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.He (PIUS XII) was not calloused, cowardly or hypocritical or an anti-semite, but he was an accurate embodiment of his churches very long standing overt dotrinal inability, which I have detailed here, to see jews as worthy of the same moral regard as christians.

If the church has a "doctrinal inability" to see Jews as worthy as Christians, then be assured that it is a human failing on the part of some Christians, and not a teaching that has been given from Christ.

You and your bretheren clearly have a good heart about this, but my question is--what will prevent us from going back to reading Matthew just as it is written, once the holocaust is just a dim footnote in history books? Please go back to post #52 of this thread and think about the dilemma with a bit more of an eye for the potential for renewed agony that hides in the details of the Gospels. In the long run, there is no point in being good, if you also aren't being smart. God gave us a brain, as well as a heart. If the Catholic church can wrestle with this problem out in the open, everyone else can too.

...but my question is--what will prevent us from going back to reading Matthew just as it is written, once the holocaust is just a dim footnote in history books?

Then let's consider Matthew 27:25. The crowd did indeed reject Jesus, the Messiah. They thought so little of the one who had come to redeem him that they were willing to accept responsibility for his death. Of course, literally, they were not the ones who killed him. The Romans, in league with the Sanhedrin, did that. Yet they clearly rejected Him and didn't care whether they were held responsible.

Some commentators believe that the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (about 40 years or one generation later - 40 years is thought of as a time of testing in the Scriptures) was the direct fulfillment of Matthew 27:25(and a direct fulfillment of Matthew 24:1-3.) Jerusalem fell, the Temple was destroyed, and the Old Covenant era came to an end.

God alone has the perogative to give and take life as He sees fit. This is not a perogative of mankind. So we can use this verse to discuss Israel's tragic rejection, as a nation, of the Messiah (though of course not every individual Jew rejected Jesus - some receive Him even today.) But to say that this means it is okay for Hitler to kill 6 million Jews, or for Christians to hold Jews responsible today for the crucifixion of Jesus is, to say the least, a real stretch.

Of course it all worked out for God's glory. If Jesus had not been crucified as the Passover lamb there would be no forgiveness of sins. And then no one could be saved.