Posted on 11/07/2008 10:13:15 AM PST by Publius804
Vatican Official Slams Criticism of Wartime Pope
Thursday, November 6, 2008 11:00 AM
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican's No. 2 official has slammed as "outrageous" allegations that Pope Pius XII didn't do enough to save Jews during World War II.
Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on Thursday condemned the criticism by some historians and Jewish groups of the wartime pope.
Pope Benedict XVI recently said he hoped the path for sainthood could move ahead but also reportedly agreed to consider freezing the process until the Vatican's wartime archives are opened.
Bertone said the possible beatification, the last formal step before sainthood, is an internal affair and "a religious matter that requires respect."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Pope Benedict XVI recently said he hoped the path for sainthood could move ahead but also reportedly agreed to consider freezing the process until the Vatican's wartime archives are opened.
Ping to read later
Pope Pius XII detested Hitler and saved hundreds of thousands of Jews from the gas chambers. Anyone seriously interested in learning how Pius XII bravely protected hundreds of thousands of European Jews simply must read the definitive book on the subject: The Myth of Hitler’s Pope by Rabbi David Dalin published by Regnery. Excellent read that covers the relationship of the Church and the Jews in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Holocaust. Many LIBERAL myths exploded here.
A few years ago, these same people demanded that Pius XII era archives be opened for their examination. They were opened - after a heroic effort of cataloging on the part of the two (yes, there are only two) Vatican archivists. And what was discovered? Document after document showing that Pius XII saved Jews and others.
Nothing was discovered that went against what was always said and known about Pius XII by Jewish historians such as Pinchas Lapide or Daniel Dalin.
Pius XII saved more Jews than all Protestant ministers and churches combined.
last summer there was an article here about Castle Gandolfo (the Pope’s summer residence). The article said that Pius XII used Castle Gandolfo as a transit point for Jewish refugees, and that his personal bedroom was used as a doctor’s office for the refugees. Dozens, maybe hundreds of Jewish babies were born on his bed at Castle Gandolfo.
Yep.
As Rabbi Daniel Dalin says: “During the Nazi occupation of Rome, three thousand Jews found refuge at one time at the pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. Amazingly, Castel Gandolfo is never mentioned or discussed in the anti-papal writings of many of the pope’s critics. Yet at no other site in Nazi-occupied Europe were as many Jews saved and sheltered for as long a period as at Castel Gandolfo during the Nazi occupation of Rome. Kosher food was provided for the Jews hidden there, where, as George Weigel has noted, Jewish children were born in the private apartments of Pius XII, which became a temporary obstetrical ward.”
“Pius’s critics who do mention Castel Gandolfo argue — ludicrously — that the Jews were sheltered at the pope’s summer residence without direct papal knowledge or involvement. But the fact is that Castel Gandolfo is under the official jurisdiction of the pope and no one but he has the authority to open its doors. According to several eyewitnesses, including Monsignor Carroll-Abbing, that is precisely what Pius XII did.”
http://catholicexchange.com/2005/07/29/94098/
thanks for the link!
By the way, 400 Jews served as papal Palatine guards (at least on paper) and 240 of those lived in the Vatican during the German occupation of Rome. The Palatine guards’ ranks swelled from 300 members to 4,000 during WWII. Most of these new guards were people in hiding who were dependent upon Pius XII and the Vatican passports that he gave them as Palatine guards!
Lapide talks about this in his classic book if I remember correctly.
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