Defending Pius XII Against Slander
Oct 24, 2004
Jewish leaders and ordinary citizens publicly thanked Pope Pius XII for his role in saving Jewish lives during World War II. I know this first-hand. I was a young priest studying in Rome shortly after the War when a large number of Jews met with Pope Pius XII to express their gratitude.
(Cardinal’s Reflection, November 1999) Two new books on Pope Pius XII recently came across my desk. One was an astonishing attack on the Pope, supposedly based on "secret" Vatican archives. The other summarized actual Vatican documents, painting a very different picture of the Pope's actions during the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, the sensationalism of the first book, by John Cornwell, landed it in the pages of popular magazines and made it the subject of countless columns and editorials, most of which blindly accepted the book's assertions as true. What are the claims? That Pope Pius XII personally was responsible for permitting the Holocaust and helping the Nazis gain power. The problem is, this just doesn't add up.
The Holocaust was a tragedy beyond comprehension. I can only attempt to express my intense sorrow at the suffering of the Jewish people. We Remember: A Reflection on the "Shoah," released by the Vatican last year, rightfully calls the Holocaust an "unspeakable tragedy which can never be forgotten." The heartbreaking truth is many Christians not only turned their backs on Jewish neighbors, but participated in the violence against them. Pope Pius XII was not one of them so it is time to set the record straight.
Myth 1: Pope Pius XII has always been criticized for his role in World War II
Not quite. The truth is Jewish leaders and ordinary citizens publicly thanked Pope Pius XII for his role in saving Jewish lives during World War II. I know this first-hand. I was a young priest studying in Rome shortly after the War when a large number of Jews met with Pope Pius XII to express their gratitude.
Jewish leaders such as Dr. Joseph Nathan, of the Italian Hebrew Commission; Dr. A. Leo Kubowitzki, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress; and representatives of people imprisoned in German concentration camps all thanked the Pope for saving Jewish lives. (1)
And, when Pope Pius XII died in 1958, Golda Meir wrote, "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths…" (2)
In fact, it wasn't until 1963--nearly 20 years after the war and five years after Pope Pius XII's death--that history was revised. And, it wasn't by the Jewish community or academic researchers who had uncovered new information. No, the attacks were the work of a single German playwright whose sensationalist fictional work, The Deputy, asserted the Pope had been a Nazi collaborator. (3)
Myth 2: Pope Pius XII was a "puppet" of Adolf Hitler
Consider this: the day after Cardinal Pacelli was elected Pope, a Berlin newspaper commented, "The election of Cardinal Pacelli is not accepted with favor in Germany because he was always opposed to Nazism." (4) Indeed, Cardinal Pacelli's views would have been well-known in Germany since he had served there as a member of the Vatican's diplomatic corps between 1917 and 1929.
Further, the Vatican archives include documents which show the Holy Father met with German generals who were seeking to overthrow Hitler as well as documentation that he passed military intelligence on to France and Britain as early as 1940. (5)
Finally, a December 1942 Gestapo report said, "…the Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order [Nazism]...the Pope does not refer to the National Socialists in Germany by name, but his speech is one long attack on everything we stand for...Here he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews." (6)
Myth 3: Pope Pius XII was silent about the Holocaust, leading to thousands of Jewish deaths
Pope Pius XII was on record against Nazism as early as the 1920's. At the same time, he was concerned that a public denunciation of atrocities would increase the suffering of people living under Nazi control.
In 1943, Pope Pius XII said, "…every public sign from us must be seriously pondered and measured by us in the interest of those who are suffering, so as not to make, even unwittingly, their situation more serious and unbearable." (7)
Robert Kempner, deputy chief of the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal, pointed out public denunciations by the Church against Hitler provoked retaliation. (8) After Dutch bishops condemned atrocities in that nation, Jewish residents, and priests and nuns with Jewish ancestry, were taken to concentration camps and killed.
Like the Pope, the International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches worked quietly rather than condemn loudly. (9)
And, what we cannot ignore is the thousands of Jewish lives saved in Rome through the efforts of Pope Pius XII, priests, religious and lay Catholics. So many examples abound. Thousands of Jews hid in convents, monasteries and Catholic homes. In fact, it was Pope Pius XII who directed convents to open their doors to male refugees so no one would be denied a safe haven. (10)
Myth 4: The Vatican covered up its records from the World War II era
Author John Cornwell claims "exclusive" access to "secret" Vatican archives in making his sensationalist claims. This simply isn't true. As Newsweek reporter Ken Woodward points out, the "secret" archives on this matter aren't so secret - any academic researcher can look at them. (11) In addition, Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, the postulator for the cause to canonize Pope Pius XII, points out that Mr. Cornwell's book omits key witness accounts and other facts which refute his book's assertions. (12)
In fact, between 1965 and 1981, researchers scoured the Vatican's archives, publishing 12 volumes of World War II documents. One of these researchers, Jesuit Father Pierre Blet, synthesized the information into a single book in the hopes of making the information easily available to a wide audience. His work, Pius XII and the Second World War in the Vatican Archives, was just published in English by Paulist Press. Doesn't sound like much of a cover up, does it?
The facts are there for anyone interested in the truth. I urge you to be cautious in accepting reports in the popular press and to read Fr. Blet's new book for the real story of Pope Pius XII and this era of Church history.
Pius XII and the Second World War in the Vatican Archives, by Pierre Blet, S.J. is available at Catholic bookstores or from Paulist Press (www.paulistpress.org or 1-800-218-1903).
Endnotes:
1. L'Osservatore Romano, Sept. 8, Sept. 23 and Nov. 30, 1945 as quoted in the Shoah document
2. Ibid.
3. Pierre Blet, SJ, Pius XII and the Second World War, According to the Archives of the Vatican, Paulist Press: 1999, p. xi
4. Sr. Margherita Marchione, The Truth about Pope Pius XII (www.catholicleague.org/truth.htm)
5. Pierre Blet, as quoted in "Pius XII is victim of calumny, scholar says," Catholic World News: October 31, 1997
6. Marchione
7. Vatican Information Service, Oct. 8, 1999
8. Blet, Catholic World News
9. Robert Graham, SJ, "How to Manufacture a Legend: The Controversy Over the Alleged Silence of Pope Pius XII on World War II," from Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
10. Blet, Pius XII and the Second World War, p. 215
11. Kenneth L. Woodward, "The Case Against Pius XII," Newsweek International Edition: Sept. 27, 1999
12. Peter Gumpel, SJ, "Cornwell's Pope: A Nasty Caricature of a Noble and Saintly Man," Zenit: September 16, 1999
Defending Pius XII Against Slander