Filippo Cortesi

Filippo Cortesi (8 Octobter 1876 – 1 February 1947) was the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from December 24, 1936 to February 1, 1947. Cortesi earlier served as nuncio to Paraguay in the interim. Cortesi was the only nuncio to Poland never to become a cardinal.

As nuncio to Paraguay, Cortesi arranged a prisoner exchange between Paraguay and Bolivia during the Chaco War in 1934. As nuncio in Buenos Aires, Cortesi presented the Supreme Order of Christ, the highest papal order, to Argentine President Agustín Pedro Justo on behalf of Pope Pius XII later that year.

On April 30, 1939, on the eve of the German invasion of Poland, Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione sent a message—worded by Mussolini and personally approved by Pius XII—to Cortesi supporting the return of Danzig to Germany. Cortesi replied by cable, questioning the wisdom of such a concession, but Maglione ordered him to pass it on to the Polish president. The following day Pius XII issued a "last appeal in favor of peace" entreating the "governments of Germany and Poland do their utmost to avoid every incident and abstain from taking any step capable for worsening the present tension".

Cortesi submitted Pius XII's mediation plan to Foreign Minister Józef Beck, but received "an evasive answer because the Poles do not favor mediation as a means of solving the Danzig problem". Cortesi arrived in Rome on June 22 with noncommital replies from all five countries involved in the mediation, and met with Maglione over the mediation and also the rift between Polish and German Catholics. On June 26, Cortesi met with Pius XII personally to convey the negative reactions of President Ignacy Mościcki and Foreign Minister Beck to Pius XII's proposal to transfer Danzig to Germany. Cortesi's relaying of Pius XII's proposal to give Danzig to Germany was long remembered in Poland, particularly when the Communist government came into conflict with the pope after the war.

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