More Evidence Pius XII Was Not Hitler's Pope - German Files Point to a Russian Plot

Zenit News Agency ^ | April 2, 2007

[NYer]

ROME, APRIL 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Adolf Hitler's No. 1 enemy was the Vatican's secretary of state, Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, according to documents recently found in Europe.

In an article published last Thursday by La Repubblica, reporter Marco Ansaldo announced that he has a dossier on Pius XII that complements documentation found in the Vatican Archives.

According to the newly discovered documents, Pius XII was considered an enemy of the Third Reich. Memos and letters unearthed at a depot used by the Stasi, the East German secret police, show that Nazi spies within the Vatican were concerned at the Pope's efforts to help displaced Poles and Jews.

One document from the head of Berlin's police force tells Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Third Reich's foreign minister, that the Catholic Church was providing assistance to Jews "both in terms of people and financially."

Russia's motives

In a commentary on the new documents, Sister Margherita Marchione, author and expert on Pius XII, explains the campaign against the Pope was the work of the Soviets.

"Russia's plans were to control Europe after the war. The only outspoken obstacle to Russia's plan in Europe was the Catholic Church," Sister Marchione wrote.

"The first attacks claiming that the Church had endorsed silently the atrocities of the Nazis came from Communist Russia," she explained. "Soon to control Poland, and other vast areas in Eastern Europe, Russia saw the need to break the loyalty to the Pope of Catholic majorities in those countries.

"The plan was a simple one: convince everyone that the Pope supported the hated Nazis during the war and, therefore, neither he nor the Church could be trusted after the war. The destruction of the Church would leave the field wide open for Russian influence and control."

[Petronski]

That corner where he finds himself is in the basement of the archives of Tito’s secret police.

[Uncle Chip]

I’m sorry. Was the question too hard for you? or just too direct?

[Petronski]

"Good work, tavarish."

[Dominick]

Indeed, lets talk about Rat Lines. The major Roman ratline was operated by a small network of Croatian Franciscans. It was first set up for Ustashe members, but then accepted Nazis. Franciscans in Croatia have a history of participating in war crimes, starting with "Friar Satan" Miroslav Filipovic.

Extending this fact to imagining there was any Vatican complicity is a falsehood. What were issued were identity documents, which were used to procure a passport from the Red Cross. The Red Cross were to do background checks, but never did. What made this more heinous is the fact that ustashe members were using money they took from victims. By this time, the partisans far outnumbered the peak membership of 12000 ustashe zealots.

So the facts do not corroborate your shaggy dog tale of Venerable Pius XII ushering criminals from justice, as I said before.

[Uncle Chip]

So then is this information on the Vatican Ratlines on Wikipedia true or false:

Early efforts—Bishop Hudal

"Catholic Bishop Alois Hudal was rector of the Pontificio Istituto Teutonico Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome, a seminary for Austrian and German priests, and "Spiritual Director of the German People resident in Italy" [1]. After the end of the war in Italy, Hudal became active in ministering to German-speaking prisoners of war and internees then held in camps throughout Italy. In December 1944 the Vatican Secretariat of State received permission to appoint a representative to "visit the German-speaking civil internees in Italy", a job which was assigned to Hudal.

"Hudal used this position to aid the escape of wanted Nazi war criminals, including Franz Stangl, commanding officer of Treblinka, Gustav Wagner, commanding officer of Sobibor, Alois Brunner, responsible of the Drancy internment camp near Paris and in charge of deportations in Slovakia to German concentration camps, and Adolf Eichmann [1]—a fact about which he was later unashamedly open. Some of these wanted men were being held in internment camps: generally without identity papers, they would be enrolled in camp registers under false names. Other Nazis were in hiding in Italy, and sought Hudal out as his role in assisting escapes became known on the Nazi grapevine. . . . [and more}

[AnAmericanMother]

One bishop - the rector of the German seminary - is a far cry from an organized Vatican effort.

. . . and that's assuming that anything on Wikipedia -- especially with reference to something controversial -- has ANY truth in it. Of course even the Wikipedia article recognizes that although a few individuals assisted Nazis, there is no direct evidence that it went any higher.

(did you know that Simon Wiesenthal recognized Hudal for saving Jews during the war?)

[Uncle Chip]

One bishop - the rector of the German seminary - is a far cry from an organized Vatican effort.

Oh sure, a single bishop in the Vatican is able to carry this off without Pius XII's knowledge and support --- just like Pius XII was unaware of all those atrocities of that Ustasha Army whose Supreme Apostolic Vicar just happened to be his own Archbishop Stepinac who reported to him on a regular basis.

Wake up and smell the truth once in awhile.

[Ditto]

So then is this information on the Vatican Ratlines on Wikipedia true or false:

Boy. You really do exhaustive research from impeccable sources when you decide to slander a man respected by millions of Christians and Jews. My hat's off to you. < / s >

BTW. Look soon for an some authoritative documentation on Wikipedia about Uncle Chip's life-long obsession with cheap whiskey and plump sheep.

[AnAmericanMother]

Stuff and nonsense. Do you have any idea how many bishops there are in Rome? Do you think the Pope walks around and keeps tabs on them all, and knows where they are at all times? That's Jack Chick conspiracy stuff.

It would be easy enough to hide Nazis in the German seminary, in fact that would be the logical place to hide them. With all the displaced persons circulating through Rome and the other European capitals after the war, many with lost identification, nobody had any way to know if a particular cleric was shielding some of his countrymen disguised as newly arrived seminarians.

Any more than the Nazis had any way to tell that the people the Vatican got false ID papers for were really Jewish. Unless, of course, you think that the Vatican is more efficient than the German Army?

There is no evidence that anybody higher up knew that this bishop was playing a double game. Sure there were bad individuals in the Church, but every organization has a few. It's called being a group of fallible human beings. The existence of those individuals, however, doesn't "prove" that the organization is supporting them or even knows of their actions.

I don't understand why you're so invested in believing all these slanders about the Church -- they've been disproved time and time again, but you keep coming back with the same old accusations. And never much of anything to back them up, either.

[Uncle Chip]

Stuff and nonsense.

Well, let's review here: Pius XII knew what Hitler was all about and still secured the Concordat with him, never rebuked any of Church's prelates who cooperated with him, never excommunicated anyone for their participation in his crimes against humanity, knew full well of the atrocities of the Ustasha and did nothing to stop them, and reigned over a Vatican that helped Nazi war criminals escape justice.

Hmmm --- a perfect model for sainthood. I trust that you and the others pray to him regularly.

[Dominick]

Oh sure, a single bishop in the Vatican is able to carry this off without Pius XII's knowledge and support

In Rome, the seminary was in Rome not within the Vatican. The answer to you speculation is yes. Rome is packed with Bishops. One saint speculated that the floor of Hell must be paved with bad Bishop's skulls. His operation was small compared to the Croat operation. Someone must have picked up a book on the Ustashe, and found an excuse to beat on the Church.

Pius XII was unaware of all those atrocities of that Ustasha Army

My post before pointed out clearly the Pope knew and took action. There were excommunications. One of the leaders of the Ustashe death camps was known as "Friar Satan" and would hardly be an example of a Catholic, since he was defrocked and excommunicated before that time. St. Stepinac was convicted by Tito on false charges and scant witnesses in 1946, after he refused to subjugate the Croatian Catholic Church as an instrument of the Communist State, like the Orthodox had done.

During the war, the Ustashe were repudiated personally by Archbishop Stepinac during the war, and I posted a single example of his rebuke and the absurdity of the charges by the Communist Yugoslav state.

Again you are playing the marxist dupe.

[Pyro7480]

I trust that you and the others pray to him regularly.

To clarify, Pope Pius XII is not even a blessed. Due to the controversy, I don't forsee him becoming a blessed at any point in the near future.

You comments are revealing. It gives a glimpse of what you think of Catholics. I've been reading this thread, and all I can perceive is unalterated hatred towards the Church and Catholics.

If you think yourself a Christian, I suggest you read the following thread: "One Another's" of the New Testament - How should Christians treat each other? (Christian Caucus)

[Pyro7480]

A picture is worth a thousand words:

Caption: "She is not pretty, but at least she can cook well." Behind Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who is implied to fornicate with a Jewess (symbolizing the French Communist paper L'Humanité) to combat against National Socialism and to be an enemy of Nazi Germany, is the poison kitchen of Communism and Socialism in Western Europe.

[Petronski]

Oh sure, a single bishop in the Vatican is able to carry this off without Pius XII's knowledge and support --- just like Pius XII was unaware of all those atrocities of that Ustasha Army whose Supreme Apostolic Vicar just happened to be his own Archbishop Stepinac who reported to him on a regular basis.

Yes, Comrade Titovich. Precisely.

[RobbyS]

The Concordat brought Hitler to power in Germany? As if the Vatican had to power to make by treaty Hitler the dictator of Germany. Germany was two-thirds Protestant.

[RobbyS]

The Western press has never accepted the evil character of the Communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia, and even the anti-Communist socialists in the West shared with their Communist adversaries, a hatred of the Catholic Church. Hence the canonization of “The Deputy.” since the Catholic Church was —and is—the greatest enemy of socialist materialism, in both its hard and soft forms of dictatorship.

[pbear8]

Well Uncle Chip once you tell all of us exactly what a Concordat is and what exactly the German Concordant said maybe we will conclude that you are chipped and not cracked. Do some research.

[ArchA27]

Hey Chip,

What do you think the chances are that Sunday, a Holy Day of Obligation in most of Christianity, will be changed to Saturday in the near future? Which day do you prefer?