Pacelli credits the Center Party for negotiating favorable provisions for the Church in the new German Constitution, and comments on the religious and political power of the Church in Germany - Oct. 25, 1919
Source: Timeline
Oct. 25, 1919 Pacelli reports to Gasparri about negotiations for the Vatican and the German Reich to exchange ambassadors for the first time.
Bavarian Minister-President Hoffmann has proposed that even with a new Vatican Embassy in Berlin, the Nuncio could remain in Munich.
Pacelli credits the Center Party for negotiating favorable provisions for the Church in the new German Constitution, and comments on the religious and political power of the Church in Germany. English translation
Oct. 25, 1919 Pacelli to Gasparri:
Re: German Embassy at the Vatican
Most Reverend Eminence,
Following up my respectful report no. 14360 of October 12th, I am given to attentively report to Your Most Reverend Eminence how the question of the creation of an Embassy of the German Empire at the Holy See continues to be agitated both in the press of all colors and in the discussions of the various political parties, and also in the Reichstag Committee that has been occupied in recent days with the analysis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is evident at this point that in Germany there is full appreciation of the rightly assessed immense political-religious power of the Catholic Church, and it is considered indispensable for the true good of the Nation to maintain good relations with the Holy See. A few days ago the Foreign Minister, the Socialist Dr. Müller, declared in the aforesaid Committee that Germany attaches the greatest interest to good relations with the Holy See and that with these dispositions the question of the creation of a Reich Embassy at the Vatican is being negotiated.
Actually, if there are some difficulties facing this proposal, they arise from the fact that Prussia just like Bavaria does not want to give up its former right to have its own Representative at the Holy See. Certainly entering into this are political interests and the spirit of particularism shared by various German States, despite the forces that are making a union of them under the centralizing policy of the Berlin Government; but it cannot be denied that this struggle to keep their own Diplomatic Representation at the Holy See indicates the full importance that they give to good relations with the Holy See.
In the aforementioned Committee, the Foreign Minister, upon questioning about this, stated that for now the question of the creation of the Embassy cannot be immediately resolved, precisely because Bavaria does not want to give up its Legation at the Holy See, and Prussia, if Bavaria does not yield, would certainly not want to lose the same privilege.
Dr. Müller expressed, however, the hope that the negotiations will bring a happy solution. From a good source I then learned that the Minister President of Bavaria, Hoffmann, to ease the difficulty that could perhaps arise from the question of reciprocity and also not to give up the honor of at least keeping the Apostolic Nunciature in Bavaria, had proposed that there be a Nuncio accredited to the Reich, but that his residence would remain in Munich. I add, however, that up to now the Berlin Government has not responded to this proposal.
Meanwhile one cannot fail to observe in this state of affairs that the greatly merited importance that is being given to the Catholic Church in a Germany that is majority Protestant is due to the zeal, the activity and the incomparable organization of the German Catholics. By now any Government that wants to have power in its hands must take account of Catholics and thereby of the Center Party. And it is most significant that even a revolutionary Socialist Government, like the current one, cannot manage without this immense force that the Catholics in Germany represent and that they know how to assert in the defense of the religious and political interests of their party.
Obviously it has not been sympathy for the Catholic Church that has inspired a Constitution so broad-minded toward the Catholics as the one given by the Socialist Government of Ebert. It has been solely the work of the Center Party to impose upon the Socialist Party not only its own cooperation in the Cabinet, without which it would not have been able to govern, but likewise a Constitution that, if not good in theory, yet at least in practice today places German Catholics in conditions of greater freedom than under the past regime.
Everything thus gives hope that indeed the question of establishing the embassy at the Holy See will be resolved according to the desires of the Center Party, which have just been presented by Deputy Pfeiffer in the oft-mentioned Committee.
Humbly bowing to kiss the Sacred Purple ...
Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Dokt 1131