Don't pressure the pope on Pius XII, Vatican warns
Print Friendly VersionBy JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Pope Benedict should not be pressured over the possibility of sainthood for Pius XII, his controversial wartime predecessor, the Vatican warned yesterday.
“The pope has not yet signed a decree on the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Pius XII, a signature which is required for the cause to go forward,” said Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson. “It’s currently the subject of reflection and study on his part.”
“In this situation,” Lombardi added, “it’s not helpful to try to exercise pressure on him in one sense or the other.”
Lombardi also said that Benedict XVI is not delaying putting a trip to Israel on his schedule in protest over a controversial display about Pius XII in Jerusalem’s main Holocaust museum.
“This is not a determing factor for any decision about an eventual trip to the Holy Land by the Holy Father,” said Lombardi said in an Oct. 18 statement.
The presentation of Pius XII at Yad Vashem, Israel’s most important Holocaust museum, has proved a thorn in Jewish/Catholic relations since it went up in 2005. Last year, the Vatican ambassador to the Holy Land briefly threatened to refuse to attend an annual commemoration of the Holocaust in protest.
In the wake of new debates over Pius XII last week, some commentators revived speculation that Benedict had put the brakes on a possible trip to the Holy Land because of the fracas at Yad Vashem. Lombardi, however said going to the Holy Land “is among the well-known desires of the pope,” but for now, “there’s no concrete plan” for the trip.
Lombardi was reacting to a flurry of commentary on the debates surrounding Pius XII in both the European and Israeli press, following a week in which the wartime pope’s record once again proved to be a flashpoint in Jewish/Catholic relations.
On Monday, October 6, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, Israel – the first Jew ever invited to address a Synod of Bishops – indirectly referred to what he termed Pius’ public “silence” during the Holocaust, saying that Jews cannot “forgive and forget.”
On Thursday, Oct. 9, Benedict XVI celebrated a special Mass in the Vatican commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pius’ death. In his homily, Benedict mounted an across-the-board defense of Pius XII, insisting that during the war Pius XII engaged in “an intense campaign of charity in favor of the persecuted, without any distinction in terms of religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political affiliation.”
If he did not directly condemn National Socialism or the Holocaust by name, Benedict asserted, it was because “he understood that only in this way could he avoid the worst and save the greatest possible number of Jews.”
In the wake of those comments, many media commentators pointed to the controversy at Yad Vashem as a possible explanation for why Benedict XVI has not yet made firm plans for a trip to the Holy Land.
A placard concerning Pius XII, displayed alongside photos of the wartime pope as well as the signing of the Nazi concordat with the Vatican in 1933, has been on display at Yad Vashem since 2005. It appears under a large quotation from the Israeli poet Nathan Alterman, which reads in part:
“While the ovens were fed by day and by night,
The most Holy Father who dwells in Rome
Did not leave his palace, with crucifix high,
To witness one day of pogrom.”
The full text of the Yad Vashem placard reads:
Pius XII’s reaction to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust is a matter of controversy. In 1933 when he was secretary of the Vatican State he was active in obtaining a Concordat with the German Regime to preserve the church’s rights in Germany even if this meant recognizing the Nazi racist Regime. When he was elected Pope in 1939 he shelved a letter against racism and anti-Semitism that his predecessor had prepared. Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican the Pope did not protest either verbally or in writing. In December 1942, he abstained from joining the allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews. When the Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz the Pope did not intervene. The Pope maintained his neutral position throughout the war with the exception of appealing to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia toward its end. His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react.”
The display has long been considered both provocative and historically inaccurate by defenders of Pius XII. To take one example, sympathetic historians assert that Pius XII did protest the round-up of Roman Jews immediately after it began, with the result that almost 6,000 of the 7,000 Jews in living in Rome in October 1943 were not deported.
Last year, the Vatican’s nuncio, or ambassador, in the Holy Land, Archbishop Antonio Franco, announced that he would not attend an annual memorial of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in protest. Later Franco rescinded that decision after museum officials said they were willing to “reconsider” the text.
At the time, even some critics of Pius XII acknowledged that the caption may be one-sided.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told NCR that the caption is “too judgmental, too conclusory” based on what is presently known, calling it “inappropriate.”
In his statement, Lombardi expressed hope that the Yad Vashem display on Pius XII “will be the object of a new, objective, and deepened consideration on the part of those responsible for the museum.”
guro, I think you missed the
guro, I think you missed the point of what was being said. I didn't make up history. Do a google search on the period in history leading to Hitler getting into power. There are parallels in that the Church was so focused on the single issue of anti-Communism that it did allow for Hitler to get into power. Do a google search on Ludwig Kaas or the Centre Party. I didn't make this stuff up.
For those who like to attack "liberals" I will simply state that it was liberals that allowed us to have a US Constitution and the good old USA. This country would not have been founded were it not for a liberalism of thought.
If Bush were "thoughtful" he would not have put us in a War in Iraq and he would not have pushed policies that were liberal for corporations and banks to be greedy.
You don't know who you are speaking to. I have two family members who are mentally ill and they are certainly not as you say as "unwanted."
Don't you think that many many more people will be annihilated and there could possibly be no life on the planet at all if there is a nuclear war? Why not address this serious problem of military spending and the issue of deadly weapons that threatens our extinction? Isn't that important and perhaps a sign of moral decay?
Born 6-2-1941, oddly enough
Born 6-2-1941, oddly enough I have memories of those years and can conjure up pictures in my mind of Heroes with a mindset to save the world from Nazi Germany! Roosevelt is one, Eisenhower is another! Clark, McArthur, Patton, Churchill, Mountbatten, eliciting what feelings of security were to be had at the time. On the other end of the stick were the Hitlers, Geobbels, Himmlers, Mussolinis, and as I find a whole cadre of good Catholics dedicated to the "Final Solution!" To one degree or another, Der Ratzinger? Put 'em all together they spell "Terror"
Pious XII was a bespecaled picture in the Catholic week!
Somehow, all these years, I have felt a communal shame, at the loss of six and one half million souls, to that cadre of Satanic Catholicism! I feel it now and I can't put it all together!
Ask me to consider the times! Ask me to consider the situation! Ask me, "What would you have done?" I have, and it all comes out the same! Why did we let them suffer? Why did we let them die? Did I do anything to contribute to their suffering, their deaths? How could I? I was only a child! Did THEY know? Did THEY participate? Evil triumphed ove a lot of good men who said nothing! Who bears more guilt? They or I? About the same age, he or I?
May God have mercy on us all!
James Edward
RE: Pope Pius XII By Pope
RE: Pope Pius XII
By Pope Benedict expressing this desire to push Sainthood through for Pope Pius XII, I believe he is pushing a political agenda. The political agenda is to create enough discussion about it to try to get the Yad Vashem display to change their caption. Even Abraham Foxman believes the caption is "too judgmental, too conclusory." It may well be. So what should the Church do?
Having done some research into Pacelli in the early 1930's and the political movements leading up to the rise of Hitler to power what I have clearly seen to emerge from that research is the Church's active involvement in politics during that time through the Centre Party. What is clear is that the Church was more concerned about its own agenda and self-interest and regarded Communism as more of a threat than Hitler. The single-issue mind set of anti-communism is very reminiscent of the single issue folks around the abortion issue today who do not see the entire political spectrum at play, how they are used to gain credibility and what is at stake by being blind-sighted by that one issue. Such a mind-set allowed someone like Hitler to get into power. Such a mind-set also allowed for the deregulator and war-monger GW Bush to get into power.
Ludwig Kass, a priest who became a politician, a good friend of Pacelli's and who is buried at the request of Pius XII in St. Peter's, was active in the Centre Party and in protecting the single-minded interest of the Church, while ignoring the rest of the issues surrounding the times of the revolution in Germany. Ludwig Kaas voted in favor of the Enabling Act which gave credibility and unlimited power to Hitler and essentially allowed for the dismantling of democracy in Germany. Immediately after the Enabling Act was voted on, all opposition party members were rounded up and sent to concentration camps to their death. How can anyone deny the complicity of the active support of the Church hierarchy for Hitler gaining power after looking at the facts? Until the Pope is truthful about the entire time and the Church's complicity it seems clear that Sainthood for Pius XII will only be seen as political and utterly narcissistic for Benedict to pursue. It just seems that Benedict is being political and not pastoral regarding this issue of Sainthood for Pius XII.
Pius XII's heroic effort was
Pius XII's heroic effort was acknowledged by everyone who witnessed it. Albert Einstein was one of them. He said: "Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."
Now, it seems a significant number of people have strange ideas about the Pope, derived from a work of fiction (a stage play called The Deputy by a German Protestant playwright), and promoted by a number of anti-Catholic works.
‘How Pius XII Protected Jews‘ by Jimmy Akin is a good article on this:
http://www.catholic.com/library/HOW_Pius_XII_PROTECTED_JEWS.asp#T19
as is Rabbi Dalin’s interview:
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=18330
not to mention his book, ‘The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany‘.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895260344/lewrockwell
Some people may have come across the photoshop’d cover for John Cornwell’s book, ‘Hitler’s Pope’. Here’s a page detailing the sort of deliberately misleading process that went into the cover:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~rrychlak/web20061010/morphing.htm
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regiaecclesia.wordpress.com
Well TTM the fact of the
Well TTM the fact of the matter is when the Allies signed on to a condemnation of the Germany in 1942 for their treatment of the Jews, the Vatican was not a signatory. Pius may have acted when the scourge came to Italy, in secrecy I will add, but in any other country not one word. What does this say? Italian Jews are worth more than any other Jew?
When I put myself in his shoes I truly can't do that. This is a universal church and I dont' have the information he acted on because the Vatican won't release it. Until that happens, let Pius wait in heaven, or whatever. In any case it will make little difference to him.
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com
In response to
In response to 'butterfly':
This is the kind of spray-patterned thought typical of liberal Catholicism. Bush (and presumably the Republican Party) are parallel to Hitler and the Nazis? On the other hand, abortion, which kills -- as Catholic teaching since the Epistle of Barnabas on would say -- human beings, at a rate of 1.4m per year is NOT parallel to Nazi exterminatin of -- let us not say the Jews or Slavs, which is hard to maintain -- but, of people with mental disease, or other 'inconvenient' and 'unwanted' human beings. The parallel 'butterfly' draws simply does not hold water. Indeed it is fatuous and nearly hysterical.
What purpose is served by these rants? Do you really want to make Bush into Hitler and make those who oppose abortion as an intolerable blot on the conscience of the nation his collaborators? Let me make clear: I did not support the war in Iraq. I support reform of the investment and banking industry. I would be happy to see increased taxes on many categories of people, not just those making more than 250k per annum. But the attack on Bush, and on those thoughtful people, many highly nuanced in their arguments, who hold that abortion is a signal of deeper decay in our culture that must be addressed, is rankly slanderous.
This is the kind of absurdity that would, but for the grace of God operating through better witnesses, ahve made me leave Catholicism far behind years ago. I might have ended up a secular supporter, or at least tolerator, of abortion, but I would never hanve embraced the kind of silliness that is represented by these ridiculous charges..