Much-maligned pontiff

[didymus]

Here is an editorial that appeared in one of the leading Israeli newspapers.

Ha’aretz:

Much-maligned pontiff

Some things never go away. The controversy over Pope Pius XII’s actions during World War II was recently reignited when Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree affirming that his predecessor displayed “heroic virtues” during his lifetime. When the pope visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on Sunday, Riccardo Pacifici, president of Rome’s Jewish community, told him: “The silence of Pius XII before the Shoah still hurts because something should have been done.”

This was not the first time the wartime pope, who is now a step closer to beatification, has been accused of keeping silent during the Holocaust, of doing little or nothing to help the Jews, and even of collaborating with the Nazis. To what extent, if any, does the evidence back up these allegations, which have been repeated since the early 1960s?

On April 4, 1933, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, the Vatican secretary of state, instructed the papal nuncio in Germany to see what he could do to oppose the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies.

. . . .

 

[wisdomseeker]

What is important to us as that God saw what he did and not people. the CC has done good in silence and that is the way it should be. remember what Jesus said about those who does good for others to see, they already got their reward.

take for example the Haiti catastrophe, we see on tv those who are running to help haiti, what we dont see or hear is anything about Catholics doing anything. i hope that this remaing so. the CC is not seeking man’s recognition. it seems in the modern world everyone is seeking to be recognized and get awards for doing good. the CC is not one of those. let’s pray this will remain so.

the holy father should not be concerned about others opinion when he knows what the holy Pope PXX did. we should not depend on those outside who could careless about the Church anyway to recognize our Saints. sometimes i think that the leaders of the CC have weakened so much that outsiders seemed to have more power in the Church then those who are supposed to guard the Faith. this has a problem for us since the Council VII. i am waiting for those in charge of the Church to stand up and defend the Faith, hopefully this year still.

 

[JimG]

Here is the article’s conclusion:

“The campaign against Pope Pius XII is doomed to failure because his detractors cannot sustain their main charges against him - that he was silent, pro-Nazi, and did little or nothing to help the Jews - with evidence. Perhaps only in a backward world such as ours would the one man who did more than any other wartime leader to help Jews and other Nazi victims, receive the greatest condemnation.” He calls Pius XII “the one man who did more than any other wartime leader to help Jews and other Nazi victims.”
It is this that the world has forgotten, or turned against.

haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144457.html

 

[KC91]

At the end of the article

Dimitri Cavalli is an editor and writer in New York City. He is working on books on both Pope Pius XII and Joe McCarthy, the late manager of the New York Yankees.

Interesting, I would be interested to know when his book on Pius XII comes out.

Nice article, thanks for posting

 

[manualman]

Judaism values honesty and fairness as highly as catholicism does. Over time, those Jews who actually practice their faith will divide the truth from the slander.

This isn’t to say that there can’t be legitimate criticism of the Church in WWII or any other time. But recognize that this criticism has the benefit of hindsight. In a 100 years, people will look back and argue about whether 20th century catholics really took abortion seriously. And they’ll have a point, but not a case against catholicism.