Posted on 02/04/2007 9:00:31 PM PST by Dqban22
Pius XII and WWII
KGB intent on linking Pius XII with Nazis, says former spy
Washington DC, Jan 26, 2007 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- A former high-ranking officer with the KGB claims that the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence agency in the 1960s were set on executing a smear campaign against the Catholic Church, and the main target was Pope Pius XII.
In a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII “as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer.”
“In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe,” writes Pacepa. “Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB’s main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. ‘Dead men cannot defend themselves’ was the KGB’s latest slogan.”
The code name for this operation against Pope Pius XII was “Seat-12.”
The KGB used the fact that Archbishop Pacelli had served as the papal nuncio in Munich and Berlin when the Nazis were beginning their bid for power against him. “The KGB wanted to depict him as an anti-Semite who had encouraged Hitler’s Holocaust,” says Pacepa.
To do this, the KGB wanted some original Vatican documents to “slightly modify”. So they called in Pacepa, who was working for the Romanian intelligence service.
Pacepa says he became the Romanian point man. He was authorized to falsely inform the Vatican that Romania was ready to restore its broken relations with the Holy See, in exchange for access to its archives — in order to find historical roots that would help the Romanian government publicly justify its change of heart toward the Holy See — and a one-billion-dollar, interest-free loan for 25 years.
Between 1960 and 1962, the Romanian spy sent hundreds of archival documents connected in any way with Pope Pius XII to the KGB. Pacepa says none of the documents were incriminating in themselves, but they were sent to the KGB in any case.
The KGB used these documents to produce a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy. It eventually saw the stage in Germany in 1963, under the title The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy. It proposed that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. The German director claimed to have 40 pages of documentation attached to the script that would support the thesis of the play.
The play ran in New York in 1964 and was translated into 20 languages. The play then led to a flurry of books and articles, some accusing and some defending the pontiff.
“Today, many people who have never heard of The Deputy are sincerely convinced that Pius XII was a cold and evil man who hated the Jews and helped Hitler do away with them,” Pacepa writes in the National Review Online. “As KGB chairman Yury Andropov, the unparalleled master of Soviet deception, used to tell me, people are more ready to believe smut than holiness.”
Pacepa says the truth has finally begun to emerge with the canonization process of Pius XII, which was opened by Pope John Paul II.
“Witnesses from all over the world have compellingly proved that Pius XII was an enemy, not a friend, of Hitler,” says Pacepa.
He also refers to the book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis, by David G. Dalin, which has compiled further proof of Archbishop Pacelli’s friendship for the Jews.
“At the start of World War II, Pope Pius XII’s first encyclical was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany,” he concludes.
DB: Great screenname! Nonetheless, the feeling is certainly mutual.
This statement is wrong in itself. Its not biblical in the least. As if Peter were the only disciple or apostle! Based soley on twisting "on this rock I will build my church". Jesus never said no man can come to the father but through the pontiff then to me then to the father.
Look I understand you are so wrapped up in the religion of Catholicism to admit its errors in the past or present. That it can be infallible just because it declares it so. I dont believe that nor ever will. My original statements are true. The collaboration of Polish priests is well documented. The church should be more forthcoming with the truth.
What insult have I made than to question the infallibility of the Pope.
ping for later...Pius XII was my great-grandfather's cousin. I'll be back later...and by the way, your sins are absolved. I think I can do that...:0)
Finally something I understand.
I didnt say the Pope was Hitlers Pope. I said Polish priests collaborated. A bishop just stepped down and admited it!. That was it. How far fetched could it be that others did?
Roman Catholic Church in A.D. 29? You have been misinformed.
From Catholic Encyclopedia about the early Church
For a thousand years the Church was one. Five historic Patriarchal centers Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople formed a cohesive whole and were in full communion with each other.
If you freely interpret the basic historical facts known to all mankind for two millenia, I am not at all surprised with your interpretation of little known facts about genocide in Croatia.
The history of The Church is established fact.
Well, well, well. I guess our friend, David Cornwell, had exceptionally good "sources" after all....
Croatian word was POGLAVNIK. There was no such word in Croatian dictionary prior to Ante Pavelic. It means loosely translated "one at the head (i.e. at the helm), The leader.
This was an official title.
The official title of Adolph Hitler was Fuehrer, The leder.
Titles of Adolph Hitler and Ante Pavelic were identical. (Benito Mussolini was "Il Duce", from Italian Duca (Duke)
Claim was filed by American citizens who suffered under Ustasha regime or who are survivors of Ustasha genocide. There are numerous legal precedents for that.
And how do I know how it was intended?
(1) When Christ established the primacy of Peter and his successors (Matthew 16 --- and the whole chapter rewards careful reading, if you're interested) He gives Simon Bar-Jonah the name "Rock," explains the meaning of "Rock," and gives him the power of the Keys (in fulfillment of the prophecy to Isaiah to Eliakim in Isaiah 22:22, a chapter also worth reading in its entirety, since it shows how the "Keys" symbolize suzereignty: the authority to rule.) This was upon Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Christ: a statement of doctrine.
Within 2 minutes' time, Peter goes from formulating a truth of the Faith in the midst of the Twelve, to voicing his own preferences and weaknesses (saying that, in his view, Christ should never suffer), at which time Jesus calls him "you Satan." So: when defining doctrine, and especially speaking for the Twelve, Peter has authority; when giving his opinion, he's as likely to be a dumbass as the rest of us.
(2) In reference to Unam Sanctam, the pope is making the point that as Christ's Vicar he is not to be a vassal of the King of France; later on, when King Philip the Fair questioned the extent of the pope's claims, Pope Clement V clarified that the French king was not made subject to the authority of the Roman Church except inasmuch as the Pope conserves and hands on God's moral law, upon which the law of man must have its foundation.
(3) A certain Fr. Leonard Feeney tried to assert, in a contrary sense, that no one but a visible (dues-paying, pew-sitting) member of the Catholic Church ---- and thus an ecclesiatical subject of the Pope ---could be saved. He was in error; and for obstinacy in this error, he was excommunicated.
That should make clearer both the meaning and the limits of "Unam Sanctam."
It would be much better that you responded to "Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church" instead of me. Your clarification and addition is welcomed.
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