Pope Pius XII revisited
The debate over what Pope Pius XII did or didn't do to save the Jews during the Nazi era continues to roil. The latest effort to cleanse the record of the pope who is on the path to sainthood came at a symposium in Rome this week where an American Jew led the charge. As reported by NCR Cafe, an online Catholic publication:
Organizers published a 200-page glossy book offering documentation of Pius' efforts to save Jews, including transcripts of eyewitnesses and previously secret material culled from diplomatic archives in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.The case for the defense of Pius XII, as presented during the conference, is highly complex, but in essence it pivots on three claims:
• Charges that Pius XII was "silent" are false, because he spoke on numerous occasions in defense of Jews, in ways that were abundantly clear to everyone at the time and for decades afterwards; • If he did not directly and dramatically condemn Hitler or National Socialism, it was because he had well-founded fears that doing so might unleash greater persecution upon both Catholics and Jews; • Behind the scenes, he mobilized church resources in multiple ways to save Jews.
Jews, meanwhile, continue to challenge the Vatican to open up its archives before it moves to canonize Pius XII. For more on the debate, read this.
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Why shouldn’t Pius XII be sainted? After all, the abandonment of the Jews under Nazi rule didn’t hinder the elevation of FDR and the Democratic Party to sainthood, particularly among American Jews in the North-East ghettoes of New York, Boston etc. to this very day -see 400 rabbis kowtowing to B. Hussein Obama, a smooth racist, if ever there was one.
Or could it be that the genteel anti-Semitism of Roosevelt, Breckinridge Long and their crowd was and still is more acceptable than Pacelli’s Germanophilia??
shame on you alex golan for treacherously slandering obama completely out of context. now that is a nazi-like move if ever there was one. you are one mixed up fella
alex:
Roosevelt was not an anti-Semite and did not abandon the European Jews. However, if you want to express your anger against against someone who did abandon the Jews, go to Menachem Begin’s grave and spit on it.
And there are not, and were not in Roosevelt’s time, any Jewish ghettos anywhere in the US.
Obama is half White, half Black. Which half of himself is going to kill the other half? Maybe you should ask his wife’s cousin the rabbi for help working that out.
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Linda Estrin
09/17/08 04:42 PM
Behind the scenes Pope Pius did what? save Jews? Hardly. Give me a break!