German Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen travels to Rome for Easter and meets with Cardinal Pacelli and then Pope Pius XI around Easter Sunday, which fell on April 16th. Papen’s Memoirs recall the Pope’s praise of Hitler - Apr. 16, 1933
Source: Timeline
Apr. 16, 1933 German Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen travels to Rome for Easter and meets with Cardinal Pacelli and then Pope Pius XI around Easter Sunday, which fell on April 16th. Papen’s Memoirs recall the Pope’s praise of Hitler.
Excerpt translated from Papen’s Der Wahrheit eine Gasse [A Breakthrough for the Truth] (1952)
April 16, 1933 Papen’s Memoirs on his audience with Pope Pius XI around Easter in 1933:
After I had discussed these questions [about the Concordat] thoroughly with the Cardinal Secretary of State, I was received by Pope Pius XI. His Holiness greeted my wife and me with great fatherly kindness and with words about how happy he was to see in Hitler a personality at the summit of the German Government who had inscribed on their banner [“auf ihre Fahne geschrieben”] the uncompromising struggle [Kampf] against communism and nihilism.
Note: The authorized English translation of Papen’s autobiography omits the phrase “inscribed on their banner,” using instead a paraphrase.