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.
We fought in Russia, we fought in China, and we fought in Vietnam, we fought in Korea, and all over the world.
We did defeat the Soviet Union over a 75 year period regardless of what you think, and it cost us dearly.
Thanks for the ping!
“Mexico was almost 100% baptized members of the catholic denomination, so all the struggle was among Mexicans themselves.”
1) There is no such thing as “the catholic denomination”. Perhaps you mean the Catholic Church, which is not a denomination.
2) Also, no one doubts everyone involved was Mexican. The issue was that the Catholics were persecuted by non-Catholics.
Mexico was almost 100% Catholic, that was just Mexicans fighting for power among themselves.Ignorance of history is dangerous. And apologists for marxism and freemasonry are idiots, willing fools who help the Anti-Christ in his evil pursuits.
There is no ignorance of history or any of the other nonsense that you mentioned, in knowing that almost the entire Mexican population about 98% were fully baptized, members of the Catholic denomination.
Regardless of what they were fighting for, it was Catholics fighting, if intervention was called for, there were many almost purely Catholic nations south of Mexico to intervene.
If you want to explain which countries were supposed to send their Army’s to Mexico, and why, then do so, but don’t just post links.
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.
The KKK sent money - to help persecute the Church.
If you weren’t interested in the idea of military intervention in Mexico that came up in posts 8 and 9, then perhaps you shouldn’t be posting to me about it, but if you do, then you can respond to post 27, frankly though, the subject bores me as well, like I said in post 9, it was internal Mexican stuff, America took in many tens of thousands of Catholic refugees though.
“...it was internal Mexican stuff, ...”
Ignorance of history leads to foolish comments like that.
If you want to explain which countries were supposed to send their Army’s to Mexico, and why, then do so.
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.
Thanks for posting the story.
What do you call it, then? Plutarco Calles was raised by an uncle who was a fanatical atheist who hated Catholics and Catholicism. When Calles became President of Mexico, he effectively made Catholicism illegal, and received awards from Freemasons for doing so.. Priests had to go underground; some were arrested and executed. Since you didn't know about any of that, I'd say maybe you should consider the possibility that there is a little ignorance of history in play.
Thanks for the ping. I’m glad to see the record set straight,
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Mexico was almost 100% catholic and almost everyone involved was Catholic, and as far as intervention, which was the subject. If you want to explain which countries were supposed to send their Army’s to Mexico, and why, then do so, no one is holding you back from giving your opinion on that.
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.
Oh please
Your post is spot-on. I wish more people knew about that period of history, how the Marxists are repeating the same thing here, and the part our very own gov (Woodrow Wilson) played in assisting the Marxist Masons in slaughtering faithful Catholics.
“Reading the mind of another Freeper is a form of “making it personal.”
Acknowledging ignorance is simple observation of fact.
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