Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII (1876-1958), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, reigned as the 260th pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death. His actions during World War II have been the subject of controversy.

Pius XII in Worldwar
Pope Pius XII (1876-1943) was Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1943.

When the Race's Conquest Fleet subdued Italy in 1942, Pius encouraged Catholics in areas overrun by the Race's forces to cooperate with their authority. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov called for Pius' assassination at a Big Five strategy meeting in London but his allies protested the notion.

Pius was killed in 1943 when Germany destroyed Rome with an explosive-metal bomb.

Pius XII in Southern Victory
Pope Pius was criticized for not condemning various human rights abuses around the globe in the early twentieth century such as the Russian pogroms against the Jews and the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians as well as the Confederate Population Reduction. Some critics believed he would have been more vocal if such an atrocity were committed against a group which had a Catholic majority. This criticism is questionable, since the population reduction was being carried out in Haiti as well as the CSA.

Literary Note
Since the point of departure of this series takes place well before the election of this Pope, and since new Popes generally take their names from a fairly short list of traditional names, it is conceivable that Pius XII in Southern Victory is not Eugenio Pacelli. However, given Turtledove's track record for parallelism, it seems likely that he is the historical Pius.