ABSTRACT
The anti-communist, pro-western position of the Holy See led President Harry Truman in 1950 to attempt to open full diplomatic relations with it, proposing General Mack Clark as ambassador. Pius foresaw the need to prepare the church and the world community to confront the impending communist menace. Humani generis cast suspicion on the nouvelle theologie or new theology at a time when the church and the papacy still had difficulties in accepting anything modern in theological matters. Preoccupied by the cold war and its consequences for the church, Pius, dubbed by some the pope of the Atlantic alliance, never allowed his anticommunism to become an obsession causing him to neglect issues such as European integration, which he favoured. Although Pius appreciated the need to strengthen the church during an age of transition, this secretive and authoritarian pontiff did not relish the thought of having to share power with the bishops.
