Posted on 06/15/2013 4:03:11 PM PDT by NYer
A new film, Under the Roman Sky, starring James Cromwell as Pius XII, details the heroic efforts of Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome from the Nazis, after Rome came under Nazi occupation subsequent to the fall of Mussolini following the Allied invasion of southern Italy in 1943.
Rabbi David G. Dalin, in his review of a Moral Reckoning, a tome by Daniel Goldhagen which sought to blame Catholicism for the Holocaust, details the efforts of the Pope to save the Jews of Rome:
Goldhagen’s centerpiece is the outrageous allegation that Pius XII “did not lift a finger to forfend the deportations of the Jews of Rome” or of other parts of Italy “by instructing his priests and nuns to give the hunted Jewish men, women and children sanctuary.” Much of this is lifted straight from anti-Pius books like Susan Zuccotti’s Under His Very Windows–and thus Goldhagen repeats the errors of those books and adds extras, all his own, in his determined attempt to extend their thesis into over-the-top railings against the sheer existence of Catholicism.
GOLDHAGEN IS APPARENTLY UNAWARE (or, more probably, doesn’t care) that many distinguished scholars have declared Zuccotti’s book “not history but guesswork,” as the historian Owen Chadwick put it. Zuccotti’s principal charge, mindlessly repeated by Goldhagen, is that there is no credible evidence that Pius XII ever explicitly ordered his subordinates to assist Jews in Italy. In fact, there is a whole body of evidence that proves Pius did. In 1964 Cardinal Paolo Dezza, the wartime rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, published a signed article stating unequivocally that during the German occupation of Rome, Pius XII explicitly told him to help “persecuted Jews” and do so “most willingly.” In his 2001 book Gli ebrei salvati da Pio XII, Antonio Gaspari compiles additional testimonies. And more recently, Gaspari came across new documents, establishing that as early as 1940 Pius XII explicitly ordered his secretary of state, Luigi Maglione, and Maglione’s assistant, Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Paul VI), to send money to Jews protected by the bishop of Campagna.
The Nazi deportations of Italy’s Jews began in October 1943. Pope Pius ordered churches and convents throughout Italy to shelter Jews, and in Rome itself 155 convents and monasteries sheltered five thousand Jews throughout the German occupation. Pius himself granted sanctuary within the walls of the Vatican, and his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, to countless homeless Jews. Goldhagen’s book conspicuously lacks any discussion of Castel Gandolfo, which enjoys a unique place in the annals of Jewish rescue (and Catholic rescuers) during the Holocaust: In no other site in all of Nazi-occupied Europe were as many Jews saved and sheltered for as long a period.
The recently released memoirs of Adolf Eichmann also contain new evidence disproving Goldhagen’s claim. The memoirs confirm that Vatican protests played a crucial part in obstructing Nazi intentions for Roman Jews. Eichmann wrote that the Vatican “vigorously protested the arrest of Jews, requesting the interruption of such action.” At Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem, Israeli attorney general Gideon Hausner said, “the pope himself intervened personally in support of the Jews of Rome.” Documents introduced at the trial provide further evidence of Vatican efforts to halt the arrest and deportation of Roman Jews.
Over 6,000 Roman Jews were secretly sheltered within churches, convents and monasteries in and around Rome during the occupation. Other Jews were the recipients of baptismal and birth records forged by Church officials. When the Nazis sought a large sum of gold from the Jews of Rome, Pius offered to pay it, although the Jews were able to pay the sum without his help. The evidence that these efforts were done at the command of the Pope mounts each day:
This network gave passports and money to Jewish families so that they could escape.
I often brought money to Jewish homes.
At least 12 German priests in Rome were allowed to help me.”
The network’s intervention had already begun even before Germany had invaded Italy.
After the liberation of Rome by the Allies, a delegation of Roman Jews came to the Pope to thank him for his protection of them during the occupation. Pius responded as follows: “For centuries, Jews have been unjustly treated and despised. It is time they were treated with justice and humanity, God wills it and the Church wills it. St. Paul tells us that the Jews are our brothers. They should also be welcomed as friends.”
The efforts of Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome from the Nazis was in microcosm a reflection of the efforts he made to save the Jews of Europe from the Nazis. Everyone knew this at the time. During and after the war Pius XII was hailed as both an enemy of the Nazis and a friend of the Jews. No one disputed this. It was only after his death in 1958 that a campaign of lies, originally begun as part of Soviet propaganda against the Church, was instigated to smear the good name of this great and holy man. These calumnies have been seized upon in recent years by those who hate the Church, as one more weapon they use in their never-ending war against the Church. The historical record is crystal clear as to Pius and always has been crystal clear. He did more than any other single man or woman to aid the Jews of Europe at their time of greatest peril, and he deserves to be honored for it.
I saw that post, did you see post 8?
I didn’t hijack anything, I responded to posts 4 and 8.
I have also responded to your attack on me in post 61 and your continued posting to me, so far every one of your posts on this thread, is to me.
The thread has been hijacked to Meheeko, which incidentally is unmentioned in posts cuatro or ocho. (I thought Cuba was a common hijacking destination.)
Well, I don’t know why you want to keep posting at me, but it seems that you will.
Post 9 was in response to post 8 that describes situations or history in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, Mexico, Africa and the Middle East, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, that I disagreed with and that encompassed my father’s and mine, and my brother’s time in the military, and my nation’s engagement in combat in almost all those areas.
Responding to post 8 made sense, but I think it is right to point out that other posters got way off topic when they tried to get overly involved in Mexican history.
They even avoided the relevant question of which countries were supposed to send their Army’s to Mexico, and why, and if Mexico needed to be invaded, then perhaps the many Catholic nations south of it could have invaded, or perhaps the Catholic nations of Spain, or France could have gone to help.
That is correct each one has been a polite request that you stick to the topic of the thread. If you do that I will be glad to engage you in that subject, but I will not be baited into your thread hijack.
Certain Protestant types on this board enjoy trolling seemingly innocent Catholic-related threads and trying to prove some simplistic, juvenile non sequitur that is utterly unrelated to the topic at hand. These posters, fortunately, come across as the mouth-breathing idiots they are, as evidenced by the fact that even the most diehard members of the FR Catholic bashing caucus tend to stay away from discussions where this occurs.
His reward was to be slandered by Jews as Hitler’s Pope.
Beating a dead horse does not win them points and only serves lower our already Marianas trench level of their debating techniques and abilities.
Who knows what your views are on anything, you would need to post one for us to know.
Posting nothings to me sure isn’t helping the thread.
A thread consisting of veiled personal attacks and inaccurate claims is hardly relevant and helpful.
I notice that you guys don’t seem interested in all the posting related to Mexico, is that because you don’t see that as off topic?
The topic is Pope Pius and how the Catholic Church is responsible for rescuing numerous Jews from under the very noses of the Nazis. If you wish do discuss a different matter than start a new thread. This is my third polite request for you to stop hijacking the thread.
The topic is Pope Pius and how the Catholic Church is responsible for rescuing numerous Jews from under the very noses of the Nazis. If you wish do discuss a different matter than start a new thread. This is my third polite request for you to stop hijacking the thread.
Your persistence in posting the same thing at me while not responding to anything, reminds me that at some point the moderator will point out to you to lay-off the simple badgering.
When a guy jumps on a thread to just keep posting nothing at a poster over and over and refuses to discuss with or respond to him, it just isn’t useful.
I am politely asking ansell2 to stick to the topic of the thread so that I may respond something on topic.
No one is forcing him to continue to try and bait me into an off topic thread hijack.
The Chief Rabbi of Rome was so moved by the pope’s efforts to save the Jews that he converted to Catholicism, and took the pope’s name as his baptismal name.
This whole mythology was created by the KGB-directed, revisionist play, “The Deputy,” in 1963.
Who do you like tonight - Spurs or Heat?
You have made your single post clear, many times, at some point it needs to cease.
And since you started posting to me, no one is forcing you to continue posting to me.
Did you read post 8, how about post 4?
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