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Before the afternoon's voting, Cardinal Pacelli calmly paced a corridor, reading his breviary. Then, after conversing with a colleague, he stumbled, fell headlong down a short flight of steps, arose bruised and shaken. Shortly thereafter followed a third vote, and the lengthy, ceremonial reading of the ballots. When Cardinal Pacelli, seated under his baldachin (canopy), heard his name pronounced for the 42nd successive time, he suddenly hid his face in his hands. The reading continued. The Secretary of State received 61 votes — all but his own.
Statesman. Eugenio Pacelli as early as 1935 denounced the growing "superstition ot race and blood." Pius XI was at pains to send his closest collaborator on many missions, often by airplane—to Eucharistic Congresses in Buenos Aires in 1934 and Budapest in 1938, to Lisieux, France in 1935, to the U. S. on a transcontinental "vacation" tour in 1936.* Thanks to these farflung travels, the new Pope was known to immense numbers of people, Catholic and non-Catholic. The world saw in Pope Pius XII a Catholic linguist (he speaks nine tongues, most of them fluently); a Catholic diplomat, who would steer the Church's course with astuteness and delicacy; a Catholic scholar, and one of the saintliest of men.
As a Catholic statesman, born of a noble (but not rich) Roman family which had furnished functionaries to the Holy See for two centuries, Eugenic Pacelli rose swiftly. During the World War he was Nuncio at Munich, a channel through which went many diplomatic negotiations, including Pope Benedict XV's famed peace proposals. By the time he returned to Rome in 1929 to accept his red hat, Cardinal Pacelli had arranged papal concordats with Bavaria, with Prussia. Two months later he succeeded aging Cardinal Gasparri as Secretary of State.
"We Invite." Pius XII does not smoke, eats sparingly, drinks little wine. He has been accustomed to vacation yearly in Switzerland or in Italy's Montecatini. He keeps his lean, six-foot frame in condition by exercising in a completely equipped gymnasium in his Secretary of State's apartments—from which, presumably, he will move as soon as the late Pope's living quarters, two floors above, are redecorated. On his first day as Pope, Pius XII rose at 6 a.m., shaved himself with his electric razor, celebrated Mass, breakfasted on coffee and rolls, then embarked upon a busy day during which his only diversions were a motor ride in the Vatican gardens, a brief walk by himself.
In the Sistine Chapel the Holy Father received the third of five "obediences" from the Cardinals,† delivered a brief address, which was broadcast. Pius XII invoked blessings not only upon all Catholics, but with highest tact declared: "In this solemn moment our thoughts run also to all those who are outside the Church, to those who will be pleased to know that the Pope raises for them . . . prayers and wishes for every good. . . . We invite everybody to peace of conscience, tranquil in the friendship of God, to peace of families . . . to peace among nations through mutual, brotherly assistance, friendly collaboration and cordial understandings for the superior interests of the great human family. . . ."
* See p. 62.
† The last: at his coronation on March 12.