Posted on 06/08/2006 9:44:50 AM PDT by SJackson
Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Auschwitz helped rekindle the controversy over the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. Although some Jewish leaders and Catholic writers often condemn Pius XII today, the wartime Jewish press had a favorable opinion of the pope.
In March 1939, many Jewish newspapers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Jerusalem welcomed Pope Pius’s election and described him as a friend of democracy. In an editorial (March 6, 1939), The Palestine Post, the predecessor of The Jerusalem Post, observed, "Pius XII has clearly shown that he intends to carry on [Pius XI’s] work for freedom and peace...we remember that he must have had a large part to play in the recent opposition to pernicious race theories and certain aspects of totalitarianism..."
On October 27, 1939, the pope’s first encyclical, "Summi Pontificatus," was made public. The American Israelite in Cincinnati (November 9, 1939) asserted that the encyclical "contains a ringing denunciation of all forces which put the state above the will of the people, a condemnation of dictators and disseminators of racism who have plunged the world into chaos."
On January 26, 1940, the Jewish Advocate in Boston reported, "The Vatican radio this week broadcast an outspoken denunciation of German atrocities and persecution in Nazi [occupied] Poland, declaring they affronted the moral conscience of mankind."
This broadcast graphically described atrocities against Jews and Catholics and gave independent confirmation to reports about Nazi atrocities, which the Reich previously dismissed as Allied propaganda.
On March 14, 1940, London’s Jewish Chronicle commented on Pius’s five conditions for a "just and honorable peace," which he articulated in his 1939 Christmas message. The Jewish Chronicle described the pope’s conditions, especially the protection of all racial minorities, as a "welcome feature," and praised him for fighting "for the rights of the common man."
In the same month, Italy’s anti-Semitic laws went into effect, and many Jews were dismissed from the government, universities, and other professions. Pius XII responded by appointing several displaced Jewish scholars to posts in the Vatican library. In an editorial, the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle (March 29, 1940), concluded that the pope’s actions showed "his disapproval of the dastardly anti-Semitic decrees."
On August 28, 1942, the California Jewish Voice hailed Pius XII as a "spiritual ally" of Jews after noting that the Vatican, through its diplomatic representatives, protested the deportations of Jews from France and Slovakia.
On April 16, 1943, the Australian Jewish News published a brief article about Pierre Cardinal Gerlier of Lyon, France who protested the deportations of French Jews. The newspaper quoted the cardinal as saying that he was obeying Pius XII’s orders by opposing the Vichy regime’s anti-Semitic measures.
On October 17, 1943, the Nazis began to arrest Jews in Rome. On October 29, 1943, the Jewish Chronicle wrote, "The Vatican has made strong representations to the German Government and the German High Command in Italy against the persecutions of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Italy..."
Along with the Vatican’s protests, thousands of Jews found refuge in Rome’s convents, monasteries, and the Vatican itself.
In June 1944, the Allies liberated Rome, and Pius XII protested the deportations of Hungarian Jews. "With Rome liberated, it has been determined, indeed, that 7,000 of Italy’s 40,000 Jews owe their lives to the Vatican," the American Israelite (July 27, 1944) editorialized. "Placing these golden deeds alongside the intercession of Pope Pius XII with the Regent of Hungary in behalf in behalf of the Hungarian Jews, we feel an immense degree of gratitude toward our Catholic brethren."
On October 8, 1958, Pope Pius XII died. Many Jewish newspapers around the world eulogized him, recalling his wartime opposition to Nazism and role in saving Jews. In an editorial (October 10, 1958), The Jerusalem Post stated that "Jews will recall the sympathetic references to their sufferings contained in many of his pronouncements, the refuge from Nazi terror which he gave to many in the Vatican during the last war, and the very cordial way he received his Jewish visitors."
In his article for the Jewish Post (November 6, 1958) in Winnipeg, Canada, William Zukerman wrote that no other leader "did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late pope."
In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, Jewish editors and reporters had no fears about condemning Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic radio broadcaster, and Catholic youth gangs in the Bronx and Boston who frequently assaulted Jews.
This much is clear: the contemporary Jewish press repeatedly have Pius XII favorable coverage from 1939 to 1958.
Dimitri Cavalli, a writer based in New York City, is working on a book about Pope Pius XII.
BTTT
ping
Opinion disguised as fact.
Pius XII was my pope when I was growing up. He was a great man, a great Catholic and about the only major voice in Europe that remained raised on behalf of Jews during the Holocaust (as even the New York Times editorialized after his Christmas Message of 1942 on the subject although the NYT has institutionally forgotten the truth nowadays on this as well as so many other matters).
Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide, Chief Rabbi of Rome Israel Zolli, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and Albert Einstein were among those who rose to the militant defense of Pius XII in his lifetime and soon thereafter. On this subject each proved to have the qualities of honesty and justice of the tzahdik and, as usual, so have you.
Righteous Gentile: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis
The Catholic Church and the Holocaust
'Hitler's Pope' tried to help Jews, say documents
Rabbi Says Pius XII Deserves "Righteous" Title
The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: An Interview with Rabbi David G. Dalin
League blasts New York Times re Pius XII
The Pope's silence is deafening (Richard Cohen "Goes There")
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Pope Pius XII was a saintly man who did everything he possibly could to oppose Hitler, and who directly contributed to saving many Jews, as the Chief Rabbi of Rome said at the time. So did the New York Times at that time.
While the French were piling Jews on the trains heading East, the Vatican and Italian Catholics did what they could to protect them.
Anyone who thinks Pope Pius was "Hitler's Pope" should read the encyclical, Mit Brennende Sorge.
The Times, incidentally, contributed absolutely nothing to helping European Jews back then.
These attacks are among the worst slanders of the revisionist historians. Their purpose is obviously anti-Catholic, but if anything they have been more damaging to Jews.
This Jew suggests you add Maximilien Kolbe to your list there. Another great Catholic who embodied, in his life and his willing and voluntary sacrifice thereof, the great virtues of the Judeo-Christian tradition. ;)
Here is a more recent example of Jewish praise for Pius XII:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895260344/qid=1149853928/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6773778-8518210?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Within Italy, the Jewish survival rate was well over 80%. Ordinary Italians and their clergy made it so at great risk to themselves..
Thanks... hopefully the other 2 priests will be canonized as saints.
Eugenio Zolli was the cheif rabbi of Rome...until he became a Catholic. He wrote a book that traced his life from childhood when he first saw a crucifix to why he converted.
Eugenio was his baptismal name in honor of Pope Pius XII, and the chapters on Zolli's days in Italy during WWII prove that the lies said about Pius XII being agaisnt the Jews is false.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/sswalllow_ezolli_sept05.asp
The good old days when Truth was not obscured by Political Correctness--or over-ridden by same.
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