''Times'' also reported that the nuncio to Paris would be made
internuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
to the government-in-exile to avoid having to formally replace Cortesi.
Alfredo Pacini
Alfredo Pacini (10 February 1888 – 23 December 1967) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Nuncio to Switzerland from 1960 to 1967, and made a cardinal in 1967.
Biography
Alfredo Pacini was born in Capann ...
was appointed ''
chargé d'affaires
A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
'' while the government-in-exile remained in Paris, and
William Godfrey
William Godfrey (1889–1963) was an English Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster and ''de facto'' primate of England and Wales from 1956 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.
B ...
took over as ''chargé d'affaires'' once the government-in-exile was forced to move to London in 1940.
The Vatican attempted to get the Nazis to greenlight Cortesi's return—as an
apostolic visitor
In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor (or ''Apostolic Visitator''; Italian: Visitatore apostolico) is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration. The visitor is depute ...
(a step below recognition of sovereignty). From Romania, Cortesi organized a relief effort to Poland. Cortesi eventually arrived in Rome, leaving
Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo (December 13, 1873 – April 1, 1946) was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany from 1930 to 1945, during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II. Along with the German ambassador to the Vatican, Diego von Bergen and later Ernst v ...
, the nuncio to Germany, as the ''de facto'' nuncio to Poland. On November 1, 1939, Orsenigo's authority was formally extended to Poland.
Episcopal succession
Having consecrated
Zenobio Lorenzo Guilland
Zoro Lorenzo Guilland was the Archbishop of Paraná, Argentina. Having consecrated Anunciado Serafini to the episcopacy, Guilland is in the episcopal lineage of Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Franc ...
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...