Pope Pius XII

Eugenio Pacelli was born in Rome on 2 March 1876 and spent most of his life climbing the ranks of the Vatican's diplomatic corps - papal nuncio to Germany, Cardinal Secretary of State, architect of treaties across Europe and Latin America. Elected pope on 2 March 1939, he inherited a church on the edge of global war. His 19-year papacy stretched across the Second World War, the founding of the United Nations, and the opening of the Cold War, but it's the war years that fixed his legacy in argument: defenders point to discreet aid for Jews and ties to the German resistance; critics to his public statements on genocide, which never named the Jews of Europe and which the Allies found insufficient. After the war he hardened the church against communism, issued the Decree against Communism with automatic excommunication, and in 1950 invoked papal infallibility to declare the Assumption of Mary dogma. He died on 9 October 1958, and his cause for sainthood has been open since 1965, advancing to venerable in 2009 - still unresolved.