Jewish media ill-will towards Pius XII continues unabated

[anglicanmale]

Jewish media ill-will towards Pius XII continues unabated
***By Dr. Robert Moynihan

catholicinsight.com/online/features/article_947.shtml*

Storm clouds over Benedict

        Increasing clouds have been gathering for days over Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome on January 17th, casting a shadow on what was planned as a meeting to improve Catholic-Jewish understanding.



        John Paul II (1978-2005) had initiated this gesture of reconciliation in 1986, being the first pontiff to visit a synagogue since the time of the apostles. When Benedict was invited by Rome’s rabbis to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps, he clearly accepted in hopes of raising the often tense relationship to a higher level of discourse.



        But since December 19th, when Benedict signed a decree advancing Pope Pius XII’s cause for beatification, and ultimately canonization, there has been a carefully programmed media campaign against him.**

 

[Sonny1954]

Of course it does. As it should. If a prominent Jewish or Protestant Leader (though those groups have no equivilant to the Pope of course) had turned had nothing to say publically about mass genocide of Roman Catholics, we would be angered enough. But if that group then subequently defined that very Leader as showing extraordiinary moral courage in the face of that slaughter, the shouts of “anti-Catholic” would–justifiably–be loud and shrill.

If we insist on defining that man as a “Saint,” then we’d best get used to criticism for it.

 

[Strider]

Even without revealing the secret files, there is ample proof of Pius XII’s heroism and intelligent use of the resources he had (people) and those he didn’t (guns), any honest person who wanted to could discover how many lives he saved.

 

[Barb3]

I’m certainly not an historian, but I seem to recall that before Pius XII became Pope and was a Cardinal – Cardinal Pacelli – he was very outspoken about the Nazis. When he became Pope he was in a different situation but did a great deal to help the Jews quietly but has never seemed to receive any credit for it.
I would assume that if Pope Pius XII did NOTHING to save Jews in Italy why would the head Jew in Rome have converted to the Catholic Church???

 

[Sonny1954]

I’m still waiting to see the evidence that he mounted his pulpit and and instructed German and Italian Catholics to resist their governments’ Jewish policies. He may well have tip-toed into various dark corners here and there and whispered in barely audible tones about the Holocaust.

Many, many individual Bishops, priests and nuns risked (and some lost) their very lives while fighting the Holocaust as best they could. I know a number of Jews who honor their memories. We cannot really be surprised that God Chosen People are unhappy with Pious. Well, I guess we can be, but that reflects poorly on us.

 

[pnewton]

As it should. If a prominent Jewish or Protestant Leader (though those groups have no equivilant to the Pope of course) had turned had nothing to say publically about mass genocide of Roman Catholics, we would be angered enough.

That is not true. The very first encyclical of Pope Pius XII shows this to be false.

vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html

He speaks of the dangers of nationalism and totalitarianism and of the universal brotherhood of all man.

Once the authority of God and the sway of His law are denied in this way, the civil authority as an inevitable result tends to attribute to itself that absolute autonomy which belongs exclusively to the Supreme Maker. It puts itself in the place of the Almighty and elevates the State or group into the last end of life, the supreme criterion of the moral and juridical order, and therefore forbids every appeal to the principles of natural reason and of the Christian conscience…To consider the State as something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated and directed, cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations.

To what extent he could have done more, I think the Jewish leaders of his day were in a better position to answer than the modern day revisionists that look back with 20-20 hindsight and clouded lenses.