[Uncle Chip]

Did Pope Pius XII ever place Hitler's Mein Kampf on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books?

[AnAmericanMother]

And your point is . . . ? The Index Librorum Prohibitorum overwhelmingly consists of theological works and those which corrupt personal morals. It doesn't include frankly atheistic authors because those are excluded by their nature from the reading of the faithful. Mein Kampf was considered for inclusion at one point but was still in discussion by the Congregation when the war broke out. The Communist Manifesto didn't make it either. The Pope, btw, had no power to place a book on the Index by decree - it had to go through the Congregation.

[Titanites]

Before jumping into condemnation of the failings of the Catholic Church, I would like to first hear about what other Christian Churches did about Hitler, his persecution of the Jews, and Mein Kampf. I’m particularly interested in the actions taken by your church and its leaders, Uncle Chip.

[Aquinasfan]

Did Pope Pius XII ever place Hitler's Mein Kampf on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books?

Did he stop beating his wife?

Rather than address the testimony of the pope's contemporaries, like that of the NY Times, Einstein and the chief rabbi of Rome, you've decided to drop a non-sequitur. Nevertheless, I'll address it.

The Index wasn't meant to be an infallible list of every book containing anti-Christian ideologies. It's a fairly short list, and it wasn't even kept by the pope. The job of maintaining the list was the job of the office of the Inquisition, as far as I know. Regardless, the Index was pretty much defunct by WWII, as the last non-fiction entry is Satre in 1948, at least according to this site.

Marx isn't listed in the Index either, but that doesn't mean communism was approved by the Church. Marxism (and all forms of Socialism - like Nazism) was denounced many times in papal encyclicals, such as the Syllabus of Errors, On Atheistic Communism, and On the Doctrines of the Modernists.

[Ditto]

Why would it be "Forbidden"/ It was not a theological heresy -- it was a political rant -- a totally insane one -- but political none the less.

IMHO, it, along with the Communist Manifesto should be required reading so people can see how evil often masquerades as good.