Pius XII

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hi folks,
My name is Nick, I’m from the diocese of Toledo. I’m kind of new here. Well here goes my question. I’ve read all the controversy surrounding Pius XII, the Jews and the Holocaust. I wonder why there are Jewish people still upset with the church over the holocaust. When people at Pius’ time were fully aware of the church’s opposition to Nazi Germany. I found that even Dwight D. Eisenhower even complented Pius XII on his efforts to savc over 800,000 jews. My question is why are so many Jews still upset with the Catholic Church over Pius XII’s efforts when the Pope did all he could? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Padre Pio “Don’t worry, work and pray”
 
Jews who are angry with the Church are angry due to a misunderstanding of history. This is due in a large part to the best-selling book Hitler’s Pope, which was filled with errors. Common accusations such as “The pope did nothing to speak out against Hitler” fail to take into account the political climate of the time. The Nazis responded with force every time a public denoucement of their actions was made by religious clergy. Pope Pius XII understood this, so his actions were more subtle, and ended up saving far more Jews than more outright actions.

The new online archives of *This Rock *magazine here on Catholic.com contains an article regarding the book and its accusations:

catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0101fea1.asp
 
The calumniation of Pius XII began in the 1960s, several years after the pope’s death in 1958, with the Rolf Hochhuth play, *The Deputy. *There have been several books and articles since then on the same theme that Pius XII was in cahoots with Hitler. However, the actual evidence is much to the contrary. Cardinal Pacelli actually never met Hitler, who came to power after Pacelli had left Berlin to become the Vatican secretary of state under Pius XI. As the secretary of state, he was to a large extent responsible for the encyclical of Pius XI against the Nazis, *Mit Brennender * Sorge. No less than the *New York Times *praised Pius XII on more than one occasion for speaking out against the Nazis during World War II. After the war ended, the chief rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism and took Eugenio as his baptismal name in honor of Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli. On the pope’s death, Golda Meir and other Jewish leaders praised him for his efforts in helping Jews during the Nazi occupation of Rome. I would recommend a book by historian Edward Rychlak (?). I believe the title is *Hitler and the Pope. *I would also recommend the books by Sr. Margherita Marchione on Pius XII, including Yours Is A Precious Witness.
 
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bones_IV:
hi folks,
My name is Nick, I’m from the diocese of Toledo. I’m kind of new here. Well here goes my question. I’ve read all the controversy surrounding Pius XII, the Jews and the Holocaust. I wonder why there are Jewish people still upset with the church over the holocaust. When people at Pius’ time were fully aware of the church’s opposition to Nazi Germany. I found that even Dwight D. Eisenhower even complented Pius XII on his efforts to savc over 800,000 jews. My question is why are so many Jews still upset with the Catholic Church over Pius XII’s efforts when the Pope did all he could? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Padre Pio “Don’t worry, work and pray”
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This is a subject dear to my heart. Recently a student of mine came back from Rome. For three days he looked for a Pius XII medal or something that has the Pope’s image because he wanted to bring it to me as a gift. Wherever he would ask for Pius’ picture or momento, store workers would look at him in amazement and would even ask him, “Do you know Pius XII died in 1958?” My student would reply “yes, but my teacher loves Pius and I want something that has Pius image.” Finally the kid went into a store near the Vatican and when he asked, this nun said, “Funny you should ask. The other day we did our inventory and I found this little box from the early 60s with the image of Pope Pius XII.” It’s a beautiful medal of him. It just so happened it was never sold and Sister simply gave it to the kid. When the student brought it to me and told me the story I could not believe it. I love and respect Pius like no other Pope, although I greatly admire all the popes of the 20th century.

The controvery about Pius XII goes deeper than you might think. 1) Those Catholics who today resent centralized authority and a strong disciplinarian Pope simply dislike Pius to no end. 2) Those Jews who have believe the distortions of history do not want him canonized because they will rather believe his detractors than the historical record 3) Politics has “literally” made his canonization much more difficult and I do not believe this Pope will canonize him in his life time. If the next Pope knows about Pius sanctity and is willing to go against the grain of political correct non-sense, Pacelli will be canonized and I will fly to Rome, God willing, for his canonization.

In case you don’t know it, you opened a pandora’s box.

Antonio 🙂
 
The Chief Rabbi of Rome was so impressed with Piux XII’s efforts to save Jews that he eventually became Catholic. In the post-war years, there was general praise for the Pope. As larryo pointed out, the defamation of this pope did not begin until much later, beginning with the calumnies in Rolf Hochhuth’s play.
 
In addition to everything that was already said, Communists and their sympathizers, including those in the West, simply hated Pius for his strong and uncompromising stand against the scourge of Communism during the 1950s.

Gerry 🙂
 
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RobedWithLight:
In addition to everything that was already said, Communists and their sympathizers, including those in the West, simply hated Pius for his strong and uncompromising stand against the scourge of Communism during the 1950s.

Gerry 🙂
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And I love and respect Pope Pius XII precisely because of his mighty opposition to communism. I truly believe ostpolitic after his death was a grave mistake. Ask Cardinal Mindszenty!

Antonio 😦
 
Pius XII is one great Pope. Anyone who could read Humani Generis at the right time is a genius!

He is a saint and I have no doubt about it. It’s just a matter of time until he’s canonized.

All those ignorant people who don’t know jack about Pius XII keep spouting some false accusation triggered by a theatric play to undermine the Supreme Pontiff.
 
That is right. In addition, Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi was the finest exposition on the profound teaching of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, which I strongly recommend for every Catholic to read and study.

How sad that some people, who never knew him or what he did, still had the audacity to slander him. .

Gerry 🙂
 
Not all Jews are upset with Pope Pius XII. As a matter a fact he recieved awards and recognition from many Jewish organizations.

Sometimes our medea just covers the bad news and we assume nothing but bad things as a result. We live in a protestant country with numerous anti-Catholics and an enourmous amount of false anti-Catholic material being spewed out. Our media is also made up of mostly liberal protestants. Some reporters now invent news or fail to verify or fact check stories - remember Dan Rather and CBS news?

Rabbi Zolli (sp?), the cheif Rabbi in Rome during WWII, converted to Catholicism after the war and praised the Pope for all he had done and sacraficed. The Vatican was bankrupt after the war and did everything it could to help the Jews. The Pope even sent word to the Allies where the Germans would invade France but the protestant Allies failled to believe the Pope, one of them Catholics you know, since they did not think he would have truthfull information. The German staff stopped giving information on such high matters and risking their life’s when the Allies failled to listen.

6 Million Jews did in concentration camps. 3.5 million Catholics died with the Jews in concentration camps. Hitler began to kill and hunt Catholics right along with the Jews. Hitler was not just trying to destroy the Jewish religion but also the Catholic religion. You don’t see the Catholic death toll in our news either do you? Catholic Churches were raided and members killed because they were safe houses for Jews!

The Pope risked everything for the Jews. Our liberal protestant news media just fails to recognize his great accomplishments. The Pope had no Army, just the word of God to spread. Gods word won.
 
Thanks malachi4u,

I appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut greatly. There was even this one time when someone who happened to be a seventh day adventist desired to kill Pius XII and tried to discredit the immaculate conception. He converted to catholicism afterwords and became a visionary. The Nazis, communists and fascists in Italy weren’t Pius’ only enemies. He had many others just like the one I mentioned. Yes there is no denying that the liberal media likes to do a hatchet job on the Roman church no doubt some of them catholics who are just simply bitter with the church. We live in a country that hates faith, and some of these folks are ashamed of being catholic. I always remind myself that we should pray for our persecuters and always love them no matter what they do to us. Remember, that Paul blasphemed the church before his conversion to christianity. The visionary mentioned above is a very good example of this and there are so many others! Let’s pray very much for the people in the media, they need our prayers!

Padre Pio “Don’t worry, work and pray.”
 
The Catholic League web page has a section containing many great resources regarding Pope Pius XII.
[www.catholicleague.org](www.catholicleague.org)
 
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bones_IV:
Thanks malachi4u,

I appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut greatly. There was even this one time when someone who happened to be a seventh day adventist desired to kill Pius XII and tried to discredit the immaculate conception. He converted to catholicism afterwords and became a visionary.
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Bruno Cornacchiola
 
Here’s a whole website about Pope Pius XII

piusxiipope.info/

The sister mentioned has been on EWTN several times with tons of documentation and talking about the FACTS and TRUTH of what happened.

SV
 
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beng3000:
Pius XII is one great Pope. Anyone who could read Humani Generis at the right time is a genius!

He is a saint and I have no doubt about it. It’s just a matter of time until he’s canonized.

All those ignorant people who don’t know jack about Pius XII keep spouting some false accusation triggered by a theatric play to undermine the Supreme Pontiff.
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In full agreement but I don’t think his canonization will take place during this Pontificate. Too much politics has served as an obstruction to his beatification. This saddens me to no end.

Antonio :confused:
 
Regardless of what Pius XII may or may not have done, his works pale in comparison to those of Angelo Rancalli (John XXIII) when he was papal nuncio.

Let’s give credit where credit is due.
 
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hermit:
Regardless of what Pius XII may or may not have done, his works pale in comparison to those of Angelo Rancalli (John XXIII) when he was papal nuncio.

Let’s give credit where credit is due.
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Hermit, the major event in Pope Roncalli’s life which affects us to this day, is the opening of the Second Vatican Council. His pontificate lasted 6 years and he wrote Pacem in Terris etc., but to compare what he did with the volume of work Pacelli dealt with from 1939-1958 is simply not realistic. Add to that the fact that Pacelli dealt with the misery of World War II and the advent of the Communists who persecuted the Church all over Europe. To this day, the Vatican can’t finish the examination of the opus dei of Pacelli, while it already beatified Roncalli because there was much less there to look for in his life than what is required in examining Pacelli’s life.

Antonio 🙂
 
Bravo Antonio,
Well put, God bless your heart. I can’t understand hermit why you would say such a thing about Pius XII. You evidently don’t a very good job in researching your facts I can tell you that. And it also seems that you have problems with the faith.

Padre Pio “Don’t worry, work and pray.”
 
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bones_IV:
Bravo Antonio,
Well put, God bless your heart. I can’t understand hermit why you would say such a thing about Pius XII. You evidently don’t a very good job in researching your facts I can tell you that. And it also seems that you have problems with the faith.

Padre Pio “Don’t worry, work and pray.”
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Am I the one with problems with the faith and poor research or are you referring to Hermit?

Antonio 😃
 
Antonio B:
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Hermit, the major event in Pope Roncalli’s life which affects us to this day, is the opening of the Second Vatican Council. His pontificate lasted 6 years and he wrote Pacem in Terris etc., but to compare what he did with the volume of work Pacelli dealt with from 1939-1958 is simply not realistic. Add to that the fact that Pacelli dealt with the misery of World War II and the advent of the Communists who persecuted the Church all over Europe. To this day, the Vatican can’t finish the examination of the opus dei of Pacelli, while it already beatified Roncalli because there was much less there to look for in his life than what is required in examining Pacelli’s life.

Antonio 🙂
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Pope Pius XII governed the Church at a time when the Body of Christ was being severely tested to its limits. The rise of neo-pagan totalitarianism and Hitler, World War II, the Holocaust, The rise of atheistic Communism and the Cold War were not exactly good times for any one to be Pope. And we can rightfully say he did his job very well in spite of extraordinary odds.

Gerry 🙂
 
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