Most Rev. Kevin
Britt, Supreme Chaplain of the Order of Alhambra, Illustrious Supreme Commander
Angelo Miele, Honorable Past Supreme Commanders, Distinguished Members
of the Council of Viziers (Present and Past), Convention Director Roger
Reid, My Brother Priests, Sir Nobles and Sultanas, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would
like to speak to you this evening on a currently important subject, the
beatification cause of Eugenio Pacelli, the pope who is known in history
as Pius XII.
Last November 4th, Aharon Lopez, the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy
See declared that Pope Pius XII should not be beatified until after the
Holy See has released all the documents about the Pope and the Holocaust.
In reply, I wrote to The New York Times in a letter published
(Nov. 5th) saying that few of those who have criticized Pope Pius XII have
used the documents already published by the Vatican about the Pope and
the Jews during World War II.
Of course, that letter changed few minds within and without the Jewish
community, as evident in those who continue to denigrate what Pope Pius
XII did for the Jews during the Holocaust. For example, one
can examine the July-August
issue of Commentary, a work published by the American
Jewish Committee. That issue has letters, including one from me,
reacting to the article, "The Pope, the Church, and the Jews," in
the April issue, written by Robert S. Wistrich. In the July-August
issue that author was allowed to respond to those letters.
However, my experience in those two cases differed. With The New
York Times, there was a careful exchange back and forth on what that
newspaper wanted to excise or omit from my letter. This was not the case
with Commentary, which eliminated at least a third of my letter,
specifically items that would prove favorable to the cause of Pope Pius
XII. And, I found that was true with at least two other persons whose
letters are also in that same July-August issue of Commentary.
What, specifically, were the excisions from my letter? First, my
statement that the documents published by the Holy See (especially volumes
6, 8, 9, and 10) show that the Vatican intervened close to 1,500 times
on behalf of victims of the Nazis. Second, my mention that the author
of the April article was accepting the hostile view of Pope Pius XII by
playwriter Rolf Hochhuth, who had been a member of the Nazi youth movement.
Third, my citation of a study by Harold C. Deutch that the Pope had been
involved in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, thereby showing that Pius
XII was not lacking in courage. Fourth, my enumeration of both Catholic
and Jewish scholars who have written extensively in defense of Pope
Pius XII. And, fifth, my suggestion that both sides, Jews and Catholics,
ought to heed the Last Testament of Pope John XXIII who said: "Love one
another, my dear children! See rather what unites, not what may separate
you from one another." Clearly, this sort of manipulation of the
truth in the editing of my letter shows the nature of the challenge that
faces Catholics who engage in such a controversy.
And that reaction of Commentary was not exceptional. For one
reason, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been very
active against the cause of Pius XII. Last September 10th, he
sent a letter to Pope John Paul II vehemently opposing the beatification.
And, in his address in New York City for the 19th Annual State of
World Jewry on May 13th of this year, the Rabbi issued a lengthy attack
on Pius XII "because elevating him to sainthood desecrates the memory of
the Holocaust." Indeed the Rabbi was giving a total rejection
to all those testimonies by Jewish leaders who had praised Pius XII
for all that he did for their people during World War II.
Moreover, in October of this year, Viking Press will publish a book by
John Cornwell, an English writer who, perhaps to appear more credible,
presents himself as a practicing Catholic. Entitled Hitler’s Pope,
it is a direct attack on Pope Pius XII alleging to tell "the
secret history of Pius XII" through exhaustive research. If Cornwell’s
work on the death of Pope John Paul I is any indication, his documentation
will be very thin.
Actually, many of the alleged failures of Pius XII are the products of
sensational imaginations rather than testimonies from historical documents.
In reviewing some of these alleged failures of Pope Pius XII, we find that
they are objectively false. To understand them, I will state the
common allegations and give the proper replies to them.
1. That the Pope was Silent!
R/ His Christmas messages of 1941 and 1942 prove otherwise as the editorials
from The New York Times on those Christmas Days testify.
2. That the Pope was afraid of Adolf Hitler!
R/ The Pope was not afraid to be incarcerated in a concentration camp or
to face death as exemplified in the early years of the war by Pius’ involvement
in the plot to get rid of the Nazi leader.
3. That the Pope was pro-German!
R/ While Eugenio Pacelli appreciated what was good in German culture, he
did not approve what was bad in German politics. For he criticized
the Nazis about forty times when he was papal nuncio there from 1917
to 1929. And the Nazis were not pleased with him as Papal Secretary of
State and with his election as Pope in 1939.
4. That the Pope was anti-Semitic!
R/ This is against those who defended the Pope like Golda Meir, Israeli
Foreign Minister, as well as a number of rabbis, including Rabbi Israel
Zolli who converted to Roman Catholicism after the war and took the name
of Eugenio to honor Pius XII for his help to the Jews.
5. That the Pope was indifferent to the fate of the Jews!
R/ Certainly, the Pope was not indifferent to the fate of the Jew.
The Nazis got the message when the Pope spoke out using the indirect language
of diplomacy to condemn them in his public statements during the war.
6. That the Pope was anti-Soviet!
R/ As Cardinal Secretary of State, the future Pope had helped to compose
encyclicals against both Communists and Nazis. If Pius were partial
during World War II, it was towards the Soviets when he urged American
Catholics to let up on their opposition when FDR wanted to
help the Russians.
7. That the Pope was only interested in helping baptized Jews!
R/ That is not true since the Church provided fabricated documents for
thousands of unbaptized Jews. Anyone who saw the film, The Assisi
Underground, understands this.
8. That individual Catholics, not the Pope, helped the Jews!
R/ These individuals acted on directions from the Pope himself, as Angelo
Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, has testified.
9. That Jewish organizations urged the Pope to speak out!
R/ Those organizations requested Pius’ help but they did not want him to
focus outright attention on Jews and risk having them rounded up.
"If the Pope had spoken out, " Denmark’s Rabbi said, "Hitler would have
probably massacred more than six million Jews and perhaps ten times ten
million Catholics, if he had the power." The Jews wanted effective
actions, not meaningless words.
10. That the Pope should have been more prophetic!
R/ The Christmas Day editorials of The New York Times for 1941 and
1942 praised the Pope ("a lonely voice"), precisely because he had been
prophetic in employing the indirect language of diplomacy.
11. That the Pope did not save 860,000 Jews!
R/ It was a Jewish diplomat and rabbi, Pinchas Lapide, in his study, Three
Popes and the Jews (1967) who claimed this and it was accepted by Jews
themselves because the author had based his conclusion on documents in
the archives of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
And, finally, number 12. That Pius XII should not be beatified!
R/ The reasons for beatification must be based on objective evidence.
Thousands of documents gathered by those engaged in the Pope’s cause prove
that he is worthy of beatification and eventual canonization contrary to
the letter which Rabbi Marvin Hier sent to Pope John Paul II last September
10th.
Having reviewed those allegations, what explains such opposition to the
beatification of Pope Pius XII? There are, I believe, at least
three developments in our time which, if taken together, may help to explain
it.
First, there is the widespread ignorance of the past. Just as it
took almost a generation after World War II for knowledge of the
Holocaust to become widespread, so too has this been the case with respect
to what the Catholic Church did during those war years. Even though more
than a decade has passed since the documents of the Holy See were published,
there are many scholars who have not heard of them or have not used them.
Second, a later generation of Jews has come to realize that their own people
really did not do all they should have done to save their own. When they
find that the Catholic Church under Pope Pius XII saved almost a million
Jews and that no less an authority than a foreign minister of Israel, Golda
Meir --- not to mention many more Jewish leaders before her ---, had praised
the Pope after the war, it is an embarrassment that they, understandably,
want to avoid. Consequently, by attacking Pope Pius XII, this generation
is able to satisfy some unknown psychological need in a manner that can
be characterized, for want of a better expression, as a form of occult
compensation.
And, third, there is the old virus of anti-Catholicism which still shapes
many views in American society. I recall the famous Washington
lawyer Edward Bennett Williams with whom I used to have breakfast when
he visited the College of the Holy Cross as the chairman of its board of
trustees. One morning the question of anti-Catholicism came up. This
was years after John F. Kennedy’s historic election as President was regarded
by some to mark the end of such bigotry. Quite the contrary
was the reaction of Mr. Williams. Any Catholic who was conscious
of what was going on in the 1970s and the 1980s knew that anti-Catholicism
was not dead.
Certainly, much of the opposition to the beatification of Pope Pius XII
can be placed at the doorstep of anti-Catholicism because many people in
our society do not like what the Roman Catholic Church under Pope John
Paul II teaches on a wide spectrum of issues: abortion, capital punishment,
contraception, divorce, homosexuality, marriage, pornography, same sex
marriages, woman priests, etc. And, among those anti-Catholics
are even some Roman Catholics who have fallen away from their religious
beliefs and practices but justify their situation by engaging in such bigotry.
Once Pope Pius XII’s accusers are challenged for the objective evidence,
they turn and run or resort to personal attacks about one’s knowledge or
the quality of one’s scholarship. That method, of course, is the
last refuge of the bigot, not the person of reason who, regardless of religious
persuasion, honestly seeks to pursue the truth and learn about what
has happened in the past.
Therefore, in speaking about the beatification cause of Pope Pius XII,
I hope that I have succeeded in enlightening you so that you can be prepared
to separate myth from reality and, thereby, to help the truth emerge.
In this way, we can all do our share in making sure that the gates
of hell, as evident in the fabrications being circulated, will not
prevail against God’s Church. And, at the same time as Alhambrans, also
do our part in this ecumenical age, to build a dialogue with non-Catholics,
on what unites rather than on what divides us.
Thank you very much for honoring me this evening and God bless you all!
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
"The Jesuits
and the Holocaust," Journal of Church and State, 23 (1981),
241-158
"Lest We Forget,"
(Letters to the Editor), The Boston Globe, 31 May 1984
"Catholic
Clergy were sent to Dachau in WWII," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston
Globe, 8 May 1985
"Kolbe was
First Victim," (Letters to the Editor), The Church World, 9 May
1985
"Kolbe was
a Martyr," (Letters to the Editor), The Church World, 16
May 1985
"A Jew and
a Carmelite," (Letters to the Editor), The New York Times, 12 February
1986
"Some Reflections
on Catholics and the Holocaust," America, 155 (1986), 424-427
"Who knew
and when?" (Letters to the Editor), National Catholic Reporter,
13 February 1987
"The Pope
Bases his Actions on Scriptural Principles," (Letters to the Editor), The
Catholic Free Press, 24 July 1987
"Five Heroic
Catholics of the Holocaust," Annals of Saint Anthony's Shrine, 16:
1 (1987), 47-55
"On the Pope
and Waldheim," (Letters to the Editor), The Church World, 20 August
1987
"Many Jews
were Saved," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston Globe, 18 September
1987
"The Cardinal
of the Persecuted Jews," Annals of Saint Anthony's Shrine,
16: 2 (1988), 13-18
"Catholic
Church Helped Jews in Nazi Germany," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston
Globe, 12 November 1988
The Jesuits
and the Third Reich (Edwin Mellen Press, 1989)
"Mindszenty
and Jews," (Letters to the Editor), The New York Times, 23 September
1991
Review of
The
Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust (1992) in The Catholic
Historical Review, 78, No. 2 (April 1992), 322
Review of
Unholy
Trinity (1991), in The Catholic Historical Review, 78, No. 4
(October 1992), 675-677
"NOTES AND
COMMENTS: Letters to the Editor," in The Catholic Historical Review,
78, No. 4 (October 1922), 716-718
"Pope Pius
Raised Voice Against Tyranny," (Letters to the Editor), Forward: The
National Jewish Newspaper, 9 April 1993
"Catholics
and the Holocaust," The Fenwick Review, May 1994
"Vatican Spoke
out Against Atrocities," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston Globe,
27 November 1994
"Priests were
Victims of the Nazis, too," (Letters to the Editor), The Worcester
Telegram & Gazette, 11 April 1995
Review of
God
and Humanity in Auschwitz (1955) in The Catholic Historical Review,
82, No. 2 (April 1996), 283-284
"On Documentary
Evidence," (Letters to the Editor), America, 16 November 1996
"Pius XII
and the Jews," (Letters to the Editor), The Church World, 20 March
1997
"Voice of
the Pope was Raised," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston Sunday Globe,
26 October 1997
"Pope Pius
XII," (Letters to the Editor), National Catholic Reporter,12 December
1997
"Other Holocaust
'Blesseds'," (Letters to the Editor), The Pilot, 12 December 1997
"The Actions
of Pope Pius XII," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston Sunday Globe,
29 March 1998
Review of
Yours
is a Precious Witness (1997), in The Catholic Historical Review,
84, No. 2 (April 1998), 368-369
"Father McBrien's
Article Fails to Reflect an Appreciation of the Context of the Times,"
(Commentary), The Church World, 23 April 1998
"It's time
to lay off," (Letters to the Editor), The Catholic Free Press, 24
April 1998
"A Distorted
History on Yugoslav Cardinal," The Boston Globe, 20 August 1998
"Old Charges
Rehashed in Story on Pius XII," (Letters to the Editor), The Boston
Globe, 8 September 1999
"Vatican and
the Holocaust," (Letters to the Editor), The New York Times,
5 November 1998
"No Smoking
Gun," (Letters to the Editor), National Catholic Reporter, 18 December
1998
"Pius XII
and Hitler," (Letters to the Editor), The Tablet, 30 January 1999
"How one Carmelite
made a Difference," [Review of Pere Jacques (1998)], in The Pilot,
19 February 1999
"Twelve Objections," Inside the Vatican, October 1999, vii-viii
"Letters
from Readers," Commentary, July-August 1999[Quoted in The Jerusalem
Post by Marilyn Henry in article,"How Pious Was Pius XII?" 6 October
1999]
"Author Overreaches
in Treatment of Pius XII and WW II," [Review of John Cornwell's Hitler's
Pope (1999)], in The Pilot, 22 October 1999
"Jesuits
and Jews During the Holocaust," Yearbook of the Society of Jesus 2000
(Rome,
1999), 156-158
Review
of Hitler's Pope (1999) in The Catholic Historical Review,
86 (January 2000), 154
"After
the Pope's Apology, a Range of Voices," (Letters to the Editor), The
New York Times, 16 March 2000
"Not Hitler's Pope," [Review of Ronald J. Rychlak's Hitler, the War,
and the Pope], New Oxford Review, LXVII, No. 9 (October 2000),
40-43
"Righteous"
(Letters [Pius XII]), America, October 7, 2000
"Historians'
Views," (From Our Readers), The Detroit Free Press, February 27,
2001
Review of Susan Zuccotti's Under His Very Windows (2001), The
Catholic Historical Review, 87 (April 2001), 343-345
"Solid
History" (Letters [Pius XII]), America, April 23-30, 2001
"Here
We go Again," [Review of Michael Phayer's The Catholic Church and the
Holocaust, 1930-1965], New Oxford Review, LXVIII, No. 6 (June
2001), 43-45
"Pius XII Helped the Jews," (Letter to Editor), The [New London,
Ct.] Day, Tuesday, July 3, 2001
"Controversy: Pius XII and the Holocaust by Kevin Madigan and Critics"
(Letters to Editor), Commentary, January 2002, 14-15
"What Actually Happened" (Letters [Pius XII]), America, February
25, 2002, 37-38
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SOME
ISSUES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
DEALING WITH THE ACTIONS OF POPE PIUS XII AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON BEHALF
OF JEWS AND OTHER VICTIMS OF THE NAZIS
SEPTEMBER OF 1939:
Following the outbreak of the war at the start
of the month, the newspaper has articles and editorials this month dealing
with the disclosures by the Vatican of Nazi atrocities against Jews and
non-Jews in Poland as, for example, on the 15th ("Pope Begs Powers to Humanize
War"); the 21st ("Pope Acts to Aid Polish Catholics"); and the 24th
("Pope Deeply Anxious on Poland Situation").
OCTOBER 27, 1939:
Story says of Pope's first encyclical:
"It is Germany that stands condemned."
OCTOBER 28, 1939:
"Pope Condemns Dictators, Treaty Violators,
Racism; Urges Restoring of Poland"
JANUARY 23, 1940:
"Vatican Denounces Atrocities in Poland; Germans
Called Even Worse than Russians"
"Jews and Poles are being herded into separate
ghettos,
heremetically sealed and pitifully inadequate for the economic subsistence
of the millions destined to live there."
JANUARY 24, 1940:
"Vatican Amplifies Atrocity Reports / Weight of
Papacy Put Behind Exposure of Nazi Excesses in Poland."
"Poland’s Agony" (editorial on same day):
"Now the Vatican has spoken, with authority that
cannot be questioned, and has confirmed the worst intimations of terror
which have come out of the Polish darkness."
JANUARY 29, 1940:
"Memorandum Presented to Pope"
"Mass Shootings in Poland Laid to Nazis by
Cardinal"
MARCH 14, 1940:
"Pope is Emphatic About Just Peace:
Jews’ Rights Defended"
DECEMBER 25, 1940:
Editorial praises pope for condemnation
of "Hitler's system.".
DECEMBER 25, 1941:
"Pope Broadcasts Five Peace
Points: Condemns Aggression, Curbs on Minorities, Total War and Persecutions"
Editorial speaks of Pope: "a lonely
voice"
JANUARY 24, 1942:
"Pope is Said to Plead for
Jews Listed for Removal From France"
MAY 14, 1942:
"Pope Pleads for Peace But
Doubts War's End Now"
JUNE 8, 1942:
News article praises German
Catholic leaders for "speaking up against the Nazi regime."
AUGUST 6, 1942:
"Pope is Said to Plead for
Jews Listed for Removal from France"
AUGUST 27, 1942:
In article, "Vichy Seizes
Jews; Pope Pius Ignored," it is stated:
"These arrests are continuing
despite appeals to Marshal Henri Philippe Petain . . .
by leading Catholic clergymen, with the support of the Pope."
DECEMBER 25, 1942:
"Pope Assails Peril of Godless
State"
Editorial speaks of Pope:
"a lonely voice"
FEBRUARY 7, 1943:
"Pope Pledges Aid to Jews"
JUNE 27, 1943:
News article quotes Vatican
Radio in defense of Jews.
AUGUST 13, 1943:
News article speaks of German
priests imprisoned at Dachau for resistance to Nazis.
SEPTEMBER 6, 1943:
News article applauds pastoral
of German bishops condemning Hitler and cites leadership of Pius XII.
OCTOBER 17, 1943:
"Pope Said to Help in Ransoming
Jews."
DECEMBER 5, 1943:
Speaking of Vatican:
"Denounces Decision
to Intern and Strip All Jews in Italy"
FEBRUARY 4, 1944:
Editorial defends Vatican
against Soviet charge that it is pro-Nazi.
FEBRUARY 9,1944:
"Vatican Repeats
Pledge of Haven"
"Pope Lodges
Strong Protest"
JULY 6, 1944:
"Pope urges Hungary
to protect Jews"
JULY 27, 1944:
News story about Rome's
Chief Rabbi thanking the Vatican after the liberation of the city from
the Nazis for the help given to Jews during the occupation.
AUGUST 21, 1944:
Anne O'Hare
McCormick on Pope's priority in saving Jews
NOVEMBER 16, 1944:
"Pope Pleads on Warsaw --
Plight of City in the Hands of Nazis Is Appalling, He Asserts"
OCTOBER 11, 1945:
Report that
World Jewish Congress Gave Vatican $20,000.00 for Helping Jews
NOVEMBER 7, 1945:
Report of French Bishops
Removed by Pope for Collaborating with Nazis
For more, see Stephen
M. DiGiovanni, Pius XII and the Jews: The War Years as Reported by
The New York Times (Bridgeport, CT, 2000).
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