WI Hitler kidnaped Pope Pius XII?

Recent studies indicate that in 1943 issued orders to Skorzeny in case of Italy's capitulation to kidnap Pope Pius XII and bring him to Berlin blackmailing Italy that way...
Pius XII himself feared that he might have been kidnapped by the Nazis and had drafted a document instructing the College of Cardinals to consider his kidnapping as an abdication and elect a new Pope...
In OTL however this didnt happened...
WI Hitler had actually kidnapped Pope in 1943 or 1944? How is that altering History and WWII? Any thoughts?
 
Recent studies indicate that in 1943 issued orders to Skorzeny in case of Italy's capitulation to kidnap Pope Pius XII and bring him to Berlin blackmailing Italy that way...
Pius XII himself feared that he might have been kidnapped by the Nazis and had drafted a document instructing the College of Cardinals to consider his kidnapping as an abdication and elect a new Pope...
In OTL however this didnt happened...
WI Hitler had actually kidnapped Pope in 1943 or 1944? How is that altering History and WWII? Any thoughts?

I don't see it changing history too much beyond demonizing Hitler and the Nazis even more than they had been. Catholics worldwide would be shocked and appalled, and such an action would maybe even bring a few neutral, Catholic countries into the Allied fold.
 
I don't see it changing history too much beyond demonizing Hitler and the Nazis even more than they had been. Catholics worldwide would be shocked and appalled, and such an action would maybe even bring a few neutral, Catholic countries into the Allied fold.


IIRC, the Catholic church was still a major factor in Franco's Spain. That could-although it's a stretch-raise the possibility of Spain (and conceivably Portugal as well) joining the Allies. It also raises the possiblity of FDR reprising his sentiment about Trujillo using Franco as the subject: He's a son-of-a-bitch but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch.
 

Neroon

Banned
If the Pope should get killed during or after the capture the Catholic churches post-war standing will be much better then OTL, when the Pope was (rightly or wrongly i don't want to get into that) blamed for being too cooperative with the Nazis.
 
I like the picture of Hitler kidnapping the Pope and keeping him tied up in a ordinary American basement.
 
I remember reading that at one stage in WW2 the Papal Swiss Guard changed from their ceremonial uniforms into more modern ones and set up machine gun posts - they would have gone down fighting...
 
Recent studies indicate that in 1943 issued orders to Skorzeny in case of Italy's capitulation to kidnap Pope Pius XII and bring him to Berlin blackmailing Italy that way...
Pius XII himself feared that he might have been kidnapped by the Nazis and had drafted a document instructing the College of Cardinals to consider his kidnapping as an abdication and elect a new Pope...
In OTL however this didnt happened...
WI Hitler had actually kidnapped Pope in 1943 or 1944? How is that altering History and WWII? Any thoughts?
1/3 of the German population would be pissed at Hitler. Put it this way - he'd hate to travel in Bavaria or Austria.
 
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