1944: Pope Pius XII killed in German Air Raid

I've been exploring this via AH headlines. I've decided that American Catholic hierachy would insist that a new Pope must be elected right away, but this is difficult, as so many Cardinals are behind Axis lines. Is it feasible for an American Pope to be elected in the USA, or would this be considered to be a horrible sin? If Latin American Cardinals were invited, would they come?
 
I'm not sure how many "American" cardinals there were in the WWII era, but it certainly wouldn't have been enough to hold, or even to insist that a conclave to elect a new pope be held, let alone say 'hold one or we'll hold one'. The only ones with those numbers at that time would have been the "Italian" cardinals. They certainly could have said "we're having a conclave. Be with us in prayer if you can't be with us in body." Why would the cardinals in the US do this and upon point what point in canonical law would they base what you are suggesting?
 
What's the problem? The war would be over within a year anyway. It's not that there aren't precedents for an interegnum.
 
Post-Trent there *shouldn't* be a long interval. That is the big problem. Also, I'm not sure most people realised in early '44 the war would be over in a year.

Now, the idea of the US cardinals electing a pope on their own is just laughable. Not only aren't there enough of them, the whole process would be viewed as illegitimate by the actual curia and their pope would find it all but impossible to get any traction. The American church might find itself in the doghouse for decades after.

What would be possible is for the Allies to issue an invitation and promise of safe conduct to all cardinals, regardless of their location, to come to conclave. It is very improbable that the Axis powers would allow theirs out, but in that case the legitimacy issues are on their side (and some German cardinal archbishop or other might just choose to go anyway - I would not want to be the junior customs officer facing down Count Galen or Cardinal Faulhaber). The cardinals from all belligerent allies and neutral countries would be allowed and enabled to attend (I'm sure the Royal Navy and USN can provide transport). Some may be unwilling, but that is not an unknown phenomenon and entirely their choice. The conclave will, of course, be dominated by Italians, sand even more than usually by the curia, but that, too, is not unknown.

It would be interesting to see how various nations might be trying to influence the outcome of the election. The USA certainly has a stake in this, but I suspect the OSS would be a tad amateurish at playing the game.
 
What about meeting in a "neutral" catholic country in Europe?

Portugal or Spain

Plausible (think Avignon) but unlikely. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the cardinals are technically parish priests in Rome, and the conclave had convened in Rome for centuries.

The Americans would NOT elect their own Pope- he'd be widely seen as illegitimate (as one certainly would be - the American Church had problems, but they were still loyal to Rome), and there weren't enough American Cardinals to make it work anyway.

The Italians would probably be in attendance, as the Allies occupied about half the country, and there would be a sizable German delegation (probably either by open defiance of the Nazis, or a reluctance on the Reichsregierung's part to piss off 1/3 of their population, most of whom are close to the front line). Probably we'd get someone in the mold of Pius elected.
 
Query did the allies ever bomb Rome?

I found a few scattered references to bombings by both sides, but a general unwillingness by other side to, among other things, risk hitting the pope. However, both sides did drop bombs, and I can see the Germans deciding that the pope's death would be regrettable, but survivable. Interestingly enough, in OTL they declared it an open city.

from wiki:

During World War II, Rome suffered few bombings (notably at San Lorenzo) and relatively little damage because none of the sides involved wanted to endanger the life of Pope Pius XII in Vatican City. Rome fell to the Allies on June 4, 1944. It was the first capital of an Axis nation to fall, and was relatively undamaged because the Germans had declared it an "open city" and withdrawn, meaning that the Allies did not have to fight their way in.
 
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