The Gen

[Moggy]

Papal Documents of World War II Era
2/22/2006 - 22:21 PST

Catholic PRWire

Crusade of Charity: Pius XII and POWs by the “Fighting Nun,” Sister Margherita Marchione, Presents Papal Efforts to Save Prisoners of War and Reunite Families

DATE: March 2, 2006

TIME: 6 PM to 8 PM

LOCATION: Columbus Citizens Foundation, 8 E. 69th St., NYC

EVENT: Presentation and book signing for Crusade of Charity: Pius XII and POWs Note: The event is by invitation only. The author will take questions from the press about her findings during a Q&A period

DETAILS: A new book by author Sister Margherita Marchione presents documents never before published in English that demonstrate the remarkable humanitarian efforts of Pope Pius XII and his papacy during World War II. Crusade of Charity (Paulist Press, March 2006) explores the little-known but extensive work of the Vatican Information Office, which developed a far-reaching system for prisoners of war to communicate with their loved ones. During World War II and its aftermath, the Vatican Information Office grew from a staff of two to 885. It responded to over 20 million inquiries regarding prisoners of war. In addition, Vatican Radio broadcast over 1.2 million short-wave queries seeking information about prisoners and displaced people ....

Catholic Online
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[Moggy]

I'm sure that many people within the Catholic Church did very useful humantairian work during the second world war. However, the Catholic Church was one of the principal forces creating the anti-semitic backdrop to the Holocaust, including many noxious articles in the Vatican's own newspaper see THIS and THIS.
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[Moggy]

Vatican spars with Israel's Holocaust memorial over pope's World War II role

By: ARON HELLER - Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- The Vatican and Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial got into a public spat Thursday over the wartime conduct of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi genocide, threatening to upset fragile relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish state.

Separately, church officials announced new developments Thursday in the Vatican's case to make Pius a saint. A massive dossier on Pius' virtues -- some six volumes of 3,000 pages -- was handed over to a panel of bishops and cardinals earlier this month to study, they said.

At issue in the Yad Vashem-Vatican dispute is a photograph of Pius in Yad Vashem's museum in Jerusalem with the caption: "Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the pope did not protest," refusing to sign a 1942 Allied condemnation of the massacre of Jews during World War II.

Pius "maintained his neutral position" with two exceptions, the caption reads, criticizing "his silence and absence of guidelines." The exceptions were appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia toward the end of the war, the caption says.

The Vatican's ambassador to Israel, Monsignor Antonio Franco, confirmed Thursday that he would not attend Yad Vashem's annual memorial service for Holocaust victims next week because of the Pius photograph. "I don't intend to go to Yad Vashem if things remain the way they do," he said.

The memorial service is traditionally attended by all foreign ambassadors to Israel or their representatives. Yad Vashem said this would mark the first case in which a foreign emissary deliberately skipped the ceremony.

Yad Vashem is "shocked and disappointed" by Franco's decision, said spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yariv Ovadia said the Holocaust "was one of the most traumatic events to befall the Jewish people ... and it is their decision whether they want to pay respect to the victims or not."

The disputed photo caption first appeared in 2005, when Yad Vashem opened its new museum. Shortly after, the previous Vatican ambassador asked that the caption be changed.

Yad Vashem has not done so, insisting its research on the pope's role was accurate. Yad Vashem said it would be ready to re-examine Pius XII's conduct during the Holocaust if the Vatican opened its World War II-era archives to the museum's research staff and new material emerged. Despite frequent requests from Holocaust researchers, the Vatican has denied access to major parts of its archives, including wartime papers.

Rosenberg said the museum "would continue to present the historical truth on Pius XII as it is known to scholars today."

The Vatican has struggled to defend its wartime pope, insisting Pius spearheaded discreet diplomacy that saved thousands of Jews >>>>

North County Times
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[Moggy]

Pope defends wartime predecessor of anti-semitism charge

The Pope has for the first time publicly defended the wartime record of Pope Pius XII, who for decades has been accused of failing to speak out against the Holocaust.

By Nick Squires in Rome
Last Updated: 1:45AM BST 20 Sep 2008

Pope Benedict XVI said new research showed that the former Pontiff “spared no effort” in trying to save Jews from extermination by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Pope Pius XII has been condemned by some scholars and many Jewish groups for not speaking out more stridently against Nazism and the Final Solution.

His alleged ambivalence to the deportation and murder of Jews has been the subject of several books, including the 1999 Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pope Pius XII, by John Cornwell.

He is edging towards sainthood — a move strongly supported by the last Pope, John Paul II - despite accusations that he kept silent about the Holocaust, was anti-Semitic and was sympathetic to Nazi Germany because of his horror of communism.

“(Pius XII) spared no effort, wherever it was possible, to intervene (for Jews) directly or through instructions given to individuals or institutions in the Catholic Church,” Benedict XVI told a conference which presented new work on Pius ahead of the 50th anniversary of his death on October 9.
Pius XII, who was Pontiff from 1939 to 1958, had to work ”secretly and silently” to ”avert the worst and save the highest number of Jews possible,” Benedict XVI said, repeating assertions made by Vatican experts in the past. The Pope also said Pius XII was thanked by Jewish groups during and after the war for saving the lives of thousands of Jews. He cited a meeting the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had in the Vatican in November 1945 with 80 death camp survivors who ”thanked him personally for his generosity”.

Further investigation would reinforce ”the historical truth, overcoming all remaining prejudice”, the Pontiff said in a speech to representatives from the US-based Pave the Way Foundation during their visit to his summer residence, Castel Gandolfo >>>>

Telegraph
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[Moggy]

Benedict may shun Israel over Pius
Published: 10/19/2008

Israeli President Shimon Peres urged Pope Benedict XVI not to put off a visit to Israel over a disagreement about Pope Pius XII.

A Catholic official was quoted Saturday by the Italian media as saying that the pope would not come as long as a photo caption at theYad Vashem Holocaust memorial alleging that Pius XII did not act to save Jews from the Nazis remains on display. The pope has expressed interest in visiting Israel, and Israel recently extended an official invitation.

Peres said the Pius issue should not be a barrier ... Benedict said last week that he hoped Pius XII, who served from 1939 to 1958, would be beatified, the first step toward sainthood, without controversy ...

"Any visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Israel would be a political matter, and therefore Yad Vashem is not a part of this matter, as has been clarified by the Vatican’s spokesperson," Yad Vashem said in a statement released Sunday. The statement went on to say that the presentation on Pius' actions during World War II in the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem "is based on the best research regarding this topic. Yad Vashem’s historians are attentive to any research developments and new relevant documentation, and continue to delve into every aspect of the period. Yad Vashem is certain that the opening of Vatican Archives on the relevant period would help further research on the subject, which would clarify this historical issue."

Meanwhile, the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF said Oct. 17 that Pope Pius XII should not be made a saint because he remained silent during the genocide of Europe's Jews during and after World War II. The project to beatify Pius XII "would deliver a severe blow to relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world," read the statement by the largest politically oriented Jewish body in France. Though Pius did hide a number of Jews from the Nazis, he "worried about burning bridges with Germany," and "never proclaimed a clear statement denouncing the specifically monstrous extermination of millions of Jews," according to CRIF >>>>

JTA
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[Moggy]

October 21, 2008

Catholic scholars warn against canonisation of Pope Pius XII
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

Leading Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars are warning against the canonisation of the wartime Pope Pius XII, arguing that he did not do enough to save the Jewish people from persecution by Hitler.

In a letter to be published in The Times today, six senior Catholic academics join three top Jewish scholars in calling for the process towards his beatification to be put on hold.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints last year voted in favour of a decree that Pope Pius XII had “heroic virtues”, moving him a step closer to beatification.

Pope Benedict XVI has not yet signed the decree and had appeared to put the process on hold, calling for a “period of reflection.”

But the German-born Pope reignited the controversy, dubbed the “Pius wars”, earlier this month when he praised Pius XII during a Mass in Rome to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death.

The fears of Jewish leaders around the world that Pius XII might be canonised after all were raised again after Pope Benedict said that the man dubbed Hitler’s Pope by author John Cornwall had saved the “largest possible number of Jews” and had acted silently to avert the worst.

He said: "I am praying that Pius’s progress towards sainthood will continue happily."

In 1942, Pius referred to those condemned to death or progressive extinction “solely because of their nation or race” but failed to refer explicitly to Nazis or the Jewish people.

He refused pleas for help on grounds of neutrality.

Although he privately may have sheltered a small number of Jewish people and encouraged some officials to help others, had he done more, many scholars believe that the murder of more than six million Jewish people in the Holocaust could have been significantly mitigated, such was the influence of the Catholic Church >>>>

Times
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[Moggy]

October 21, 2008

The papacy in dark times
(Times Leader)

Pius XII displayed not passivity but human frailty in the face of evil
To his admirers, Eugenio Pacelli, who occupied the throne of St Peter as Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1958, was a towering moral figure. To his detractors, he was passive in the face of Nazism. The historical argument over the role of the papacy in wartime Europe is being rekindled on the 50th anniversary of Pius's death ...

It is the Church's right and prerogative to venerate its historic witnesses to the faith. The Vatican's political role, however, must be judged by the same criteria as are applied to any other state. Pius was far from being “Hitler's Pope”: he had drafted Pius XI's 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (“With burning concern”), which implicitly condemned the Nazis' anti-Semitism. And he obstructed the deportation of Italy's Jews. But recent scholarship has not been kind to the more extravagant claims, dating from the 1960s, that he was instrumental in saving hundreds of thousands from the camps. The charge against Pius is not that he was an accessory to evil, but that he was a pietist in times that required a prophet against injustice. The Vatican was familiar by 1943 with the Nazi horrors. Yet Pius's wartime message was never as clear as his postwar condemnation of communism.

In the dark times of Europe's subjugation to Nazism, moral compromise was forced on many principalities and powers. That the Vatican was among them is a circumstance for historical regret and accounting, not for enduring reverence >>>>

Times
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[Wudpecker]

A sad story in reviewing history--as is often the case.
With the pressures of those wartime days gone, it is all too easy to point out faults of the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII as information comes to light.

It is to the good that errors in church actions are brought out in the open and not swept under the rug. Some red faces are reminders of human failures and need for caring even today.

But I do not know enough to be a proper judge. I dare not apologize for, or condemn, church leaders for what happened or did not happen in the Holocaust of the Jews.
It was a horrible business for all.

[Moggy]

Film tries to repair reputation of controversial Nazi-era pope

By Charles Lewis

A new film portrays Pope Pius XII, who led the Roman Catholic Church during one of the bleakest periods of European history, as the victim of a “black legend” that has cast him as indifferent to, and even complicit in, the destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War.

A Hand of Peace, produced by a Toronto-based Catholic media company Salt and Light Television, contends that Pope Pius, who became head of the Catholic Church in 1939, was one of the few leaders in Europe to stand up to Hitler and that he saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives through a campaign of quiet subterfuge against fascist authorities.

The film says Pope Pius was outspoken when needed to be and more circumspect in his actions when he thought being overly strident would actually make things worse for victims of the Nazis.

There is no doubt that the film, which will air in Canada later next month, will draw strong reaction. Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and a law professor at Fordham University in New York, said any attempt to “rehabilitate” the reputation of Pope Pius “is an insult to the dead” and a whitewash of the facts.

Just last week, there was strong reaction condemning remarks made in a memorial mass on the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius’s death that portrayed Pius in a positive light. Pope Benedict said Pius worked to save the greatest number of Jews as possible and said he hoped the process for Pius’s beatification, a step toward sainthood, could proceed “happily.”

Then this week a Vatican official took umbrage with a wall panel at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, that portrays Pope Pius as one of the “unjust.”

David Naglieri, who made A Hand of Peace, said part of his decision to make the film was to help improve the image of the Church as a whole.

“A significant reason for doing the documentary is that it brings a lot of negative image on the Catholic Church when you have a figure of that standing in the 20th Century and the only thing an average person can say about him is that he was a cold, hard-edged pope who did nothing to save Jews during the Holocaust,” he said. “But when I looked at the evidence, it was kind of night and day between the reality of what Pope Pius did during the war and the popular image who was silent and who was weak and could do nothing to stop the Nazi Holocaust.”

The film relies on black-and-white footage from the Nazi era, interspersed with present-day interviews with Jewish and Catholic officials who testify to Pope Pius’ good works. Most significantly, Sir Martin Gilbert, one of today’s most prominent historians, who is also Jewish, makes a strong defence of Pope Pius.

He emphasizes one of the major themes of the film: If Pius was so hideous toward European Jews, why did so many Jewish leaders praise him so highly after the war?

“The fact that Pius was singled out [for praise] should be a clue to this story,” the historian says in the film. “These people had no reason to flatter a pope. If they thought he should be exposed they would have done so.”

The film argues that Pope Pius’ reputation was stellar until 1963, when Rolf Hochhuth, a German playwright, wrote The Deputy — which was strongly critical of the Pope for his alleged inaction during the Nazi time. The play ended up running around the world and even caused riots in several European cities >>>>

National Post
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[Moggy]

Cardinal Tisserant advised papal discretion during World War II, says former secretary

November 24, 2008

One of the most prominent priests in the Archdiocese of Vancouver revealed in a column dated today that one of the Vatican's leading prelates, Cardinal Eugene-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant (1884-1972), advised Pope Pius XII not to condemn Hitler’s atrocities during World War II. Cardinal Tisserant served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches from 1936 to 1959 and Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1951 to 1972.

Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo, PA, who was ordained in 1951, served as Cardinal Tisserant’s secretary during the 1960s. He recounted that after Rolf Hochhuth’s play critical of Pope Pius XII was staged in 1963, he asked Cardinal Tisserant about it. ‘The cardinal told me that he himself had advised the Pope not to intervene,’ Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo recounted. ‘Hitler has no respect for Your Holiness and you cannot stop him,’ Cardinal Tisserant said (according to Msgr. Lopez-Gallo’s contemporaneous notes). ‘On the contrary, you will move him to exterminate Catholics as well. If you ask the advice of the German bishops, I am sure they will implore you to stay away.’ >>>>

Catholic Culture
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[Moggy]

Pope Pius XII consulted his advisers
By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

For five years after his death Pope Pius XII was reputed to be one of the most intelligent Popes in the history of the Church. His career as a Holy See diplomat and his command of several languages were appreciated by everyone, and his encyclicals, which included Mystici Corporis Christi (1943), and Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943), were admired and studied in all Catholic universities.

He had been responsible for 33 canonizations, perhaps the most spectacular of which was that of St. Pius X, since no Pope had been elevated to the altar since Pope St. Pius V, who died in 1572. Pius XII had also proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We, in Rome, always considered him a true saint.

Then, suddenly, scandal! Performances of Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stellvertreter (The Vicar) were staged simultaneously in 1963 in Berlin, London, New York, and Paris. A real contrived conspiracy! The play condemned the Pope as a criminal for his silence about Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews.

In substance, here is the narrative: a Jesuit, Father Fontana, comes to know, through an SS officer of the Reich, that Hitler has decided to slaughter the Jews. Father Fontana goes to Rome to urge the Pope to reveal Hitler's intention to the world. Pope Pius XII refuses. Frustrated, Father Fontana pins on his cassock the yellow star, the symbol that all Jews were obliged to wear, and he is deported to Auschwitz to be gassed.

Very concerned, I questioned my mentor, Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, about this huge scandal. I was serving as his secretary at that time. The following is a summary of the notes I have kept. The cardinal told me that he himself had advised the Pope not to intervene: "Your Holiness, you have already worked so hard to edit the encyclical of your predecessor, Pope Pius XI, Mit brennender Sorge (With burning concern), which spoke out against Germany's National Socialism and Racism and which was read from all German Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday, 1937, two years before the outbreak of the war.

"Hitler was already preparing to attack Poland, but the encyclical did not stop his apocalyptic madness then. We are now at war and his reaction now will be disastrous. Hitler has no respect for Your Holiness and you cannot stop him. On the contrary, you will move him to exterminate Catholics as well. If you ask the advice of the German bishops, I am sure they will implore you to stay away."

Only one or two of his advisers urged the Pope to denounce Hitler's intention.

The cardinal continued, "I also repeated this same advice some years later, when President Roosevelt of the U.S., through his personal representative, Myron Taylor, informed the Pope of the extermination of the Jews. I advised the Holy Father to tell President Roosevelt that he was in a better position to negotiate with such a dictator, as the commander-in-chief of the American forces would have more impact than the Vatican, which has, literally, no army."

Cardinal Tisserant, who was well-versed in 13 languages and familiar with oriental religions, drew several parallels between Hitler and fanatical Muslims who felt directed to dominate the world by violence, destruction, and jihads (holy wars), especially against Christians and Jews.

For instance, Muslim tradition says that Muhammad's wife, Khadidja, played an influential role in his religious teachings. When the Muslim Prophet retreated to an isolated mountain to meditate, she accompanied him and encouraged him to "hear the voice of Allah" who wanted him to be his prophet and put down his guidelines for world dominance in the Koran.

Hitler, while writing Mein Kampf in prison, was advised by Rudolf Hess, who was born in Egypt and schooled in the principles of intolerance preached in Islamic warfare. In his book Hitler exalts the superiority of the Aryan race that must conquer the world by Teutonic strength. "So acted the Arab sovereigns, and Hitler wanted to be a prophet for his people" (Rauschning, Hitler m'a dit, p. 272).

Cardinal Tisserant's views on the fanaticism of Hitler and Muhammad were published in the newspaper La Croix in January 1940. His warning now seems appropriate, considering the terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001; the jihad of Osama bin Laden; and the training of the Taliban >>>>

BC Catholic
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[Moggy]

[Moggy]

Holy Father declares World War II Pope is Venerable

Vatican City, Dec 19, 2009 / 12:12 pm (CNA).- In a recent round of authorizations by Benedict XVI on Saturday, Pope Pius XII was proclaimed as having displayed exemplary and “heroic virtue” in his life. The Holy Father's decision to move ahead with the declaration rebuffs claims that Pius XII did nothing to help the Jews during World War II. He now needs two miracles to be officially attributed to him to become a saint.

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, is most remembered for being the Pontiff during World War II. While some say he did little to protest the deportation of Jews and the Holocaust, written records and witnesses tell another story. They testify to his actions in defense of the Jews. Accounts of his intervention to save 4,000 Jews from a ghetto in Rome and place them in convents and Catholic schools refute claims of his passiveness.

In May of 2009, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, former president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, a seminarian during the War, said that he couldn't remember anyone saying anything but good things about the Pope during that time. No one, he said, would have described the Pope's reaction as "silent," as would be said of him later.

In an article published in L'Osservatore Romano on May 28, 2008, Cardinal Ruini wrote, “it was obvious, in the atmosphere and ecclesial praxis of the time,” that if many “priests and religious communities, and the Vatican itself, had taken in and saved many persecuted Jews ... it could not have been done without the encouragement and consent of the Pope.” >>>>

Catholic News Agency
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[Moggy]

Anger as Pius moves closer to sainthood

One month before his first synagogue visit, Pope Benedict advances the case of his 'silent' predecessor

By Robert Mickens in Rome
Monday, 21 December 2009

Pope Pius XII leaves the presidential palace in Berlin in 1927. The controversial former pontiff was moved a step closer to sainthood on Saturday

A leading rabbi accused Pope Benedict XVI of "insensitivity" towards Jews yesterday after the head of the Catholic Church moved his controversial World War II-era predecessor Pope Pius XII a step closer to sainthood.

Pius XII, who served from 1939 to 1958, is regarded by conservative Catholics as one of the greatest of modern popes. But his papacy was also controversial because of his failure to make any protest as millions of Jews were taken to Nazi gas chambers. His supporters claim that silence was necessary for the protection of Catholics around Europe. But the Vatican has infuriated critics by failing to open secret archives relating to his papacy before moving him closer to canonisation.

"This papacy has excelled in diplomatic insensitivity," said Rabbi David Rosen, a member of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and president of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. "It has excelled at a lack of consultation and consideration for the ramifications of its actions."

Iris Rosenberg, a spokesman for the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, added her voice to the growing chorus of Jewish anger.

"Our understanding was that ... the Church was going to wait to take further steps until the relevant Vatican archives were opened, allowing scholars to clarify this controversial period in Church history and Pius's position during the Holocaust," she said. The head of archives, Bishop Sergio Pagano, told reporters last July that it was likely to take another five or six years before the materials could be made accessible to scholars.

"It is regrettable that the Vatican has chosen to act before all the relevant documents are available to researchers," Ms Rosenberg said.

Jewish leaders were also angered that the Vatican chose to announce the acceleration in the process to canonise Pius XII just a month before Benedict XVI is to make his first visit to Rome's major synagogue. So far, the announcement does not appear to have put the 17 January visit in jeopardy. But a source close to Rome's chief rabbi, Dr Riccardo Di Segni, said both the announcement and its timing had "hit a raw nerve" >>>>
Independent
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