Church helping Nazi War Criminals Escape??

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levi86:
I think the Holy See probably did help Nazis escape, I also know for a fact that it helped Jews leave Europe.

Did Christ not teach us not to judge others? It is not the place of the Church to judge these war criminals, nor is it its place to hand them over to the authorities.

In an ideal world we would not judge criminals at all; it should be up to God, not man.
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I have yet to see any proof that the Vatican helped Nazis escape. We know some had forged Vatican documents, and yes there were Nazi infiltrators in the Church but at an official level I haven’t seen any proof other than some pictures of some priests giving a Hitler salute (but heck so did everyone, it was a dictatorship and Hitler’s true intentions weren’t revealed immediately). Hitler wouldn’t have tried to kidnap the Pope if he was a friend to the Nazis. Here is what Albert Einstein, a German agnostic Jew said about the CC’s war effort…

Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks…

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.
 
As mentioned above, it is alleged that the Austrian Bishop Alois Hudal was involved in helping Nazi war criminals.
Also, the Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganovic was accused of helping Nazi sympathisers to escape:
pavelicpapers.com/documents/army/ar0002.html

These are the two men that most pseudo-historians try to link with Pope Pius in order to prove that the Vatican (as an organisation) was smuggling Nazi criminals to South America. They are variously described as anti-communist or pro-nazi in order to describe their actions.
Of course, the actions of two individuals can not be evidence of a conspiracy by an organisation or its leadership, and you could not say that “the Church helped Nazi war criminals escape” no matter what evidence is found of the actions of these two men.
 
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bones_IV:
Vern, he won’t be able to assuming he knows he isn’t telling the truth.
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He won’t be able to, period. He won’t find any documents that prosecution of “the Vatican” was ever considered, let alone that “the Vatican” asserted diplomatic immunity.
 
vern humphrey:
He won’t be able to, period. He won’t find any documents that prosecution of “the Vatican” was ever considered, let alone that “the Vatican” asserted diplomatic immunity.
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Presicely, my dear Watson. lol
 
So what if the Church helped the war criminals. I just wish they would have stepped up and been more helpful to the Jews as an institution for human rights. Many Roman Catholics helped Jews during WW2 but my observation is that the Vatican turned her back. The Concordats between the Church and Hitler/Mussolini is proof for me.
 
vern humphrey:
Give us a cite to show where the Pope or “the Vatican” asserted diplomatic immunity to escape prosecution.
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vern humphrey:
He won’t be able to, period. He won’t find any documents that prosecution of “the Vatican” was ever considered, let alone that “the Vatican” asserted diplomatic immunity.
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bones_IV:
Presicely, my dear Watson. lol
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**BENEDICT XVI NAMED AS A DEFENDANT IN AN AMERICAN LAWSUIT **

traditioninaction.org/be…v09-07-2005.htm
  • There is a recent follow-up to the lawsuit against Pope Benedict XVI accusing him of covering up the sexual abuse of three children in Houston, Texas. Representatives of the Pope asked President George Bush to confirm that Benedict XVI benefits from juridical immunity as the Head-of-State of the Vatican. If immunity is granted, the Pope is exempt from liability as a defendant…
**…1. **On May 18, 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter to the Catholic Bishops on how to handle sacramental and moral abuses that were occurring in the Church. Some who read the letter say that it dealt with the Sacraments and the sexual abuse of minors by priests and ecclesiastical persons; others say that it dealt only with canonical problems regarding the Sacraments.
In any case, the media report that when the letter referred to ecclesiastic trials of priests charged with the sexual abuse of minors, it ordered that “cases of this kind are subjected to the pontifical secret” (*Houston Voice *online, August 29, 2005). That is to say, it asserted the Church’s right to hold inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential. Breaching the pontifical secret carries serious penalties.
 
As stated by someone else. Bishop Hudal was involved in helping Germans escape from Europe. The extent to which the Church itself was involved is questionable but this is not always as wrong an act as one would believe. The “prosecution” of war criminals regularly became “persecution” of innocent Germans and many of the “war criminals” that escaped may not have been guilty of anything. A perfect example of this persecution is the case of Erich Priebke. Priebke was an SS officer in Italy. He was tried for war crimes and aquitted of all charges. His aquittal so infuriated the communists in Italy (there are a lot of them) and the more militant Jewish organizations that they staged demonstrations and threatened violence until this 92 year-old man was re-arrested and re-tried on the same charges and convicted. Apparantly Italy has no problem with such despicable legal practices. Some of the “war criminals” that escaped Europe were innocent people fleeing unjust persecution just as the Jews had earlier. How ironic.
 
Romans5:1:
So what if the Church helped the war criminals. I just wish they would have stepped up and been more helpful to the Jews as an institution for human rights. Many Roman Catholics helped Jews during WW2 but my observation is that the Vatican turned her back. The Concordats between the Church and Hitler/Mussolini is proof for me.
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The Concordats between the Church and Hitler/Mussolini are proof of nothing. Do you remember Jesus among the sinners? The Church was not going to abandon Germany and Italy just because of their governments.
 
Romans5:1:
So what if the Church helped the war criminals. I just wish they would have stepped up and been more helpful to the Jews as an institution for human rights. Many Roman Catholics helped Jews during WW2 but my observation is that the Vatican turned her back. The Concordats between the Church and Hitler/Mussolini is proof for me.
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Provide the evidence. You’ll find none. Do you give in the opinions of the main stream media? Seems like because the evil the Nazis committed is so great, that people are just simply looking for more people to blame.
 
Romans5:1:
So what if the Church helped the war criminals. I just wish they would have stepped up and been more helpful to the Jews as an institution for human rights. Many Roman Catholics helped Jews during WW2 but my observation is that the Vatican turned her back. The Concordats between the Church and Hitler/Mussolini is proof for me.
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Perhaps you will list the number of Jews saved during the war by various countries and organizations, including a number for the Vatican. Then we can all judge, based on this list, whether the Vatican turned its back on the Jews.
 
Do you deny that Rome has a long history of papal abuse against the Jews? Ever hear of the Ghetto carnival races?
 
Stay on topic which is the allegation that the Pope helped Nazi war criminals escape…and no other topic. I am deleting any and all posts which do not directly pertain to this topic.
If yours is missing, that is why.
 
ewtn.com/library/issues/pius12gs.htm

the Pope and the Vatican received much praise
from the Jewish people and leaders after the
war…

Pope Pius XII died on October 8, 1958. Many Jewish organizations and newspapers around the world mourned his passing, and recalled his wartime efforts to rescue Jews. At the United Nations, Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, said, “When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict.” The Zionist Record (October 17) “”

🙂
 
ewtn.com/library/issues/pius12gs.htm

In the Canadian Jewish Chronicle (October 17), Rabbi J. Stern recalled that Pius XII “made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away…” In the November 6 edition of the Jewish Post in Winnipeg, William Zukerman, the former American Hebrew columnist, wrote that no other leader “did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late Pope.”

🙂
 
In the movie . . . the Scarlet in the Black. Fr. Hugh O’Flaherty helps the wife and child of a Nazi officer to escape. This was supposedly based on a true story. 😃
 
In conversation with a friend, (nice guy, smart) he tells me that the Catholic Church helped Nazi War Criminals escape following the end of the war.
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As to the original claim that the Catholic Church helped Nazi war criminals escape proper punishment, one must first define what constitutes the Church. All other discussions are peripheral, including the pope helping the Jews during the war.

Without a doubt there was a number of members of the Church, including high ranking members like Bishop Alois Hudal, who helped Nazis escape. However, this is far from an institutional conspiracy headed by the pope.

Even the History Channel special (though I didn’t see the show, but only read the website’s advertisement) dedicates a section to the knowledge the pope had of what was going on. I wonder if anyone who has seen the show knows the conclusions of the program.
 
In defense of Pope Pius XII maybe he had to remain relatively quite during the Second World War so the Church could remain neutral? Who knows what he was thinking and for that matter who really cares at this time, its time to move on and serve God. There are much more important issues at hand today and none of us can change history, but the thread did interest me, as did the whole of WW2. The political factions not only in Europe but also in the East and extreme west. The question of this thread however was “did the Catholic Church help Nazi War Criminals escape following the end of the war”. This is no doubt a sensitive subject and I must admit being new here I have to question the integrity of the inquiry but I will try to share what I know on the subject. Please bare in mind that I am no longer a practicing Roman Catholic so if my view appears hostile please forgive me. The Catholic Church is the victim of many lies this I know to be true as there are many that hate the Catholic Church. I do not hate Roman Catholics if I did I would be hating a majority of my family. The subject of the Vatican Ratlines has been one of intrigue for me. If these rumors are true what were the intentions of the Vatican? I know their stance on capital punishment and though I disagree with it I respect it. The War Criminals were human beings right? So they deserved the basic human rights the Jews didn’t have in WW2. It has been written that some of the escaping war criminals were members of the clergy? I don’t know how we could substantiate this without the help of Rome and she certainly and most assuredly will decline comment. Bishop Alois Hudal is one that is worth some research along with Monsignor Giovani Montini (later Pope Paul VI). These two allegedly assisted Franze Stangle to safe sanctuary in Rome. It seems Franze was the commandant at Triblinka where 900,000 people most of them Jews were exterminated. There has been much written on this subject and I don’t know how much of it is the usual anti Catholic rhetoric. Having researched it my self I would be inclined to think that there are some valid claims and some are intended to remove the scab from a healing wound. In my opinion it would serve us better to let history be what it is and try not to repeat it. I believe what happened to the Jews was a result of Israel not listening to the Words of God and I believe the reason Israel is back in the land today is because it is ordained of God. If this post gets deleted I’m sorry it offended that is not why I wrote it. I believe the fact that Israel is back in the land is proof that we need to quit looking back and start looking up. Peace.
 
Ok back to reality…

I appreciate all the responses. Some of you knocked the ball right out of the park. I appreciate your time and efforts.

This is a topic that I should know all to well; I had a knee jerk hysterical reaction to my friend’s comments and the web address he sent me. Some of us need a good kick in the butt to bring us back to reality from our hysterical knee jerk reactions. That’s why I love this site.

I have since compiled an excellent response to his e-mail from all the sources of info you gave to me. I cut & pasted (plagiarized) some of your responses b/c it could not have been told any better.

I am quite proud of myself for standing up for the Truth. I could not have done it without this web forum. There are some really intelligent people who responded with some very academic responses.

I hope you continue always to use this site to help those of us who need your help in spreading the Truth. (I hope everyone continues to use this site!)

I hope I can return the favour.

More than 36hrs have since past and no response from my friend.
 
Thanks to all who participated.
This thread is now closed.
 
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