Bavarian Ambassador to the Vatican, Baron Ritter zu Groenesteyn, confidentially informs Nuncio Pacelli that the King of Bavaria urgently desires that Archbishop Faulhaber be elevated to Cardinal as soon as possible - Dec. 18, 1917
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Dec. 18, 1917 Bavarian Ambassador to the Vatican, Baron Ritter zu Groenesteyn, confidentially informs Nuncio Pacelli that the King of Bavaria urgently desires that Archbishop Faulhaber be elevated to Cardinal as soon as possible.
English translation
One month later, Pacelli receives explanations from the Vatican that Faulhaber will not be made Cardinal in the near future, because other German-speaking Churchmen are in line for Cardinal, and Munich is not a Cardinal-Archdiocese. Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 9610
Dec. 18, 1917 Ambassador Otto Baron von Ritter zu Groenesteyn to Pacelli:
Secret!
Most Reverend and Dear Monsignor!
Recalling your cordial invitation at Lindau Harbor to write you often and frankly if I should ever have any concern about any matter, I want to make known to you today one such concern in an entirely confidential and absolutely unofficial manner.
As you know, I was charged some time ago to bring to the attention of His Holiness the Pope the urgent desire of His Majesty the King of Bavaria to see His Excellency Archbishop von Faulhaber named Cardinal as soon as possible, together with a request for the fulfillment of this desire. The expression of this desire was occasioned by the rumor of an impending Consistory.
I expressed myself along these lines to His Eminence the Lord Cardinal Secretary of State with the request that His Holiness be correspondingly informed.
Whereupon I have now received the answer of His Eminence, which reads as follows:
I had the honor to receive the Confidential Note of October 30th, by which Your Excellency has graciously expressed to me the strong desire of His Majesty the King of Bavaria to see the holder of the Archepiscopal See of Munich elevated to the honors of the Sacred Purple in the event of an upcoming Consistory taking place.
In this matter I have the honor of informing Your Excellency that the news of an upcoming Consistory, announced by some newspapers, is entirely lacking in foundation.
Since His Eminence says absolutely nothing in this Note of the desire of His Majesty having been made known to the Holy Father, and since moreover the Note is so worded as if this desire had been expressed only for the putative Consistory in the month of December this year, I fear that the answer of His Eminence will arouse dismay on the Promenadeplatz...
Source: Vatican Secret Archives, Archive of the Munich Nunciature, pos. 349, fasc. 4, fol. 12r-17v, reprinted at www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 6385.