The year 1939 saw the elevation of a longtime papal diplomat,Cardinal Pacelli,to the throne of St.Peter.No candidate for the holy office was better prepared to deal with the inevitable crisis in Europe.He had been the chief negotiator of the concordats during the interwar years.He had seen Communist violence in postwar Bavaria-in a very personal way.Communists splashed his house with machine-gun fire in the hope of assassinating him. In another instance,he faced won Communist armed robbers with the words:"I have neither money nor food.For as you know,I have given all I had to the poor of the city....This is a house...
