Pius XII was surrounded on all sides by wolves.

I attached a pdf of a few pages on PPXII from Who Shall Ascend? that might be of interest, here's a snip.....

"It was during Pope Pius XII’s reign that the first changes were made, whose import cannot be understated, for with these changes came the acceptance of the idea of them, which created the atmosphere for what was to come. Let it suffice to list some of the more noteworthy innovations of those years....."

In my continual studies, I have also noticed this.

Not only was Pius XII not exactly ideal, but that, as you say, many traditionalists seem to want to paint him only in the best light.

Does anybody have any good sources on him? Books, articles, etc?

I don't know what to make of PIus XII. Was he simply trying to "play the game," keep his enemies close, and ended up simply getting played himself? Was he just kinda dumb and easily manipulated? Was he just straight up compromised?

On another note, the Palmarians in Spain claim that Roncalli/John XXIII and Montini/Paul VI were actually valid popes. They even claim that Montini was drugged and forcibly manipulated! Given the drama that has been coming out of them, it's hard to take those claims seriously.

I attached a pdf of a few pages on PPXII from Who Shall Ascend? that might be of interest, here's a snip.....

"It was during Pope Pius XII’s reign that the first changes were made, whose import cannot be understated, for with these changes came the acceptance of the idea of them, which created the atmosphere for what was to come. Let it suffice to list some of the more noteworthy innovations of those years....."

That excerpt contains the claim that Pope Pius IX was a former freemason, of the 18th degree, in the footnote at the very end.

https://novusordowatch.org/2016/11/pius9-Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ-second-rebuttal-tia/

Some of the masonic sources I glanced over don't even agree on where he was actually initiated into their infernal organization.

He made some politically liberal moves at the beginning of his reign, to the celebration of the ʝʊdɛօ-masonic world and against better advice, including from Von Metternich of Austria. Yet after being forced to flee during the 1848 revolutions he spent the entirety of his Pontificate staunchly against liberalism and the Church's enemies that there is even speculation that one motivation of the Franco-Prussian War by Bismarck was to stopped Vatican Council I (France withdrew their troops and Rome was taken). So his actions did contribute to the unfortunate loss of the Papal States but that in no way makes him a Mason, just made poor political decisions early in the first couple of years.