ABSTRACT
The Vatican's reservations about the postwar settlement in general, and the influence exercised by the Soviet Union in particular, would be expressed more strongly in the years after the Second World War and play a part in the subsequent cold war. Distressed by the diplomatic, although obviously critical position of the papacy, Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Reich minister of aviation, asked Alfieri how the Vatican would react should Italy enter the war. The Vatican feared the consequences of the North African campaign and the Anglo-American diplomacy which flowed from it. Pius was particularly disturbed by the allied demand for unconditional surrender at the Casablanca conference in January 1943. Various voices, including a number of cardinals close to the Holy See, urged Pius XII to follow the example of Pius XI and publicly denounce the Nazi persecution of the church in Germany. His silence, they argued, caused confusion and consternation among the faithful.
