Anti-Catholic Meme Making the Rounds on Facebook; Be Prepared to Refute It

[DaveBj]

There is a meme making the rounds on Facebook that purports to equate the meeting between President Obama and Pope Francis with a supposed meeting between Adolf Hitler and Pope Pius XII. It features a split picture, half of which shows Obama with Pope Francis, and the other half of which shows Hitler shaking hands with a Catholic prelate. That picture is captioned “Pope Pius XII.” This is a continuation of the “Pius XII = Hitler’s Pope” slander and it intimates that Pope Francis is Obama’s Pope, equating Obama with Hitler.

Faithful Catholics need to be ready with a refutation. Here are the facts.

1. Eugenio Pacelli, AKA Pope Pius XII, never was as corpulent as the man in the photo.
2. Pius XII was a full-time wearer of spectacles, and the prelate in the picture has none.
3. Pius XII (as Pope) never met Hitler (as Chancellor) in person, because. . .
4. Pacelli was Papal Nuncio to Bavaria during WWI, and then to Germany during the early years of the Weimar Republic, but he was recalled to Rome in 1929, four years before Hitler rose to the office of Chancellor.
5. The prelate in this picture is probably Pacelli’s successor as Papal Nuncio, whose job would have required him to meet and shake hands with Hitler on ceremonial occasions. Note that the prelate in the picture is wearing colored vestments, while the standard dress for a Pope is a white cassock.