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 might add that you seem to be ignoring the off topic flame bait being strewn about here.
Discuss the message, not the messenger.
How is the off topic flame bait “Discuss the message, not the messenger.”?
Since you consider the level of discourse on this thread to be flame bait, then leave this thread and instead post to threads labeled "prayer" "devotional" "ecumenical" or "caucus."
I didn’t know. (I apologize for making it personal.)
You imply no Catholics in the American armed forces from 1917-1992?
That argument can’t be grounded in reality.
I don’t have any idea what in the world you are talking about.
To: detective
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.
21 posted on 6/15/2013 7:16:58 PM by ansel12
We being referred to as ‘Protestant America’ in the prior post.
John Hancock has no idea what is discussed here either.
Sorry, but searching for things that aren’t there just wastes everyone’s time.
**The Catholics and Jews voted about the same for JFK, 80 and 82%.
The Catholics and Jews both always loved and voted for FDR, until he finally died as our only American ‘President for life’.
So isn’t just the Jews who loved those guys.**
It has been discussed on a thread about slandering Catholics that blanket statements such as these are not acceptable.
Can you use a qualifier word? “Some” Catholics? “Some” Jews, a “few” Catholics, a “few Jews??
Even the word “many” would help, “many” Catholics, “many” Jews.
This is the way that you interpret everything? Do you think that American Jews are all voting for a Kennedy?
To: NYer
The Catholic POPE did 1000 times more than AMERICAN JEWS did to help Jews during the Holocaust!! And the American JEWS VOTE FOR THE KENNEDY’s whose patriarch was a NAZI SUPPORTER!!!
4 posted on 6/15/2013 4:09:55 PM by Ann Archy
During the 75 year period you discuss the politicians in the U.S. were supporting the former Soviet Union most of the time either openly or covertly.
The Communist government was bankrupt and its economy had failed so badly it was on the brink of collapse when the FDR Administration recognized the former Soviet Union and began supporting it in 1933. FDR's Administration was pro Soviet.
The Soviet military received the atomic bomb, the MIG jet and most of their technology from the United States. Communists in the American government assured that. The Truman Administration facilitated the expansion of the Soviet Union into Eastern Europe and helped the Communists take over China. Truman admired Stalin and compared him to Tom Pendergast the Kansas City criminal and Democrat boss who was Truman's mentor and father figure and who took Truman from a failed and bankrupt storekeeper to a politician and eventually Senator.
The Truman Administration worked with the communists to take over South Korea and hopefully eventually Japan. When MacArthur's outnumbered, underequiped army defeated them with minimal casualties MacArhur was fired and the army was left to fight under rules of engagement that assured heavy casualties and no victory. Truman was about to surrender South Korea through negotiations when he left the presidency.
The U.S. State Department facilitated Castro's rise in Cuba and murdered South Vietnamese President Diem who had defeated the Communists. The Americans then undermined the governments of South Vietnam and worked to get the U.S. to unconditionally surrender. After Nixon carpet bombed North Vietnam to finally get a truce the U.S. government withdrew all support for South Vietnam and allowed the North Vietnamese to win.
The U.S. propped up the failed Soviet economy throughout the 1970’s. The Carter Administration helped the communists win victory after victory from central America to Afghanistan.
Only when Reagan became president did the U.S. begin to oppose the Communism and the Soviet evil empire. Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul defeated the Communists. Most U.S. politicians tried to undermine Reagan and sabotage his efforts.
The whole 75 year war you speak of simply never existed.
ah, but FDR didn’t send Catholics back to Nazi Germany to be KILLED.
Equating the corrupt leadership working to betray our Constitution with the millions who served in good faith to preserve our Constitution is a major mistake. One easy to make when you take the "academic" view but one those faithful patriots who served cannot ignore.
At least that's the way I see it.
What in the world are you talking about?
I’m just answering your post to me.
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