Posted on 01/15/2005 2:12:47 PM PST by Embraer2004
Translated J.R. Orellana
So it reveals the Catholic newspaper Avvenire according to statements made by former Nazi General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff, who says that he personally received orders from the Führer to kidnap the Pope
EFE El Universal online Roma, Italia Saturday 15 january 2005
13:24 Adolf Hitler had planned to kidnap Pope Pius XII 1944 due to his position against Nazism and his collaboration with the Jews, according to today's edition of the daily Avvenire, which is based on testimony from former Nazi General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff.
According to the paper, Wolff's information is found in a written declaration in 1972 that pertains to the Nüremberg process and is among the documents filed in the beatification process of Pius XII. Avvenire claims that the former general received personal orders from Hitler to kidnap Pius XII on May 1944, when the General was to visit the Pontiff.
The audience occurred on 10 May 1944 and that is where the German General informed the Pope of Hitler's intentions.
As a proof of sincerity, the Pope asked Wolff to liberate two deathy-row inmates, which he did on 3 June 1944.
Once kidnapped, the plan was to transfer the Pontiff to the Liechtenstein Castle, in Württemberg, adds the newspaper, which also has collected documents which showed the Vatican's preoccupation with an imminent Nazi action against the Pope.
Some historians, such as Andrea Tornielli, author of "Piuso XII, The Pope of the Jews", have already pushed forward the theory that Hitler intended to deport the Pontiff in revenge of his presumptive help to the Jews and point out that it was Wolff's opposition to the Fuhrer that prevented such action.
In spite of his supposed collaboration to save the Jews, Pius XII , at the end of World War II, was severely criticized for his apparent passivity in the face of the Holocaust.
The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican
This biography of the Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty who led an underground movement to help Allied Soldiers and Jewish people.
Only one catch -- this book goes for $100 used, and was only printed in the 1960s.
Gregrory Peck made the TV Movie The Scarlet and the Black based on this true story.
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty's story is told by author JP Gallagher. I am unable to find the ISBN number for this book.
Old news guys - not anything new to history buffs.
"He had the Pope up to the Eagle's Nest for weekend barbacues."
Does every smart person know how to spell correctly, as well? Your post is inane.
Ping.
With your kind of damning, i hope you don't get ZOTed on your first day. I hope you dont end up like "Change on the Bayou."
I think ProudFundamentalist got pulled after being here 1 DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! his name doesnt come up.
RIP.
Yeah, and then refusing to reveal the names of the Jewish children that they hid. To this day the Church refuses to reveal the Jewish background of those Jewish children who were torn from their Jewish religious heritage while their parents died because they were Jews.
What we have here is yet another person who doesn't like Pius XII. Please enlighten me and give me absolute proof of your claim.
where? The Democratic Underground?
Yes, Check out the DU lounge.
"So I'm on Free Republic doing an experiment"
This is the thread. We will post no DU links here at Free Republic.
He's putting up a pretty good front, but some of the things he's said (like references to "our Jewish friends" and "no WMDs in Iraq") seem a bit jarring and discordant, if you know what I mean.
Vicious rumors from some non-Catholic critics of Pius XII.
PIUS XII AND THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST
Catholic apologetics must address the subject of Pope Pius XII and the Jewish Holocaust. Since 1963, when Rolf Hochhuth's play THE DEPUTY indicted Pius XII for complicity in the Nazi genocide, it has been a commonplace of editorial writers that the Vatican was a silent, and therefore guilty, bystander to the murder of six million Jews.
But an examination of the facts puts to rout all the charges which are made against the pope by certain parties, none of whom are serious historians. The following are the main points to consider:
--Before he became Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Pacelli drafted the papal encyclical, MIT BRENNEDNDER SORGE, in which Pius XI denounced Nazi paganism and racism; the document was smuggled into Germany in March, 1937 and read from all Catholic pulpits, which infuriated the Nazis;
--It is well documented by Jewish scholars like Joseph Lichten of B'nai B"rith that Pius used the assets of the Vatican to ransom Jews from the Nazis and that the Vatican under Pius ran an extensive network of hide-outs. Even the Pope's summer residence, Castel Gondolfo, was used to hide fugitive Jews. The Pope, moreover, took personal repsonsibility for the children of deported Jews;
--Largely as a result of the Church's efforts, the Jews in Italy had a far higher survival rate under Nazi occupation than was the case in other countries; estimates of the number of Jews saved by the Vatican's efforts range up to several hundred thousand; this was one reason why the chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism at the end of the war;
--In appreciation of what Pius did for the Jews, the World Jewish Congress made a large cash gift to the Vatican in 1945; in the same year, Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem sent a "special blessing" to the Pope "for his lifesaving efforts on behalf of the Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy"; and when Pius died in 1958, Israel's Foreign Minister Golda Meir gave a him moving eulogy at the United Nations for the same reason;
--What was to be gained by Pius's getting up on a soap box and lashing out at the Nazis? Both the International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches came to the same conclusion as the Vatican: relief efforts for the Jews would be more effective if the agencies remained relatively quiet; yet, you never hear anybody attacking the Red Cross for its "silence" about the Holocaust;
--In 1942, the Catholic hierarchy of Amsterdam spoke out vigorously against the Nazi treatment of the Jews; the Nazi response was a redoubling of round-ups and deportations; by the end of the war, 90 percent of the Jews in Amsterdam were liquidated. Jewish relief officials were in complete agreement that a public attack by the Vatican against the Nazis would a) not have the slightest effect on Hitler and b) would seriously jeopardize the lives of Jews who were being hidden in convents, monasteries, etc.;
--Nevertheless, Pius's Christmas message in 1942 decried the fact that hundreds of thousands were being persecuted "solely because of their race or ancestory." The German ambassador to the Vatican complained that Pius was "clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews." A NEW YORK TIMES editorial on Christmas day, 1942 praised Pius as "a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent";
--The scurrilous lie that Pius somehow quietly abetted the Final Solution began with Rolf Hochhuth's 1962 play THE DEPTURY, which is a total fabrication. One does not need to be a psychologist to understand why a German playwright might do this; it's called guilt transference;
--Finally, apropos of the Vatican's 1933 concordat with the Nazi government, which Pius XI signed with great misgiving: The Vatican throughout history has had to sign concordats with goverments of which it disapproves; the Church has a fundaental duty to serve Catholics wherever they may be and it must have a MODUS OPERANDI with all governments, even (or especially) bad ones. The German concordat guaranteed Catholic marriages, protected Catholic education and allowed the creation of new dioceses; it was not meant to endorse the Nazi government, which the Church condemned on many occasions.
That is a simple outline of the case. The Church's record was not perfect, but how many other institutions did this much?
(A version of this memorandum by George Sim Johnston originally appeared in CRISIS magazine.)
I didn't even get a chance to read what you wrote, and I STILL think you're a loser,
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