papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
of
Pius XII
Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia.
It may refer to:
People Popes
* Pope Pius (disambiguation)
* Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect
Given name
* Pius B ...
(Eugenio Pacelli) began on 2 March 1939 and continued to 9 October 1958, covering the period of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, during which millions of Jews and others were murdered by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Before becoming pope, Cardinal Pacelli served as a Vatican diplomat in Germany and as
Vatican Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae,
it, Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the ...
under
Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City from ...
. His role during the Nazi period has been closely scrutinised and criticised. His supporters argue that Pius employed diplomacy to aid the victims of the Nazis during the war and, through directing his Church to provide discreet aid to Jews and others, saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Pius maintained links to the German Resistance, and shared intelligence with the Allies. His strongest public condemnation of genocide was, however, considered inadequate by the Allied Powers, while the Nazis viewed him as an Allied sympathizer who had dishonoured his policy of Vatican neutrality.
Some post-war critics have accused Pius of either being overly cautious, or of "not doing enough", or even of "silence" in the face of the Holocaust. Supporters have held that he saved thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of Jews by ordering his Church to provide them with sanctuary and aid, and that he provided moral and intellectual leadership in opposition to the violent racism of Nazi ideology.
As Secretary of State, he had been a critic of Nazism and helped draft the 1937 ''
Mit brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi Germany, Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)." ...
'' anti-Nazi encyclical, but he ordered all copies destroyed upon the death of Pius XI, before the text was distributed. In his 1939 ''
Summi Pontificatus
''Summi Pontificatus'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII published on 20 October 1939. The encyclical is subtitled "on the unity of human society". It was the first encyclical of Pius XII and was seen as setting "a tone" for his papacy. It c ...
'' first
papal encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...
, Pius XII expressed dismay at the
1939 Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
(without ascribing blame); reiterated Catholic teaching in support of universal brotherhood; and endorsed resistance against those opposed to the ethical principles of the " Revelation on Sinai" and the
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...
. At Christmas 1942, once evidence of the industrial slaughter of the Jews had emerged, he voiced concern at the murder of "hundreds of thousands" of "faultless" people because of their "nationality or race". The degree of Pius's efforts to block Nazi deportations of Jews remains a matter of scholarly debate. Upon his death in 1958, Pius was praised emphatically by the
Israeli Foreign Minister
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ, translit. ''Misrad HaHutz''; ar, وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's ...
, and other world leaders. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
called him a "foe of tyranny" and a "friend and benefactor to those who were oppressed". His insistence on Vatican neutrality and avoidance of directly naming the Nazis as the evildoers of World War II became the foundation for contemporary and later criticisms from some quarters. Studies of the Vatican archives and international diplomatic correspondence continue.
Background
Two Popes served through the Nazi period:
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
(1922–1939) and
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
(1939–1958). The
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
strongly criticized Nazism through the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, with Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) being a particularly outspoken critic. In 1933, the Vatican signed a
Concordat
A concordat is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 st Ed ...
(''
Reichskonkordat
The ''Reichskonkordat'' ("Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later be ...
'') with Germany, hoping to protect the rights of Catholics under the Nazi government. The terms of the Treaty were not kept by Hitler. According to the ''Encyclopedia Britannica'': "From 1933 to 1936
ius XI
__NOTOC__
''Ius'' or ''Jus'' (Latin, plural ''iura'') in ancient Rome was a right to which a citizen (''civis'') was entitled by virtue of his citizenship (''civitas''). The ''iura'' were specified by laws, so ''ius'' sometimes meant law. As one ...
wrote several protests against the Third Reich, and his attitude toward fascist Italy changed dramatically after Nazi racial policies were introduced into Italy in 1938."
Pius XI offered three encyclicals against the rising tide of European totalitarianism: ''
Non abbiamo bisogno
''Non abbiamo bisogno'' (Italian for "We do not need") is a Roman Catholic encyclical published on 29 June 1931 by Pope Pius XI.
Context
The encyclical condemned Italian fascism's “pagan worship of the State” (statolatry) and “revolutio ...
'' (1931; "We Do Not Need to Acquaint You" – against Italian Fascism); ''
Mit brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi Germany, Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)." ...
'' (1937; "With Deep Anxiety" – against Nazism) and ''
Divini redemptoris
''Divini Redemptoris'' (Latin for the promise of a Divine Redeemer) is an anti-communist encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI. It was published on 19 March 1937. In this encyclical, the pope sets out to "expose once more in a brief synthesis the ...
'' (1937; "Divine Redeemer" – against atheist Communism). "Non abbiamo bisogno" directly challenged Italian fascism as a "pagan" movement which "snatches the young from the Church and from Jesus Christ, and which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence and irreverence". Pius XI also challenged the extremist nationalism of the ''
Action Française
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 f ...
'' movement and antisemitism in the United States.
With Europe on the brink of war, Pius XI died on 10 February 1939 and Pacelli was elected to succeed him as Pope Pius XII. The Nazi Government was the only government not to send a representative to his coronation. Pius lobbied world leaders hard to avoid war and then pursued a policy of cautious diplomacy following the outbreak of the war.
From around 1942, the Nazis had begun to implement their ''
final solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
'' – the industrial extermination of Europe's Jews.
Protests to Nazi Germany prior to pontificate
As Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli made some 55 protests against Nazi policies, including its "ideology of race". Pacelli also helped Pius XI draft the 1937 ''
Mit brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi Germany, Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)." ...
'' critique of Nazi ideology. Written partly in response to the
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of th ...
, the document did not refer to Hitler or the Nazis by name, but condemned racial theories and the mistreatment of people based on race. In 1938, Pacelli publicly restated the words of Pius XI on the incompatibility of Christianity and antisemitism: "It is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is inadmissible; spiritually we are all Semites."
1938
Hungarian Eucharistic Congress
Cardinal Pacelli (the later
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, between 25 and 29 May 1938, and, according to Holocaust scholar and historian
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer (born 1935) is an American historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th- and 20th-century European history and the Holocaust.
Phayer received his PhD from the University of Munich i ...
, described the Jews as people "whose lips curse
hrist
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse ''valkyrja'' "chooser of the fallen") is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's ...
and whose hearts reject him even today". Phayer asserts that the timing of the statement, during a period when Hungary was in the process of formulating new antisemitic laws, ran counter to a statement of Pope Pius XI of September 1937 urging Catholics to honour their spiritual father Abraham.
Historians
Ronald Rychlak
Ronald J. Rychlak is an American lawyer, jurist, author and political commentator. He is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and is holder of the Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government. He is kn ...
and William Doino Jr. have argued that Pacelli was not referring to Jews because ''Time Magazine'' did not mention this in its report of the conference. According to Rychlak and Doino, Pacelli, early in his talk, spoke about biblical history, recalled the Passion of Christ and referred to the masses that called for the Crucifixion who had been "deceived and excited by propaganda, lies, insults and imprecations at the foot of the Cross", but with no reference to Jews. Later in the speech, Pacelli referred to those who were persecuting the Church at that time by doing things like expelling religion and perverting Christianity, and since Jews were not doing this, but Nazi Germany was, the Pope "was clearly equating the Nazis, not Jews, to those who persecuted the Church at earlier times". They report that Pacelli then returned to the theme of Christ's sufferings that was being repeated in his day through, in their opinion, totalitarian regimes (not Jews) and exhorted his listeners, "Let us replace the cry of 'Crucify' made by Christ's enemies, with the 'Hosanna' of our fidelity and our love."
Gabriel Wilensky
Gabriel Wilensky (born April 23, 1964) is an American author, software developer and entrepreneur. He was born in Uruguay, where his Eastern-European grandparents had emigrated to before the Second World War. He is the author of the book '' Six M ...
, while accepting that Pacelli may indeed allude to communists and Nazis earlier in the speech, rejects Rychlak and Doino's interpretation that excludes Jews. Wilensky notes that when Pacelli speaks in a later passage of the call "Crucify him!" Pacelli is referring to the New Testament in which it is Jews who are described as calling out "Crucify him!" Wilensky further notes that Pacelli's comments were stereotypical of the way Jews were once portrayed by the Church as Christ-killers and deicides. (See also
La Civiltà Cattolica
''La Civiltà Cattolica'' (Italian for ''Catholic Civilization'') is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal' ...
and ''
Nostra aetate
(from Latin: "In our time") is the incipit of the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated o ...
''.)
The influential Vatican journal ''
La Civiltà Cattolica
''La Civiltà Cattolica'' (Italian for ''Catholic Civilization'') is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal' ...
'' continued to print attacks against Hungarian Jews during this period, asserting that Hungary could be saved from Jewish influence which was "disastrous for the religious, moral, and social life of the Hungarian people" only if the government forbids them entry to the country. Holocaust historian Paul O'Shea notes, "There is no evidence that he acelliobjected to the anti-Jewish rants of ''Civiltà Cattolica'', which, as Secretary of State to Pius XI, he at least tacitly approved. The Pope or his Secretary of State gave the final fiat for the editorial content of the journal. There is no way that Cardinal Pacelli could not have known of the Judeophobia written in ''Civiltà''."
1939
Nazis oppose election of Pacelli as Pope
The Nazi regime disapproved of Pacelli's election as Pope. Historian of the Holocaust
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...
wrote: "So outspoken were Pacelli’s criticisms that Hitler’s regime lobbied against him, trying to prevent his becoming the successor to Pius XI. When he did become Pope, as Pius XII, in March 1939, Nazi Germany was the only government not to send a representative to his coronation."
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
noted in his diary on 4 March 1939 that Hitler was considering whether to abrogate the Concordat with Rome in light of Pacelli's election as Pope, adding, "This will surely happen when Pacelli undertakes his first hostile act."
Efforts to avoid war
Pius XII lobbied world leaders to prevent the outbreak of World War II. With Poland overrun, but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, Pius continued to hope for a negotiated peace to prevent the spread of the conflict. The similarly minded US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
began to re-establish American diplomatic relations with the Vatican after a seventy-year hiatus and dispatched Myron C. Taylor as his personal representative. American correspondence spoke of "parallel endeavours for peace and the alleviation of suffering". Despite the early collapse of peace hopes, the Taylor mission continued at the Vatican.
Reaction to the racial laws
In 1939, the newly elected Pope Pius XII appointed several prominent Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican after they had been dismissed from Italian universities under Fascist leader
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's racial laws. Pius later engineered an agreement – formally approved on 23 June 1939 – with
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
to issue 3,000
visas
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
to "non-Aryan Catholics".
However, over the next eighteen months, Brazil's Conselho de Imigração e Colonização (CIC) continued to tighten the restrictions on visa issuance – including requiring a baptismal certificate dated before 1933, a substantial monetary transfer to the
Banco do Brasil
Banco do Brasil S.A. ( en, Bank of Brazil) is a Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. The oldest bank in Brazil, and among the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world, it was founded by John VI, King ...
, and approval by the Brazilian Propaganda Office in Berlin – culminating in the cancellation of the program fourteen months later, after fewer than 1,000 visas had been issued, amid suspicions of "improper conduct" (i.e. continuing to practice Judaism) among those who had received visas.
Encyclical letter ''Summi Pontificatus''
''Summi Pontificatus'' was the first
encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...
of
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
published on 20 October 1939. The encyclical is subtitled "On the Unity of Human Society". During the drafting of the letter, the Second World War commenced with the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Catholic Poland. Couched in diplomatic language, Pius endorses Catholic resistance, and states disapproval of the war, racism, the Nazi/Soviet
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
and the persecutions of the Church. Following themes addressed in ''
Non abbiamo bisogno
''Non abbiamo bisogno'' (Italian for "We do not need") is a Roman Catholic encyclical published on 29 June 1931 by Pope Pius XI.
Context
The encyclical condemned Italian fascism's “pagan worship of the State” (statolatry) and “revolutio ...
'' (1931), ''
Mit brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi Germany, Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)." ...
'' (1937) and ''
Divini redemptoris
''Divini Redemptoris'' (Latin for the promise of a Divine Redeemer) is an anti-communist encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI. It was published on 19 March 1937. In this encyclical, the pope sets out to "expose once more in a brief synthesis the ...
'' (1937), Pius wrote of a need to bring back to the Church those who were following "a false standard ... misled by error, passion, temptation and prejudice, hohave strayed away from faith in the true God". He wrote of "Christians unfortunately more in name than in fact" showing "cowardice" in the face of persecution by these creeds, and endorsed resistance:
Pius wrote of a time requiring "charity" for victims who had a "right" to compassion.
John Cornwell notes the "powerful words" on the theme of the "unity of the human race" and the use of a quotation from Saint Paul that in Christ there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision". Frank Coppa wrote "It is true that Pius XII's first encyclical of 20 October 1939 rejected the claims of absolute state authority propounded by the totalitarian powers, but his denunciation was general rather than specific and difficult to decipher."
The Western allies dropped leaflets over Germany containing a translation in German of the Pope's encyclical and broadcast its contents. In Berlin von Bergen declared that the Pope had ceased to be neutral whilst in Italy Mussolini allowed it to be printed. Guenter Lewy notes the Gestapo considered the contents to be sufficiently "innocuous and ambiguous" that they allowed it to be read from the pulpits. He further asserts that the Pope's pronunciations in the encyclical relating to his intention "to give testimony to the truth" without fear of opposition, along with similar sentiments expressed by the German episcopate, "remained an empty formula in the face of the Jewish tragedy". Saul Friedländer also notes that Pius said nothing about the persecution of Jews. Susan Zuccotti opined that Pius failed "dismally" to live up to promises made in the encyclical in the "light of his subsequent silence in the face of appalling horrors". To Zucotti, the letter cannot be depicted as a campaign against anti-Judaism but was still "made a valuable statement". Owen Chadwick notes that Germans, even allowing it to be read from many pulpits, stopped its printing and distribution and the Gestapo ordered inquiries into people who read or tried to distribute it. Chadwick concludes that ''Summi Pontificatus'' "in its way it was as strong an attack on Nazi Policies as ''Mit brennender Sorge'' of Pius XI".
Ambiguous message on racism
In ''Summi Pontificatus'', Pius XII reiterated Catholic commitment to human brotherhood, in a passage that some commentators have seen as an indirect condemnation of racism and anti-semitism:
Ronald Rychlak
Ronald J. Rychlak is an American lawyer, jurist, author and political commentator. He is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and is holder of the Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government. He is kn ...
wrote that "the equating of Gentiles and Jews would have to be seen as a clear rejection of Hitler's fundamental ideology".
Martin Rhonheimer
Martin Rhonheimer (born 1950 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a Swiss political philosophy professor and priest of the Catholic personal prelature Opus Dei. he is teaching professor at the Opus Dei-affiliated Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in ...
interpreted the text as lacking an "explicit" reference to racism, but containing "implicit" reference to it in the section on "The unity of the human race" which he thinks is possibly an echo of the never-issued encyclical against racism which would have dealt with antisemitism and the "Jewish question", topics not dealt with in ''Summi Pontificatus''. Rhonheimer considered that the encyclical did not condemn the "modern form" of social, political and economic antisemitism which was driven by traditional anti-Judaism and which he saw as shared by Catholics in various degrees. (See also
La Civiltà Cattolica
''La Civiltà Cattolica'' (Italian for ''Catholic Civilization'') is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal' ...
Tim Parks
Timothy Harold Parks (born 19 December 1954) is a British novelist, translator, author and professor of literature.
Career
He is the author of eighteen novels (notably ''Europa'', which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997). His first ...
has similarly observed that the text does not explicitly address racism, and
David Kertzer
David Israel Kertzer (born February 20, 1948) is an American anthropologist, historian, and academic, specializing in the political, demographic, and religious history of Italy. He is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, ...
notes that German newspapers interpreted the encyclical as supporting the German cause.
Invasion of Poland
In ''
Summi Pontificatus
''Summi Pontificatus'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII published on 20 October 1939. The encyclical is subtitled "on the unity of human society". It was the first encyclical of Pius XII and was seen as setting "a tone" for his papacy. It c ...
'', in the aftermath of the
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Pius XII expressed dismay at the outbreak of war – "the dread tempest of war is already raging despite all Our efforts to avert it" – and declared his sympathy for the Polish people and hope of the resurrection of their nation:
interprets the encyclical as condemning war but not condemning the invasion.
The Catholic Church in Poland became subject to brutal Nazi repression.
In May 1942, the Pope appointed a German Apostolic Administrator to lands in Nazi-occupied Poland (Wurtheland). According to Phayer (2008), this was seen as implicit recognition of the breakup of Poland and that this, combined with Pius's failure to explicitly censure the invasion, led to a sense of betrayal amongst the Poles.
In December 1942, the Polish President in exile wrote to Pius XII appealing that "the silence must be broken by the Apostolic See".
Hidden encyclical
Walter Bussmann has argued that Pacelli, as
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae,
it, Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the ...
, dissuaded
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
– who was nearing death at the time – from condemning ''
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
'' in November 1938, when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin. Likewise a draft, prepared by September 1938, for an encyclical ''
Humani generis unitas
''Humani generis unitas'' (Latin; English translation: On the Unity of the Human Race) was a draft for an encyclical planned by Pope Pius XI before his death on February 10, 1939. The draft text condemned antisemitism, racism and the persecution ...
'' ("On the Unity of the Human Race"), was, according to the two publishers of the draft text and other sources, not forwarded to the Vatican by the Jesuit General
Wlodimir Ledóchowski
Włodzimierz Halka Ledóchowski, S.J. (fr: Vladimir, de: Vlodimir; 7 October 1866 – 13 December 1942) was a Polish Catholic priest who served as the 26th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus from 11 February 1914 until his death in 1942. P ...
. On 28 January 1939, eleven days before the death of Pope Pius XI, a disappointed Gundlach informed the author La Farge: "It cannot continue like this. The text has not been forwarded to the Vatican."
He had talked to the American assistant to Father General, who promised to look into the matter in December 1938, but did not report back. It contained an open and clear condemnation of
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
, racism and
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. Some historians have argued that Pacelli learned about its existence only after the death of Pius XI and did not promulgate it as Pope. He did however use parts of it in his inaugural encyclical ''Summi Pontificatus'', which he titled "On the Unity of Human Society".
1940–1941
Pius assists German Resistance
The Holocaust was made possible by the German conquest of Europe. Pius XII attempted to stop this conquest. With Poland overrun but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, the
German Resistance German resistance can refer to:
* Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government
* German resistance to Nazism
* Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...
sought the Pope's assistance in preparations for a coup to oust Hitler. Colonel
Hans Oster
Hans Paul Oster (9 August 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a general in the ''Wehrmacht'' and a leading figure of the anti-Nazi German resistance from 1938 to 1943. As deputy head of the counter-espionage bureau in the ''Abwehr'' (German military inte ...
of the Abwehr sent Munich lawyer and devout Catholic Josef Müller on a clandestine trip to Rome to seek papal assistance in the developing plot. Pius, communicating with Britain's Francis d'Arcy Osborne, channelled communications back and forth in secrecy. The Pope warned the Belgian and Dutch Governments that Germany was planning an invasion for 10 May 1940. According to
Peter Hebblethwaite
Peter Hebblethwaite (30 September 1930 – 18 December 1994) was a British Jesuit priest and writer. After leaving the priesthood, he became an editor, journalist ('Vaticanologist') and biographer.
Life
Hebblethwaite was born in Ashton-under ...
, the Germans "regarded the Pope's behaviour as equivalent to espionage". Following the Fall of France, peace overtures continued to emanate from the Vatican, to which Churchill responded resolutely that Germany would first have to free its conquered territories. The negotiations ultimately proved fruitless. Hitler's swift victories over France and the Low Countries deflated the will of the German military to resist Hitler. The Resistance and Pius continued to communicate.
1940 request on behalf of Jews
In 1940 Pius asked members of the clergy, on Vatican letterhead, to do whatever they could on behalf of interned Jews.
1942
1942 Christmas Address to College of Cardinals
In December 1942, in his Christmas discourse to members of the Roman curia, Pius XII remarks on how both the Church and its ministers experience the "sign of contradiction" as they try to defend truth and virtue for the well-being of souls. The Pope questions whether such efforts of love and sacrifice could nevertheless furnish reasons for lamentation, for pusillanimity, or for the weakening of apostolic courage and zeal. He responds in the negative:
Historian Guido Knopp describes these comments of Pius as being "incomprehensible" at a time when "Jerusalem was being murdered by the million".
The Netherlands
On 26 July 1942, Dutch bishops, including Archbishop
Johannes de Jong
Johannes de Jong (September 10, 1885 – September 8, 1955) was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1936 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.
Early ...
, issued a decree that openly condemned Nazi deportations of Dutch workers and Jews. The Nazi response was the rounding up of over 40,000 Catholics of Jewish descent who were never heard from again. After this event, Sister
Pascalina Lehnert
Madre (Mother) Pascalina Lehnert (25 August 1894 – 13 November 1983), born Josefina Lehnert, was a German Roman Catholic sister who served as Pope Pius XII's housekeeper and secretary from his period as Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria in 1917 unt ...
said the Pope was convinced that while the Bishop's protest cost forty thousand lives, a protest by him would mean at least two hundred thousand innocent lives that he was not ready to sacrifice. While politicians, generals, and dictators might gamble with the lives of people, a Pope could not. Pius XII often repeated what he told the Italian ambassador to the Vatican in 1940, "We would like to utter words of fire against such actions
erman atrocities Erman Rašiti may refer to:
Given name
* Erman Bulucu (born 1989), Turkish footballer
* Erman Eltemur (born 1993), Turkish karateka
* Erman Güraçar (born 1974), Turkish footballer
* Erman Kılıç (born 1983), Turkish footballer
* Erman Kunter (b ...
and the only thing restraining us from speaking is the fear of making the plight of the victims even worse."
1942 letters
On 18 September 1942, Pius received a letter from
Monsignor
Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
Montini (future
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
), saying, "the massacres of the Jews reach frightening proportions and forms". Later that month,
Myron Taylor
Myron Charles Taylor (January 18, 1874 – May 5, 1959) was an American industrialist, and later a diplomat involved in many of the most important geopolitical events during and after World War II.
In addition he was a philanthropist, giving ...
, U.S. representative to the Vatican, warned Pius that the Vatican's "moral prestige" was being injured by silence on European atrocities. According to Phayer, this warning was echoed simultaneously by representatives from Great Britain, Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, and Poland.
Taylor passed a US Government memorandum to Pius on 26 September 1942, outlining intelligence received from the Jewish Agency for Palestine which said that Jews from across the
Nazi Empire
The Greater Germanic Reich (german: Großgermanisches Reich), fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (german: Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation), was the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany ...
were being systematically "butchered". Taylor asked if the Vatican might have any information which might tend to "confirm the reports", and if so, what the Pope might be able to do to influence public opinion against the "barbarities". Cardinal Maglione handed
Harold H. Tittmann, Jr.
Harold Hilgard Tittmann, Jr. (January 8, 1893 - December 29, 1980) was an American diplomat who became an expert on Fascism, Fascist Italy and represented Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt in the Vatican City, Vatican during World War II. ...
a response to the letter on 10 October. The note thanked Washington for passing on the intelligence, and confirmed that reports of severe measures against the Jews had reached the Vatican from other sources, though it had not been possible to "verify their accuracy". Nevertheless, "every opportunity is being taken by the Holy See, however, to mitigate the suffering of these unfortunate people".
In December 1942, when Tittmann asked Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione if Pius would issue a proclamation similar to the Allied declaration "German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race", Maglione replied that the Vatican was "unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities".
Christmas 1942 message
In his Christmas address of 1942, Pius XII appealed to the world to take a long, hard look at "the ruins of a social order which has given such tragic proof of its ineptitude".
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust.
He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
's Reich Central Security Office analyzed Pius' Christmas message and concluded:
On the contrary, according to
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 19 ...
, Mussolini commented on the pope's message with sarcasm: "This is a speech of platitudes which might better be made by the parish priest of Predappio."
1943
''Ad maiora mala vitanda''
On 30 April 1943, Pius wrote to Bishop Von Preysing of Berlin to say: "We give to the pastors who are working on the local level the duty of determining if and to what degree the danger of reprisals and of various forms of oppression occasioned by episcopal declarations ... ''ad maiora mala vitanda'' (to avoid worse) ... seem to advise caution. Here lies one of the reasons, why We impose self-restraint on Ourselves in our speeches; the experience, that we made in 1942 with papal addresses, which We authorized to be forwarded to the Believers, justifies our opinion, as far as We see. ... The Holy See has done whatever was in its power, with charitable, financial and moral assistance. To say nothing of the substantial sums which we spent in American money for the fares of immigrants."
News from Father Scavizzi
In the spring of 1943 Pirro Scavizzi, an Italian priest, told Pius that the murder of the Jews was "now total", even the elderly and infants were being destroyed "without mercy". Pius is reported to have broken down and wept uncontrollably.
Pius said to Father Scavizzi, "I have often considered excommunication, to castigate in the eyes of the entire world the fearful crime of genocide. But after much praying and many tears, I realize that my condemnation would not only fail to help the Jews, it might even worsen their situation ... No doubt a protest would gain me the praise and respect of the civilized world, but it would have submitted the poor Jews to an even worse persecution."
Attempted kidnapping
In 1943, plans were allegedly formulated by Hitler to occupy the Vatican and arrest Pius and the cardinals of the Roman Curia. According to Rev. Peter Gumpel, a historian in charge of Pius' canonization process, the Pope told leading bishops that should he be arrested by Nazi forces, his resignation would take immediate effect and that the Holy See would move to another country, specifically
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, where the
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...
would elect a new pope. Some historians argue that the reason Hitler wanted to capture the Pope was because he was concerned Pius would continue speaking against the way the Nazis treated the Jews. However, the plan was never brought to fruition, and was reportedly foiled by Nazi general
Karl Wolff
Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff (13 May 1900 – 17 July 1984) was a German SS functionary who served as Chief of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler) and an SS liaison to Adolf Hitler during World War II. He ended the war as the Supre ...
. Both British historian Owen Chadwick and Jesuit ADSS editor Robert A. Graham dismissed the existence of a plot as a creation of the
Political Warfare Executive
During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of countries occupied ...
. However, subsequent to those accounts, Dan Kurzman in 2007 published a work which he maintains establishes the plot as fact.
German occupation of Rome
According to Joseph Lichten, the Vatican was called upon by the Jewish Community Council in Rome to help fill a Nazi demand of one hundred
Troy Pound
Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and the ...
s (37.3 kilograms) of gold. The Council had been able to muster seventy pounds (26.1 kg.), but unless the entire amount was produced within thirty-six hours had been told three hundred Jews would be imprisoned. The Pope offered an interest-free loan without a time limit, according to Chief Rabbi Zolli of Rome. However, the Roman Jewish community managed to meet the requirement, and delivered the gold to the occupiers on September 28. Despite the payment of the ransom, 1,015 Jews were deported on 16 October 1943 in the Roman razzia, and 839 of them were murdered in concentration and death camps. Many others were also killed on 24 March 1944, at the
Fosse Ardeatine
The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre ( it, Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by Nazi Germany, German occupation troops during the Wor ...
.
Nuncio Orsenigo's appeal to Hitler
In November 1943, nuncio
Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo (December 13, 1873 – April 1, 1946) was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany from 1930 to 1945, during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II. Along with the German ambassador to the Vatican, Diego von Bergen and later Ernst v ...
spoke to the leader of the Third Reich on behalf of Pope Pius XII. In his conversation with Hitler, he talked about the status of persecuted peoples in the Third Reich, apparently referring to Jews. This conversation with the Nazi leader led to no success. Over large parts of the conversation Hitler simply ignored Orsenigo; he went to the window and did not listen.
1944–1945
Actions of Angelo Roncalli
Part of the historical debate surrounding Pius XII has concerned the role of nuncio Angelo Roncalli, the future John XXIII, in rescuing Jews during the War. While some historians have argued that Roncalli was acting as a nuncio on behalf of the Pope, others have said that he was acting on his own when he intervened on behalf of Jews, as it would appear by the rather independent position he took during the
Jewish orphans controversy
The Jewish orphans controversy was a dispute about the custody of thousands of Jewish children after the end of World War II. Some Jewish children had been baptized while in the care of Catholic institutions or individual Catholics during the war ...
. According to Michael Phayer, Roncalli always said that he had been acting on the orders of Pius XII in his actions to rescue Jews.
According to the
Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) is a non-governmental organization which researches Holocaust rescuers and advocates for their recognition. The organization developed educational programs for school to promote peace and civil ...
, Roncalli forwarded a request for the Vatican to inquire whether other neutral countries could grant asylum to Jews, to inform the German government that the Palestine Jewish Agency had 5,000 immigration certificates available and to ask Vatican Radio to broadcast that helping Jews was an act of mercy approved by the Church. In 1944, Roncalli used diplomatic couriers, papal representatives and the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion to transport and issue baptismal certificates, immigration certificates and visas – many of them forged – to Hungarian Jews. A dispatch dated Aug. 16, 1944 from Roncalli to the papal nuncio to Hungary illustrates the intensity of "Operation Baptism".
Roman ''razzia''
On 28 October 1943,
Ernst von Weizsäcker
Ernst Heinrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (25 May 1882 – 4 August 1951) was a German naval officer, diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1943, and as its Ambassador t ...
, the German Ambassador to the Vatican, telegrammed Berlin that "the Pope has not yet let himself be persuaded to make an official condemnation of the deportation of the Roman Jews. ... Since it is currently thought that the Germans will take no further steps against the Jews in Rome, the question of our relations with the Vatican may be considered closed."
After receiving a sentence of death,
Bishop Hudal, to the commander of the German forces in Rome, General Stahel. The Church was vigorously protesting the arrest of Jews of
Italian citizenship
Italian nationality law is the law of Italy governing the acquisition, transmission and loss of Italian citizenship. Like many continental European countries it is largely based on '' jus sanguinis''. It also incorporates many elements that are ...
, requesting that such actions be interrupted immediately throughout Rome and its surroundings. To the contrary, the Pope would denounce it publicly ... The Curia was especially angry because these incidents were taking place practically under Vatican windows. But, precisely at that time, without paying any attention to the Church's position, the Italian Fascist Government passed a law ordering the deportation of all Italian Jews to concentration camps. ... The objections given and the excessive delay in the steps necessary to complete the implementation of the operation resulted in a great part of
Italian Jews
Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in I ...
being able to hide and escape capture."
Historian Susan Zuccotti, author of '' Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy'', wrote "If the Pope remained silent, however, he allowed nuns, monks, priests, and prelates in his diocese, including several at the Vicaraite, to involve themselves in Jewish rescue. Many Church institutions, including Vatican properties sheltered Jews along with other types of fugitives for long periods." James Kurth in his essay ''The Defamation of Pope Pius XII'', writes that she
usan Zuccotti
file:Usan Ullengdo.gif, 280px, "Samguk Sagi" Book 04. Silla's Records. In 512, Usan-guk(于山國)was Ulleungdo(鬱陵島)
Usan-guk, or the State of Usan, occupied Ulleung-do and the adjacent islands during the Three Kingdoms of Korea, ...
"is intent on arguing that Pius XII even allowed the deportation of the Jews of Rome from 'under his very windows'. To do so, she has to be silent about the much greater number of Roman Jews that the Church, with the approval of the Pope, hid within a wide network of monasteries, convents, schools, and hospitals, 'under the very windows' of the Gestapo and the collaborating Fascist police." Kurth concludes his article "It is a demonstration of the depravity and hypocrisy of these liberals and radicals that they seek to achieve the silence and passivity of the Pope and the Church during this current and ongoing holocaust bortion by falsely accusing them of committing the crimes of silence and passivity during the Holocaust of sixty years ago."
In August 2006, extracts from the 60-year-old diary of a nun of the Convent of
Santi Quattro Coronati
Santi Quattro Coronati is an ancient basilica in Rome, Italy. The church dates back to the fourth or fifth century, and is devoted to four anonymous saints and martyrs. The complex of the basilica with its two courtyards, the fortified Cardinal P ...
were published in the Italian press, stating that Pope Pius XII ordered Rome's convents and monasteries to hide Jews during the Second World War.
Conversions of Jews to Catholicism
The
conversion of Jews to Catholicism during the Holocaust The conversion of Jews to Catholicism during the Holocaust is one of the most controversial aspects of the record of Pope Pius XII during The Holocaust.
According to John Morley, who wrote about Vatican diplomacy during the Holocaust, "one of the ...
is one of the most controversial aspects of the record of
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
during that period. According to Roth and Ritner, "this is a key point because, in debates about Pius XII, his defenders regularly point to denunciations of racism and defense of Jewish converts as evidence of opposition to antisemitism of all sorts". The Holocaust is one of the most acute examples of the "recurrent and acutely painful issue in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue", namely "Christian efforts to convert Jews".
Meeting with Churchill
In August 1944, following the Liberation of Rome Pius met British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, who was visiting the city. At their meeting, the Pope acknowledged the justice of punishing war criminals, but expressed a hope that the people of Italy would not be punished, but, with the war continuing, he hoped that they would be made "full allies".
Holocaust by country
Austria
In 1941, Cardinal
Theodor Innitzer
Theodor Innitzer (25 December 1875 – 9 October 1955) was Archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal of the Catholic Church.
Early life
Innitzer was born in Neugeschrei (Nové Zvolání), part of the town Weipert (Vejprty) in Bohemia, at that time Au ...
of
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
informed Pius of Jewish deportations in Vienna.
Croatia
Archbishop Stepinac
Aloysius Viktor Cardinal Stepinac ( hr, Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a senior-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his de ...
called a
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
of Croatian bishops in November 1941. The synod appealed to Croatian leader
Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, l ...
to treat Jews "as humanely as possible, considering that there were German troops in the country". The Vatican replied with praise to Marcone with praise for what the synod had done for "citizens of Jewish origin", although Israeli historian Menachem Shelah demonstrates that the synod concerned itself only with converted Jews. Pius XII personally praised the synod for "courage and decisiveness".
France
Later in 1941, when asked by French Marshal
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...
if the Vatican objected to anti-Jewish laws, Pius responded that the Church condemned antisemitism, but would not comment on specific rules. Similarly, when
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...
's regime adopted the "Jewish statutes", the
Vichy
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
ambassador to the Vatican,
Léon Bérard
Léon Bérard (6 January 1876, Sauveterre-de-Béarn – 24 February 1960 in Saint-Étienne) was a French politician and lawyer.
Bérard was Minister of Public Instruction in 1919 and from 1921 to 1924, and Minister of Justice from 1931 to 1932 ...
(a French politician), was told that the legislation did not conflict with Catholic teachings.
Valerio Valeri
Valerio Valeri (7 November 1883 – 22 July 1963) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious in the Roman Curia from 1953 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate ...
, the
nuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international or ...
to France was "embarrassed" when he learned of this publicly from Pétain and personally checked the information with Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione who confirmed the Vatican's position.
Yet in June 1942 Pius personally protested against the mass deportations of Jews from France, ordering the papal nuncio to protest to Marshal Pétain against "the inhuman arrests and deportations of Jews". In October 1941 Harold Tittman, a U.S. delegate to the Vatican, asked the pope to condemn the atrocities against Jews; Pius replied that the Vatican wished to remain "neutral", reiterating the neutrality policy which Pius invoked as early as September 1940.
Hungary
Before the Holocaust began, an International Eucharistic Conference took place in Budapest in Hungary during 1938. Cardinal Pacelli addressed the congress and described the Jews as people "whose lips curse
hrist
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse ''valkyrja'' "chooser of the fallen") is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's ...
and whose hearts reject him even today".
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer (born 1935) is an American historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th- and 20th-century European history and the Holocaust.
Phayer received his PhD from the University of Munich i ...
asserts that the timing of the statement, during a period when Hungary was in the process of formulating new antisemitic laws, ran counter to Pope Pius XI's September statement urging Catholics to honour their spiritual father Abraham.
In March 1944, through the
papal nuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Angelo Rotta
Angelo Rotta (9 August 1872 – 1 February 1965) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. As the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest at the end of World War II, he was involved in the rescue of the Jews of Budapest from the Nazi Holocaust. He is ...
, the pope urged the Hungarian government to moderate its treatment of the Jews. The pope also ordered Rotta and other papal legates to hide and shelter Jews. These protests, along with others from the King of Sweden, the International Red Cross, the United States, and Britain led to the cessation of deportations on 8 July 1944. Also in 1944, Pius appealed to 13 Latin American governments to accept "emergency passports", although it also took the intervention of the U.S. State Department for those countries to honor the documents.
Lithuania
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae,
it, Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the ...
Luigi Maglione received a request from
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...
of
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog ( he, יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959), also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasted from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his deat ...
in the Spring of 1939 to intercede on behalf of
Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas ...
about to be deported to Germany. Pius called
Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
on 11 March, repeatedly protesting against the treatment of Jews. In his 1940 encyclical ''Summi Pontificatus'', Pius rejected antisemitism, stating that in the Catholic Church there is "neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision". In 1940 Pius asked members of the clergy, on Vatican letterhead, to do whatever they could on behalf of interned Jews.
The Netherlands
After Germany invaded the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
during 1940, Pius XII sent expressions of sympathy to the Queen of the Netherlands, the King of Belgium, and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. When Mussolini learned of the warnings and the telegrams of sympathy, he took them as a personal affront and had his ambassador to the Vatican file an official protest, charging that Pius XII had taken sides against Italy's ally Germany. Mussolini's foreign minister claimed that Pius XII was "ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp, rather than do anything against his conscience".
When Dutch bishops protested against the wartime deportation of Jews in 1942, the Nazis responded with harsher measures rounding up 92 converts including
Edith Stein
Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce ; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a ...
who were then deported and murdered. "The brutality of the retaliation made an enormous impression on Pius XII."
Slovakia
In September 1941 Pius objected to a Slovakian Jewish Code, which, unlike the earlier Vichy codes, prohibited intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews.
In 1942, the Slovakian
charge d'affaires
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqua ...
told Pius that
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
n Jews were being sent to concentration camps. On 11 March 1942, several days before the first transport was due to leave, the chargé d'affaires in
Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
reported to the Vatican: "I have been assured that this atrocious plan is the handwork of ... Prime Minister ( Tuka), who confirmed the plan ... he dared to tell me – he who makes such a show of his Catholicism – that he saw nothing inhuman or un-Christian in it ... the deportation of 80,000 persons to Poland, is equivalent to condemning a great number of them to certain death." The Vatican protested to the Slovak government that it "deplore these ... measures which gravely hurt the natural human rights of persons, merely because of their race".
On 7 April 1943, Monsignor
Domenico Tardini
Domenico Tardini (29 February 1888 – 30 July 1961) was a longtime aide to Pope Pius XII in the Secretariat of State. Pope John XXIII named him Cardinal Secretary of State and, in this position the most prominent member of the Roman Curia in ...
, one of Pius's closest advisors, told Pius that it would be politically advantageous after the war to take steps to help Slovakian Jews.
Alleged silence
Historian Susan Zuccotti argued that "Pius XII, the head of the Roman Catholic Church during the Second World War, did not speak out publicly against the destruction of the Jews. This fact is rarely contested, nor can it be. Evidence of a public protest, if it existed, would be easy to produce. It does not exist." Ecclesiastical historian William Doino (author of ''The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII'') contests Zuccotti's assertion, and has said that Pius XII was "emphatically not 'silent', and did in fact condemn the Nazis' horrific crimes–through Vatican Radio, his first encyclical, ''Summi Pontificatus'', his major addresses (especially his Christmas allocutions), and the
L’Osservatore Romano
''L'Osservatore Romano'' (, 'The Roman Observer') is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not a ...
" and he "intervened, time and time again, for persecuted Jews, particularly during the German occupation of Rome, and was cited and hailed by the Catholic rescuers themselves as their leader and director". Indeed, Pius XII said in the Christmas address that mankind owed a vow "to the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or slow extermination."
In ''A History of Christianity'',
Michael Burleigh
Michael Burleigh (born 3 April 1955) is an English author and historian whose primary focus is on Nazi Germany and related subjects. He has also been active in bringing history to television.
Early life
Michael Burleigh was born on 3 April 1955. ...
writes:
According to Giovanni Maria Vian of the Vatican Jesuit journal ''
La Civiltà Cattolica
''La Civiltà Cattolica'' (Italian for ''Catholic Civilization'') is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal' ...
'' the roots of Pius's alleged "silence", what he terms "a black legend", begins in early 1939 with the complaint of the French Catholic intellectual
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier (; ; 1 April 1905 – 22 March 1950) was a French philosopher, theologian, teacher and essayist.
Biography
Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French personalist movement, and founder and director of '' Esprit'', the magazine ...
who questioned the failure of the Pope to censure the Italian aggression of Italy towards Albania and wrote off "the scandal of this silence". He further notes that in 1951 another French Catholic intellectual,
François Mauriac
François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Priz ...
, wrote in the introduction to a book by "the Jew Poliakov" that "we never had the comfort of hearing the successor of Galilee, Simon Peter, .e Pius XIIuse clear and precise words, rather than diplomatic allusions, to condemn the countless crucifixions of the 'brothers of the Lord' .e. Jewish people.
The British representative to the Vatican wrote the following in 1942: "A policy of silence in regard to such offences against the conscience of the world must necessarily involve a renunciation of moral leadership and a consequent atrophy of the influence of the Vatican". Pius himself noted on 3 August 1946 "We condemned on various occasions in the past the persecution that a fanatical anti-Semitism inflicted on the Hebrew people."
Garry Wills
Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...
comments that "this is a deliberate falsehood. He never publicly mentioned the Holocaust." Michael Phayer notes that with the exception of the "very guarded terms" used in the 1942 Christmas message, Pope Pius did not speak out publicly about the Holocaust.Paul Johnson wrote "The Pope gave no guidance. Pius XII advised all Catholic everywhere to fight with valour and charity" and "What made Pius keep silent, apart from natural timidity and fear for the safety of the Vatican itself, was undoubtedly his belief that a total breach between Rome and Hitler would lead to a separatist German Catholic Church."
Ronald Rychlak notes that Pius was recorded as saying "No doubt a protest would have gained me praise and respect of the civilized world, but it would have submitted the poor Jew to an even worse fate." Guenter Lewy notes that some writers have suggested that a public protest by the Pope would only have made things worse for the Jews but comments "Since the condition of the Jews could hardly have become worse, and might have changed for the better, as a result of a papal denunciation, one could ask why the Church did not risk the well being and safety of the Catholics and of the Vatican." Michael Phayer notes Pius XII making similar excuses in 1940 but comments that "This justification cannot be taken seriously." It is worth pointing out though, that while European Jews were being exterminated, the Nazis never systematically killed ''
Mischlinge
(; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed " Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denot ...
'', or people of partial Jewish descent. Frank Coppa wrote: "During World War II as well, Papa Pacelli's diplomatic focus often restricted his moral mission, refusing to openly condemn Nazism's evil actions including its genocide when it appeared it might triumph, but denouncing it as satanic when it was defeated."
Martin Rhonheimer comments "Well-intentioned Catholic apologists continue to produce reports of Church condemnations of Nazism and racism. But these do not really answer the Church's critics. The real problem is not the Church's relationship to National Socialism and racism, but the Church's relationship to the Jews. Here we need what the Church today urges: a 'purification of memory and conscience.' The Catholic Church's undeniable hostility to National Socialism and racism cannot be used to justify its silence about the persecution of the Jews. It is one thing to explain this silence historically and make it understandable. It is quite another to use such explanations for apologetic purposes."
Cardinal Tisserant
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, th ...
, a senior member of the Roman Curia wrote to Cardinal Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris, as Nazi forces were overrunning France in June 1940. Tisserant expressed his concern at the racism of the Nazis, the systematic destruction of their victims and the moral reserve of Pope Pius XII: "I'm afraid that history may be obliged in time to come to blame the Holy See for a policy accommodated to its own advantage and little more. And that is extremely sad – above all when one has lived under Pius XI."
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
sent Myron C. Taylor as his special representative to the Vatican in September 1941. His assistant, Harold Tittman, repeatedly pointed out to Pius the dangers to his moral leadership by his failure to speak out against the violations of the natural law carried out by the Nazis. Pius XII responded that he could not name the Nazis without at the same time mentioning the Bolsheviks.
Pius XII also never publicly condemned the Nazi massacre of 1.8–1.9 million mainly Catholic Polish gentiles (including 2,935 members of the Catholic Clergy), nor did he ever publicly condemn the Soviet Union for the deaths of over 100,000 mainly Catholic Polish gentile citizens including an untold number of clergy.
In an interview Father Peter Gumpel stated that Robert Kempner's (former U.S. Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor) foreword to Jeno Levai's 1968 book "Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy" asserts that Pope Pius did indeed complain through diplomatic channels about the situation of Hungarian Jews but that any public protestation would have been of no use.
Praise from Jewish leaders
Post-war praise by Jewish leaders
Pinchas Lapide
Pinchas Lapide (28 November 1922 – 23 October 1997) was a Jewish theologian and Israeli historian. He was an Israeli diplomat from 1951 to 1969, among other position acting as Israeli Consul to Milan, and was instrumental in gaining recognit ...
, a Jewish theologian and Israeli diplomat to Milan in the 1960s, wrote in ''
Three Popes and the Jews
''Three Popes and the Jews'' is a 1967 book by Pinchas Lapide, a former Israeli Consul to Milan, who at the time of publication was a deputy editor in the Israeli Prime Minister's press office. The "three popes" are Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), Pop ...
'' that Catholics were "instrumental in saving at least 700,000 but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands". Some historians have questioned this oft-cited number, which Lapide reached by "deducting all reasonable claims of rescue" by non-Catholics from the number of Jews he claims succeeded in escaping to the free world from Nazi-controlled areas during the Holocaust.
According to Rabbi David Dalin, in the aftermath of the war, some of the Jewish leaders who hailed Pius XII a righteous gentile for his work in saving thousands of Jews included the scientist
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, the Israeli Prime Ministers
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and ''kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1 ...
and
Moshe Sharett
Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: ) 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...
, and the Chief Rabbi
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog ( he, יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959), also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasted from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his deat ...
Israel Zolli
Eugenio Maria Zolli (27 September 1881 ‒ 2 March 1956), born Israel Anton Zoller, was an Austrian by birth, and an Italian doctorate professor of philosophy and author. Until his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism in February 1945, Zolli w ...
, took refuge in the Vatican following the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1943. Upon the arrival of the Allied Forces in Rome, on June 4, 1944, Israel Zolli resumed the post of Grand Rabbi and in the following July he celebrated a solemn ceremony in the Synagogue, which was broadcast by radio, to publicly express the gratitude of the Jewish community to Pius XII, for the help given to them during the Nazi persecution. Furthermore, on 25 July 1944 he went to the Vatican for an audience to officially thank the pope for what he, personally or through Catholics, had done in favor of the Jews, hosting them or hiding them in convents and monasteries, to save them from the racist hatred of the SS. Nazis; thus decreasing the already immense number of victims. After the war he converted to Catholicism and took the name "Eugenio" in honour of Pope Pius XII.
On 21 September 1945, the general secretary of the World Jewish Council, Dr. Leon Kubowitzky, presented an amount of money to the pope, "in recognition of the work of the Holy See in rescuing Jews from Fascist and Nazi persecutions". After the war, in the autumn of 1945, Harry Greenstein from Baltimore, a close friend of Chief Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem, told Pius how grateful Jews were for all he had done for them. The pope replied, "My only regret is not to have been able to save a greater number of Jews."
Catholic scholar
Kevin Madigan Kevin J. Madigan is a historian of Christianity who has taught at Harvard University since 2000. A member of the Faculty of Divinity, he has also served on Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion, the Medieval Studies Committee, and the Cente ...
interprets such praise from prominent Jewish leaders, including
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and ''kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1 ...
, as less than sincere; an attempt to secure Vatican recognition of the
State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
Historiography
Early accounts
Early literature on the war time leadership of Pius XII was positive, including Halecki and Murray's ''Pius XII: Eugenio Pacelli, Pope of Peace'' (1954) and Nazareno Padellaro's ''Portrait of Pius XII'' (first published in Italian in 1949). Later, more critical accounts were written.
Pius XII died in October 1958. In 1959 the German bishops issued a series of statements regarding the Holocaust which acknowledged German guilt, in particular that of Catholics and their bishops. Michael Phayer considered it no accident that they waited until Pius's death before speaking out and that all those who had not kept silent were post-war appointees. During
Encyclopedia Britannica
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
. John Cornwell, himself a critic of Pius, described the play as "historical fiction based on scant documentation" and "is so wide of the mark as to be ludicrous".
Saul Friedländer
Saul Friedländer (; born October 11, 1932) is a Czech-Jewish-born historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
Biography
Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He was raised in France and lived thro ...
, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, published his book ''Pius XII and the Third Reich'' amidst the controversy around ''The Deputy'', in 1964. It relied heavily on primary sources and concentrated on diplomatic correspondence between the Holy See and Germany. Friedländer hoped that the Vatican would open up its own archives and in 1964 Pope Paul VI commissioned a group of Jesuit scholars to edit and publish the Vatican's records. These were published in eleven volumes between 1965 and 1981.
Carlo Falconi published in 1965 "The Silence of the Pope" and followed this with "The Popes of the Twentieth Century" in 1967 in which he criticised Pius XII for "failing to speak out"; "he also was guilty of inadmissible silence about the millions of civilian victims of Nazism – Jews, Poles, Serbs, Russians, gypsies, and others". Falconi was the first to research and publicise the atrocities committed by Croatian Ustashe against Jews and Serbs. Joseph Bottum considers these early attacks, by Lewy, Friedländer, and Falconi, as "more serious and scholarly" and "by today's standards, quite moderate and thoughtful".
''The Deputy''
In 1963,
Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth (; 1 April 1931 – 13 May 2020) was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama ''The Deputy'', which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial ...
's controversial drama '' Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel'' (''The Deputy, a Christian tragedy'', released in English in 1964) portrayed Pope Pius XII as a hypocrite who remained silent about the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. Books such as Dr. Joseph Lichten's ''A Question of Judgment'' (1963), written in response to ''The Deputy'', defended Pius XII's actions during the war. Lichten labelled any criticism of the pope's actions during World War II as "a stupefying paradox" and said, "no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation". Critical scholarly works like
Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy (born 22 August 1923) is a German-born American author and political scientist who is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His works span several topics, but he is most often associat ...
's ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany'' (1964) also followed the publication of ''The Deputy''. Lewy's conclusion was that "the Pope and his advisers—influenced by the long tradition of moderate anti-Semitism so widely accepted in Vatican circles—did not view the plight of the Jews with a real sense of urgency and moral outrage. For this assertion no documentation is possible, but it is a conclusion difficult to avoid." Carlo Falconi (1967) described Hochhuth's depiction as crude and inaccurate, but he does not accept the explanations put forward by apologists of Pius regarding his alleged silence. In particular he rejects the defence of not making things worse by public denunciation since no fate could have been worse than what the Jews were undergoing and that on the one occasion when bishops did speak out against the euthanasia of disabled people the Nazis backed down. He also rejected the defence that the Pope did not know of what was happening since in his opinion this is directly contradicted by instances in which Pius did make diplomatic interventions. In 2002 the play was adapted into the film ''
Amen.
''Amen.'' is a 2002 historical war drama film directed and co-written by Costa-Gavras. Based on the play ''The Deputy'' by Rolf Hochhuth, the film examines the political and diplomatic relationship between the Vatican and Nazi Germany during Wo ...
''
An article on Jesuit Vatican journal ''
La Civiltà Cattolica
''La Civiltà Cattolica'' (Italian for ''Catholic Civilization'') is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal' ...
'' in March 2009 indicated that the accusations that Hochhuth's play made widely known originated not among Jews but in the Communist bloc. It was Moscow Radio, on 2 June 1945, that first direct against Pius XII the accusation of refusing to speak out against the exterminations in Nazi concentration camps. It was also the first to call him "Hitler's Pope". The same journal during the pontificate of Pius was still accusing the Jews of being "Christ killers" and of indulging in ritual murder as late as 1942.
Defector and former
Securitate
The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...
General
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa (; 28 October 1928 – 14 February 2021) was a Romanian two-star general in the Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania, who defected to the United States in July 1978 following President Jimmy Carter' ...
has stated that the play of Hochhuth and numerous publications attacking Pius XII as allegedly having been a Nazi sympathizer were fabrications from the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
and
Eastern bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
secret services leading a campaign to discredit the
moral authority Moral authority is authority premised on principles, or fundamental truths, which are independent of written, or positive, laws. As such, moral authority necessitates the existence of and adherence to truth. Because truth does not change, the princi ...
of the Church and Christianity in the West. Pacepa also claims that he was involved in contacting East bloc agents close to the Vatican in order to fabricate the story to be used for the attack against the wartime pope.
Paul VI's defense of Pius
During his 1964 visit to Jordan and Israel, Paul VI passionately spoke out in defense of Pius during his farewell to the Israeli authorities. He said that all know what he accomplished in defense and for the rescue of all those who faced difficulties, with no distinction whatsoever. He added that nothing is more unjust than this outrage against such a venerable figure.
Recent literature
''Hitler's Pope'' and ''The Myth of Hitler's Pope''
In recent decades, the legacy of Pius XII in relation to the Holocaust has been the subject of critical and supportive literature. Authors such as John Cornwell,
Garry Wills
Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...
,
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer (born 1935) is an American historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th- and 20th-century European history and the Holocaust.
Phayer received his PhD from the University of Munich i ...
Daniel Goldhagen
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born June 30, 1959) is an American author, and former associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Goldhagen reached international attention and broad criticism as the author of two controve ...
have written critical assessments, while Jewish historians such as
Richard Breitman Richard David Breitman, born in 1947, is an American historian best known for his study of the Holocaust.
Richard Breitman is an American historian who has written extensively on modern German history, the Holocaust, American immigration and refuge ...
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...
,
Pinchas Lapide
Pinchas Lapide (28 November 1922 – 23 October 1997) was a Jewish theologian and Israeli historian. He was an Israeli diplomat from 1951 to 1969, among other position acting as Israeli Consul to Milan, and was instrumental in gaining recognit ...
Michael Tagliacozzo
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
, as well as non-Jewish scholars such as
Pierre Blet
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
,
Antonio Gaspari
Antonio Gaspari was an Italian architect of the late-Baroque, active in both Venice and the terrafirma of the Veneto. He was a pupil of Baldassarre Longhena, and upon his master's death in 1682, he completed some of his projects, including Longhena ...
Peter Gumpel
Kurt Peter Gumpel (15 November 1923 – 12 October 2022) was a German Jesuit priest and Church historian. A professor emeritus of the Gregorian University in Rome, he was the relator in Pope Pius XII's cause for beatification.
Biography
Gumpe ...
,
Margherita Marchione
Sister Margherita Marchione (February 19, 1922 – May 20, 2021) was an American Roman Catholic sister, writer, teacher and apologeticist, who dedicated herself in her later years to the defense of Pope Pius XII.
Early life
Marchione was born in F ...
,
Michael O'Carroll
Michael O'Carroll C.S.Sp., was an Irish Spiritan priest, writer, and teacher. Born Michael John Carroll, in Newcastle West, County Limerick in 1911, his father was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
Educated in Blackrock College, Dublin, ...
Kenneth Whitehead
Kenneth Whitehead (born 11 April 1955) is a Canadian former soccer player who competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
He played for Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, ...
,
Ralph McInerny
Ralph Matthew McInerny (February 24, 1929 – January 29, 2010) was an American author and philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame. McInerny's most popular mystery novels featured Father Dowling, and was later adapted into the '' ...
,
Michael Feldkamp
Michael F. Feldkamp (born 23 April 1962) is a German historian and journalist.
Career
Feldkamp was born in Kiel. After completing his high school studies at the Gymnasium Carolinum (Osnabrück), Gymnasium Carolinum in Osnabrück, he studied histo ...
Andrea Tornielli
Andrea Tornielli (born 19 March 1964, in Chioggia) is an Italian journalist and religious writer.
Biography
A graduate in History of the Greek language, at the University of Padua, in December 1987, Tornielli became a Roman Catholic journalist ...
have written extensively on the work he did to aid the Jews during the war.
In 1999, John Cornwell's controversial ''
Hitler's Pope
''Hitler's Pope'' is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII, before and during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted i ...
'' was highly critical of Pius, arguing that he had not "done enough", or "spoken out enough" against the Holocaust. Cornwell argued that Pius's entire career as the nuncio to Germany, cardinal secretary of state, and pope was characterized by a desire to increase and centralize the power of the Papacy, and that he subordinated opposition to the Nazis to that goal. He further argued that Pius was
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and that this stance prevented him from caring about the European Jews. (Cornwell's views have developed (as noted below), now stating he is unable to judge the Pope's motivation). In the assessment of the
Encyclopedia Britannica
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
, Cornwell's depiction of the Pope as antisemitic, lacked "credible substantiation".
Kenneth L. Woodward
Kenneth L. Woodward (5 October 1935- ) is an American Roman Catholic writer. He was editor of the Religion section of national American magazine ''Newsweek'' from 1964 until his retirement in 2002.
Biography
Woodward was born in Detroit, Michigan ...
stated in his review in ''Newsweek'' that "errors of fact and ignorance of context appear on almost every page".
Cornwell's work was the first to have access to testimonies from Pius's beatification process as well as to many documents from Pacelli's nunciature which had just been opened under the seventy-five year rule by the Vatican State Secretary archives. Cornwell's work was highly controversial. Much praise of Cornwell centered around his disputed claim that he was a practising Catholic who had attempted to absolve Pius with his work.
Susan Zuccotti's '' Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy'' (2000) and
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer (born 1935) is an American historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th- and 20th-century European history and the Holocaust.
Phayer received his PhD from the University of Munich i ...
's ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965'' (2000) provided further critical, though more scholarly analysis of Pius' legacy.
In 2005, Jesuit historian Vincent Lapomarda wrote:
A number of scholars have replied with favourable accounts of the Pius XII, including
Margherita Marchione
Sister Margherita Marchione (February 19, 1922 – May 20, 2021) was an American Roman Catholic sister, writer, teacher and apologeticist, who dedicated herself in her later years to the defense of Pope Pius XII.
Early life
Marchione was born in F ...
's ''
Yours Is a Precious Witness __NOTOC__
Yours may refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Yours'' (Nathaniel album), a 2015 album by Nathaniel Willemse
* ''Yours'' (Russell Dickerson album), a 2017 album by Russell Dickerson
* ''Yours'' (Sara Gazarek album), a 2005 album by Sara Gazarek
...
: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy'' (1997), ''Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace'' (2000) and ''Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII'' (2002);
Pierre Blet
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
's ''Pius XII and the Second World War, According to the Archives of the Vatican'' (1999); and
Ronald J. Rychlak
Ronald J. Rychlak is an American lawyer, jurist, author and political commentator. He is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and is holder of the Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government. He is know ...
's '' Hitler, the War and the Pope'' (2000). Ecclesiastical historian William Doino, author of ''The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII'', concluded that Pius was "emphatically ''not'' silent".
In specific riposte to Cornwell's moniker, American rabbi and historian, David Dalin, published '' The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis'' in 2005 and reaffirmed previous accounts of Pius having been a saviour of thousands of Europe's Jews. In a review of the book, the eminent Holocaust historian and Churchill biographer, Sir
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...
, wrote that Dalin's work was "an essential contribution to our understanding of the reality of Pope Pius XII's support for Jews at their time of greatest danger. Hopefully, his account will replace the divisively harmful version of papal neglect, and even collaboration, that has held the field for far too long."
Five years after the publication of ''Hitler's Pope'', Cornwell stated: "I would now argue, in the light of the debates and evidence following ''Hitler's Pope'', that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by Germany." In 2009 Cornwell wrote of the "fellow travellers" i.e. those priests in Nazi Germany who accepted the benefits that came with the
Reichskonkordat
The ''Reichskonkordat'' ("Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later be ...
but who failed to condemn the Nazi regime at the same time. He cites Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) as being an example of a "fellow traveller" who was willing to accept the generosity of Hitler in the educational sphere (more schools, teachers and pupil places), so long as the Church withdrew from the social and political sphere, at the same time as Jews were being dismissed from universities and Jewish pupil places were being reduced. For this he considers Pacelli as effectively being in collusion with the Nazi cause, if not by intent. He further argues that Monsignor Kass, who was involved in negotiations for the Reichskonkordat, and at that time the head of the Roman Catholic Centre Party, persuaded his party members, with the acquiescence of Pacelli, in the summer of 1933 to enable Hitler to acquire dictatorial powers. He argues that the Catholic Centre Party vote was decisive in the adoption of dictatorial powers by Hitler and that the party's subsequent dissolution was at Pacelli's prompting.
Controversy – "The Pius Wars"
There have been many books published on the subject of Pius XII and the holocaust, often coupled with heated debate, such that it has been described as the "Pius Wars".
Michael Burleigh comments that "Making use of the Holocaust as the biggest moral club to use against the Church, simply because one does not like its policies on abortion, contraception, homosexual priests or the Middle East, is as obscene as any attempt to exploit the deaths of six million European Jews for political purposes."
A spokesperson for the nineteen Catholic scholars who wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 asking that the process of sainthood for Pius XII be slowed down, and which asserted that "Pope Pius XII did not issue a clearly worded statement, unconditionally condemning the wholesale slaughter and murder of European Jews", affirmed that "We're all practicing Catholics. We're faithful to the Holy Father."
Joseph Bottum notes Philip Jenkins opinion that criticisms are not really about Pius XII: "Philip Jenkins understands it as not particular to Pius XII at all, but merely a convenient trope by which American commentators express what he calls an entirely new form of anti-Catholicism. Others see it in a continuum of more old-fashioned American distaste for the Whore of Babylon that dwells in Rome, spinning Jesuitical plots."
Daniel Goldhagen describes defenders of the Church using Pius XII as a lightning rod to divert peoples attention away from the broader issues, focusing attention on favorable points and concealing others. He further argues that those who use a person's identity as a Jew, Catholic or German as a tool to further their cause betray a great deal about themselves as such tactics are often used to stifle sober debate by switching attention away from the truth as exemplified by the charge of "anti-Catholicism" by apologists. Daniel Goldhagen notes Father Peter Gumpel's comments that describes opponents of Pius XII as the "Jewish faction" which has something against Catholics.
Garry Wills acknowledges that Pius's response to the Holocaust may have been founded on a sincere, if mistaken, belief that he was doing the correct thing. However, he deprecates arguments "defending Pius with false readings of history" and for "distortions by which the Vatican tries to deny its own sorry story with regard to the Jews. Pius's denial of his own silence, perpetrated by those who must make false claims in order to defend the words of a saint, would make him the source of a new round of deceit structured into past dishonesties."
International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission
In 1999, in an attempt to address some of this controversy, the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (Historical Commission), a group of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars was appointed, respectively, by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (Holy See's Commission) and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), to whom a preliminary report was issued in October 2000.
The Commission did not discover any documents, but had the agreed-upon task to review the existing Vatican volumes, that make up the ''Actes et Documents du Saint Siege (ADSS)'' The Commission was internally divided over the question of access to additional documents from the Holy See, access to the news media by individual commission members, and, questions to be raised in the preliminary report. It was agreed to include all 47 individual questions by the six members, and use them as Preliminary Report. In addition to the 47 questions, the commission issued no findings of its own. It stated that it was not their task to sit in judgement of the Pope and his advisers but to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the papacy during the Holocaust.
The 47 questions by the six scholars were grouped into three parts:
The disagreement between members over additional documents locked up under the Holy See's 70 year rule resulted in a discontinuation of the Commission in 2001 on friendly terms. Unsatisfied with the findings, Dr. Michael Marrus, one of the three Jewish members of the Commission, said the commission "ran up against a brick wall. ... It would have been really helpful to have had support from the Holy See on this issue."
Yad Vashem controversy
An inscription at
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
states that
Pius XII
Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia.
It may refer to:
People Popes
* Pope Pius (disambiguation)
* Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect
Given name
* Pius B ...
's record during the Holocaust was controversial, and that he negotiated a concordat with the Nazis, maintained Vatican neutrality during the war and, formerly stated that he took no initiatives to save Jews.
In 1985,
Pietro Palazzini
Pietro Palazzini (19 May 1912 – 11 October 2000) was an Italian Cardinal, who helped to save the lives of Jewish people in World War II. He was consecrated bishop by the pope in 1962 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973. He has been comm ...
was honored by the museum, where he protested the repeated criticisms against Pius, on whose instructions Palazzini declared to have acted. Palazzini, a theological advisor to the Pontiff, had taught and written about the moral theology of Pope Pius XII.
David G. Dalin argues in '' The Myth of Hitler's Pope'' that Yad Vashem should honor Pope Pius XII as a "Righteous Gentile", and documents that Pius was praised by all the leading Jews of his day for his role in saving more Jews than
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler (; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist, humanitarian and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and amm ...
.
David Rosen has taken exception to the caption, stating when Pius died both
Moshe Sharett
Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: ) 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...
and
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and ''kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1 ...
sent telegrams stating that when darkness reigned over Europe, he was one of the few who raised his voice in protest. "What Yad Vashem says is not necessarily wrong," conceded Rosen, "but it doesn't give us all the information." Rabbi Rosen later quoted historian
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...
, who says that Pius saved thousands of Jews.
In light of recent developments and research, on 1 July 2012, Yad Vashem changed the inscription to note a "considerable number of secret rescue activities" by the Church. Whereas the old text claimed the Pope "did not intervene" in the deportation of Jews from Rome, the new inscription says that he "did not publicly protest". The display also added text from Pius' Christmas 1942 radio speech in which he speaks of "hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part", were killed, but it also points out that he did not specifically name the Jews. The new wording also removed the former claim that Concordat was signed "even at the price of recognizing the Nazi regime". Yad Vashem indicated that the new inscription is due to "research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented", including in part the opening of the Pope's archives.
''We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah''
In 2000,
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
, on behalf of all people, apologized to Jews by inserting a prayer at the
Western Wall
The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط ...
that read "We're deeply saddened by the behavior of those in the course of history who have caused the children of God to suffer, and asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant."
This papal apology, one of many issued by Pope John Paul II for past human and Church failings throughout history, was especially significant because John Paul II emphasized Church guilt for, and the Second Vatican Council's condemnation of, antisemitism. The papal letter '' We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah'' urged Catholics to repent "of past errors and infidelities" and "renew the awareness of the Hebrew roots of their faith".
Developments since 2008
A special conference of scholars on Pius XII on the 50th anniversary of his death was held in Rome on 15–17 September 2008, by Pave the Way Foundation. Pope
Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
held a reception for the conference participants on 19 September 2008 where he praised Pius XII as a pope who made every effort to save Jews during the war. A second conference was held on 6–8 November 2008 by the
Pontifical Academy for Life
The Pontifical Academy for Life or Pontificia Accademia per la Vita is a Pontifical Academy of the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to promoting the Church's consistent life ethic. It also does related research on bioethics and Catholic moral the ...
.
On 9 October 2008, the 50th anniversary of Pius XII's death,
Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
celebrated pontifical mass in his memory. Shortly prior to, and after the mass, dialectics continued between some Jewish religious leaders and the Vatican as Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen of Haifa addressed the Synod of Bishops and expressed his disappointment towards Pius XII's "silence" during the war.
The CRIF, an organization which represent Jews in France, has opposed the beatification of
Pius XII
Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia.
It may refer to:
People Popes
* Pope Pius (disambiguation)
* Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect
Given name
* Pius B ...
.
In a self-penned article in the ''
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', Gary Krupp of the
Pave the Way Foundation
Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF) headed by Gary Krupp is a non-sectarian organization whose mission is to identify and eliminate non-theological obstacles between religions. The organization is dedicated to achieving peace by addressing intoleranc ...
described how he and fellow researchers had discovered many documents detailing little-known activities of Pacelli from early in his career and later as Pius in which he gave assistance to Jews and wrote that "it's time for our 'historians' to correct this academic negligence and honestly research the open archives". He also wrote "We must acknowledge what Pius actually did rather than criticize him for what he should have done. Pope Pius should be commended for his courageous actions that saved more Jewish lives than all the world's leaders combined."
The methodology of Pave the Way Foundation relating to the historical record of Pope Pius XII has been subject to harsh criticism from many scholars and long-established Jewish organizations. Professor Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, said Krupp's research was "amateurish, worse than amateurish — risible" and that "He may be well-meaning, but his lack of experience in international affairs and historical research makes Mr. Krupp highly vulnerable to being manipulated by factions inside the Vatican."
In February 2010 nineteen Catholic scholars of theology and history asked Pope Benedict XVI to slow the process of the sainthood cause of Pope Pius XII. The scholars said existing research "leads us to the view that Pope Pius XII did not issue a clearly worded statement, unconditionally condemning the wholesale slaughter and murder of European Jews" and "At the same time, some evidence also compels us to see that Pius XII's diplomatic background encouraged him as head of a neutral state, the Vatican, to assist Jews by means that were not made public during the war. It is essential that further research be conducted to resolve both these questions"; furthermore, "Mistrust and apprehension still exist", as "For many Jews and Catholics, Pius XII takes on a role much larger than his historical papacy. In essence, Pius XII has become a symbol of centuries-old Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism."
On 1 July 2012, Yad Vashem changed the inscription regarding Pius to soften its criticism and admit rescue efforts by the Vatican. Yad Vashem indicated that the new inscription is due to "research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented".
See also
*
Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany
Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany was a component of German resistance to Nazism and of Resistance during World War II. The role of the Catholic Church during the Nazi years remains a matter of much contention. From the outset of Nazi rule in ...
*
Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church suffered persecution in Nazi Germany. The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity. Clergy were watched closely, and frequently denounced, arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Welfare ...
*
Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews
The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews is a pontifical commission in the Roman Curia tasked with maintaining positive theological ties with Jews and Judaism. Established on 22 October 1974, it works alongside the Pontifical Council ...
*
Pope Pius XII and the raid on the Roman ghetto Pope Pius XII's response to the Roman ''razzia'' (Italian for ''roundup''), or mass deportation of Jews, on October 16, 1943 is a significant issue relating to Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Under Mussolini, no policy of abduction of Jews had been ...
*
Relations between Catholicism and Judaism
Christianity started as a movement within Judaism in the mid-1st century. Worshipers of the diverging religions initially co-existed, but began branching out under Paul the Apostle. In 380, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empi ...
*
Rescue of Jews by Catholics during the Holocaust During the Holocaust, the Catholic Church played a role in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of Jews from being murdered by the Nazis. Members of the Church, through lobbying of Axis officials, provision of false documents, and the hiding of peop ...
Pope Pius XII and the Roman razzia Pope Pius XII's response to the Roman ''razzia'' (Italian for ''roundup''), or mass deportation of Jews, on October 16, 1943 is a significant issue relating to Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Under Mussolini, no policy of abduction of Jews had been ...
*
Catholic Church and Nazi Germany
Popes Pius XI (1922–1939) and Pius XII (1939–1958) led the Catholic Church during the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Around a third of Germans were Catholic in the 1930s, most of them lived in Southern Germany; Protestants dominated the no ...
*
Pius Wars
The Pius War (or Pius Wars) refer to debates over the legacy of Pope Pius XII and Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, his actions during the Holocaust. The phrase was first coined in a 2004 book of the same name.
World War II
Pius XII was crowned Pop ...
*
* Coppa, Frank J. "Pope Pius XII: From the Diplomacy of Impartiality to the Silence of the Holocaust." ''Journal of Church and State'' 55.2 (2013): 286-30 online
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Tarcisio Bertone
Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of ...
Michael Marrus
Michael Robert Marrus (1941–2022) was a Canadian historian of the Holocaust, modern European and Jewish history and international humanitarian law. He is the author of eight books on the Holocaust and related subjects.
Overview
Marrus (1941–2 ...