Gottes mächtige Dienerin (2011)

The young farm girl Josefine “Fini” Lehnert can no longer endure her father’s hostility toward education and enters the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. After years of testing in the monastic way of life, she becomes Sister Pascalina. When Eugenio Pacelli is transferred to Munich as Apostolic Nuncio to negotiate the “Bavarian Concordat,” Pascalina is assigned to run his household; before long, she also becomes his private secretary. Full of energy, she takes up the post and improves the Nunciature’s household management. During the revolutionary turmoil in Munich, her sister Theresa visits and tells her that their father is dying. Pacelli urges the reluctant Pascalina to go to her father and make peace with him. But by the time she arrives, her father has already died. When Pascalina’s superior, Tharsilla Thanner, fails to have her recalled from Pacelli’s household, she assigns Sisters Bonifatia and Johanna to assist her. In the wake of Hitler’s putsch, Pope Pius XI decides to have Pacelli negotiate a concordat with Prussia in Berlin; Pascalina takes charge of the preparations. When Pascalina accuses Sister Bonifatia of incompetence in this connection, Bonifatia and Johanna draft a letter to the superior accusing Pascalina of living unchastely with Pacelli. As a result, Superior Tharsilla recalls Pascalina and places her under house arrest to force her to go to confession. As Pacelli’s household becomes increasingly chaotic, he asks the Mother General in Switzerland to have Pascalina return to him. Since Pascalina has developed asthma while under house arrest, she is sent against her will to St. Bartholomä (Königssee) for a six-month recuperation. There, she is able to resolve the doubts brought on by her confinement about which path is the right one, and asks the Mother General for permission to return to Pacelli. Shortly afterward, he celebrates the successful conclusion of the “Prussian Concordat” and is promoted by the Pope to Cardinal Secretary of State. Pascalina is devastated when Pacelli tells her she cannot accompany him to the Vatican. But when she is supposed to deliver Pacelli a farewell gift from the German bishops, she smuggles herself into the Vatican. When Pacelli asks Sister Pascalina to review his draft of a concordat with Germany, her comments earn her the displeasure of Pacelli’s secretary, Wilson, on the one hand, but the Pope’s approval on the other. To Pascalina’s delight, the Pope decides that she may stay in the Vatican. While Pacelli successfully concludes the “Reich Concordat” with Germany, the Vatican, with his involvement, establishes diplomatic relations with America, whose President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, sends a special envoy to the Holy See. Some time later, Pacelli’s friend Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber tells him about the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler’s disregard for the “Reich Concordat.” Pacelli proposes that the Pope issue a circular letter in German to the German bishops; the encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge” (“With Burning Concern”) is born. Pacelli is dismayed to learn that Hitler has responded to the encyclical’s circulation with severe persecution, and then Pius XI dies. In the conclave that follows, Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII. The new Pope’s appeals for peace have no effect; on September 1, 1939, the Second World War breaks out. While the conflict between Pascalina and Wilson continues to simmer, Pius XII has to allay Britain’s concerns about his neutrality, given that his housekeeper and chauffeur are German. Because of the British press’s criticism of her, Pascalina wants to return to Germany, but the Pope refuses. Instead, he gives her the task of managing the Vatican’s Magazzino and directing the proceeds from the sale of church treasures to the wounded in the war; the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza is established. The Vatican’s silence on the persecution of Jews underway is viewed critically. But after the Archbishop of Utrecht protested publicly and 4,000 Dutch Jews were deported the next day, Pius XII fears that the persecution of Jews will grow even worse if he, as Pope, publicly voices criticism. Instead, when Rome is bombed, he arranges medical aid for the wounded. Meanwhile, Major Herrmann of the German Wehrmacht passes the Pope a warning that Hitler is planning to have the Holy Father kidnapped and taken to Germany. Pius XII refuses to leave the Vatican and prepares a declaration of abdication in case he is kidnapped. When the first Jews are deported from Rome, Pius XII offers them sanctuary in church institutions and mobilizes the Palatine Guard. Shortly before his death in 1958, Pius XII is still troubled by doubts about whether he acted rightly in the face of the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany. On October 9, 1958, the Pope dies.