Robert Leiber
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Robert Leiber, S.J. (10 April 1887 – 18 February 1967) was a close advisor to
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 ...
, a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
priest from
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and Professor for
Church History __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...
at the
Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school (pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...
in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
from 1930 to 1960. Leiber was, according to Pius's biographer Susan Zuccotti, "throughout his entire papacy his private secretary and closest advisor". Susan Zuccotti. 2000. '' Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 59, 81, 93, 200.


Biography

Before 1924, Leiber worked with
Ludwig Pastor Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden (31 January 1854 – 30 September 1928), was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most no ...
on the publication of his 20-volume ''Papal History''. From 1924 to 1929, he was advisor to
Eugenio Pacelli 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 ...
while he was Nuncio in Munich and
in Berlin ''In Berlin'' is a live album and the debut release of English post-punk band Blurt. It was recorded live at the Rock Against Junk concert in Berlin, Germany on 13 December 1980, and released the following year, through record label Armageddon. I ...
. While Professor at the Gregorian, he continued advising Pacelli, who was then
Cardinal Secretary of State The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae, it, Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the ...
. After Pacelli was elected to the papacy as Pope Pius XII in 1939, Leiber helped and advised him until the Pope's death on 9 October 1958. Leiber is described as Pius XII's "most trusted aide".Mark Riebling. 2015. ''Church of Spies:The Pope's secret War Against Hitler''. New York: Basic Books. p. 9-10. However he never was a Vatican official. He was a respected and feared "unofficial official". Known in papal Rome as the "little asthmatic", some described him with a Latin quip: ''Timeo non Petrum sed secretarium eius'' - "I do not fear Peter
he Pope He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
but his secretary". He assisted Pius XII in researching the topics for his speeches and radio messages. Leiber was one of an "impromptu band of willing Jesuits" whom Pius XII employed "checking and double-checking every reference" in his written works. John Cornwell. 1999. '' Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII''. Viking Press, p. 149, 349. Leiber, stationed at the Pontifical Gregorian University, three miles from the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, complained after Pius XII's death that he was often expected to "drop whatever he was doing and hasten to the Vatican", taking public transportation. As the Pope's trusted Private Secretary, Leiber acted at the intermediary between Pius XII and the
German Resistance German resistance can refer to: * Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government * German resistance to Nazism * Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...
. He met with Joseph Müller, who visited Rome in 1939 and 1940 to obtain assistance from the Pope in acting as an intermediary between the Resistance and the Allies in the lead up to a planned coup against Hitler.Peter Hoffmann. 1977. ''The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945''; 3rd edn. (1st English edn); McDonald & Jane's; London, p. 161, 294 Later in the war, Leiber remained the point of contact for communications from Colonel-General
Ludwig Beck Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Although Beck never became a member of the Na ...
in the lead up to the 1944
July Plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...
. Through the German ambassador to the Vatican,
Ernst von Weizsäcker Ernst Heinrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (25 May 1882 – 4 August 1951) was a German naval officer, diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1943, and as its Ambassador t ...
, Leiber was informed that
Nuncio 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 or ...
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 ...
's priest assistant was secretly a member of the Nazi party and an informer for the
RSHA The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...
. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Pius XII charged Leiber and Bea with investigating the activities of
Gertrud Luckner Gertrud Luckner (; born 26 September 1900 in Liverpool – died 31 August 1995 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a Christian social worker involved in the German resistance to Nazism. A member of the banned German Catholic Peace Movement, she organi ...
(later declared
Righteous among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...
), the pioneer of a German Catholic philo-Semitic and pro-Israel movement.Michael Phayer. 2009. ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, p. xvii, 57, 102, 166-167, 176, 199, 207, 221, 237, 239. The Holy Office in 1948 issued a monitum (or warning) to the group, due to concerns that the group's pro-
Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
activities were "encouraging religious indifferentism (the belief that one religion is as good as the next)". Leiber concluded in April 1950 there was nothing theologically wrong with the work of Luckner; Bea went further, actually affirming it.


Last years/death

In an October 1958 meeting, Leiber turned down a position offered by new
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
in light of his health, suggesting
Augustin Bea Augustin Bea, S.J. (28 May 1881 – 16 November 1968), was a German Jesuit priest, cardinal, and scholar at the Pontifical Gregorian University, specialising in biblical studies and biblical archaeology. He also served as the personal confessor ...
instead. He authored several books and articles on
Church history __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...
and on the
Reichskonkordat The ''Reichskonkordat'' ("Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich") 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 be ...
. After suffering acute
asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
attacks for many years, Leiber died in Rome in 1967, aged 79.


Ratline involvement

According to
Michael Phayer Michael Phayer (born 1935) is an American historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th- and 20th-century European history and the Holocaust. Phayer received his PhD from the University of Munich i ...
, Leiber "sparked new life" into Austrian bishop
Alois Hudal Alois Karl Hudal (also known as Luigi Hudal; 31 May 188513 May 1963) was an Austrian bishop of the Catholic Church, based in Rome. For thirty years, he was the head of the Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and, until ...
's plan to set up a "ratline" — an escape route from Europe for Nazis and fascists, including war criminals. Leiber wrote to Hudal around the time of
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
, telling the latter to "look at the atlinemission as a crusade".Michael Phayer. 2008. ''Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War'', Indiana University Press, p. 177, 206. According to a history professor at the
Pontifical Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school ( pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...
, Leiber had no direct authority to correspond with Hudal but " isrole as one of Pius XII's closest confidantes allowed the German Jesuit to act as the pope's intermediary and messenger." Hudal maintained contact with Leiber and other Vatican officials during and after the war. Leiber destroyed all his personal papers before his death, rather than leave them for posterity, confirming to van Room that he had destroyed his papers because he feared they "would cast Pius in an unfavorable light".


Statements on Pius XII and the Holocaust

After the war, Leiber became actively involved in debates over the legacy of Pius XII during
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, frequently writing and speaking publicly, always as a staunch defender of Pius XII. Leiber wrote an article, published on 27 March 1963 in the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', the main claim of which was that Pius XII had limited and generally unreliable information about the Holocaust. As Leiber related to Dutch historian Ger van Roon, Leiber believed that Pius XII chose not to speak out about
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
because he "wanted to play the peacemaker during the war" by maintaining Vatican neutrality and independence. On this point, Leiber and British diplomat Francis d'Arcy Osborne, another contemporary close to Pius XII, were in agreement. During the war, Pius XII surrounded himself with German advisers including Leiber, but also
Ludwig Kaas Ludwig Kaas (23 May 1881 – 15 April 1952) was a German Roman Catholic priest and politician of the Centre Party during the Weimar Republic. He was instrumental in brokering the Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and the German Reich. E ...
and Pasqualina Lehnert. This attracted the attention of
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
historian George Kent and others, who questioned the pope's neutrality given this apparent Germanophilia. In 1961, Leiber asserted that Pius personally ordered superiors of church properties to open their doors to Jews. If such orders were ever put into writing (which is unlikely, given the situation), no such written order has been found, prompting some historians to deny the orders. Michael Phayer argues that Catholic institutions in Italy and elsewhere that did admit or help Jews did so "independently, without the Vatican's instructions".Debórah Dwork and Robert Pelt. 2002. ''Holocaust: a history'', p. 423. For his statistics on the number of Jews he claimed Pius XII to have saved, Leiber relied on fellow Jesuit
Beato Ambord Beato may refer to: People * Affonso Beato (born 1941), Brazilian cinematographer * Antonio Beato (1835–1906), British-Italian photographer * Felice Beato (1832–1909), British-Italian photographer * Felice A. Beato, collective signature ...
; the original compilation of the numbers is unknown. Above all, Leiber disputed that the disbanding of the German Catholic Centre Party had been a
quid pro quo Quid pro quo ('what for what' in Latin) is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: "give and take", ...
for the signing of the ''
Reichskonkordat The ''Reichskonkordat'' ("Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich") 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 be ...
''. Leiber wrote in 1958 that " acelliwished that
he party He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
could have postponed its dissolution until after the signing of the concordat. The mere fact of its existence, he said, might have been of use at the negotiating state".


Notes


References

* Cornwell, John. 1999. '' Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII''. Viking; * Phayer, Michael. 2000. ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; * Phayer, Michael. 2008. ''Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War'', Indiana University Press; * Riebling, Mark, 2015. Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler, New York: Basic Books, . * Zuccotti, Susan. 2000. ''Under his very Windows. The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press; {{DEFAULTSORT:Leiber, Robert 1887 births 1967 deaths People from Bodenseekreis 20th-century German Catholic theologians 20th-century German Jesuits Pope Pius XII advisers Roman Catholic writers Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Deaths from asthma Place of birth missing Historians of the Catholic Church German male non-fiction writers