Thanks
to Frank M. Lanzafame
==================================
American
Rabbi:
"Pius
XII a Righteous Gentile"
by
John Drogin August 23 2001
"Inside
The Vatican"
[Note:
" Inside the Vatican aims to give a balanced and objective account of Church
and
world affairs; it is not an official Vatican publication."]
An American rabbi has raised
eyebrows in Italy by declaring that Pope Pius XII
was one of the "righteous
among the gentiles". Rabbi David Dalin made the
remarks at a meeting of
tens of thousands of young people in Rimini, Italy on
August 22
RIMINI, Italy, August 23,
2001 -- American Rabbi David Dalin proclaimed Pius
XII a "great friend of Jews"
and one of the "righteous among the gentiles" at a
meeting last night attended
by thousands of Italians in the resort town of
Rimini.
Dalin, who lives in West
Hartford, Connecticut, made the comments during a
panel discussion at the
annual "Rimini Meeting" sponsored by the lay Catholic
movement "Communion and
Liberation." Pius XII "is a great friend of Jews,"
Dalin said, "and merits
to be called 'Righteous among the Nations.' He saved
many of my 'brothers', more
than Schindler... At least 800,000 according to
some statistics." The venue
for the week-long meeting is the steamy resort town
of Rimini, on the Adriatic
coast just south of Venice. Dalin, along with the
Italian Senator Giulio Andreotti,
answered questions posed by host Andrea
Tornielli, an Italian journalist
who wrote a book entitled "Pius XII: The Pope
of the Jews." Some 5,000
people, mostly Italians, gathered under the
sweltering-hot circus tent,
while thousands more gathered around the outsides
of the tent. The majority
of the crowd outside listened to the hidden rabbi's
words with great intensity,
surprised to hear what had not been said publicly
in Italy since shortly after
World War II ended in 1945. "We haven't heard any
of what you said in at least
50 years," burst out Thomaso Toschi, a professor
at the University of Bologna,
after the presentation, "and we are all in
complete agreement with
you." Indeed, many others in the crowd said they felt
the same way.
To hear Papa Pacelli (Pius
XII's name before he became Pope was Eugenio
Pacelli) defended so actively
for his wartime activity, and from the lips of a
Jew, was something many
in the crowd thought would never be possible in their
lifetimes. The words were
also heard across the country as at least three
Italian radio stations,
including Vatican Radio, transmitted the discussion
live. Andreotti recalled
a Jew who had been positive about Pius XII, but who
has not been around in the
last 50 years to defend him. "After the war, the
chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel
Zolli, went to pay homage to the Pope; Zolli
converted and took the name
Eugenio." He also said: "Pius XII was very firm
against the onslaught of
Communism." The comment received loud audience
approval.
Dalin, the author of a landmark
article entitled "Pius XII and the Jews",
originally published in
America in the "Weekly Standard" magazine, and
reprinted in the most recent
issue of "Inside the Vatican" (August-September,
2001) responded to a hypothetical
question posed by Tornielli regarding whether
the Pope should have formally
excommunicated Adolf Hitler. "First of all, it
would have been a merely
symbolic act, seeing that when one commits such sins
he is automatically excommunicated,"
Dalin replied. "Secondly, it would not
have prevented or stopped
the Holocaust, but rather made it much worse.
The American rabbi pointed
out that the ex-chief rabbi of Denmark said he could
testify that had the Church
formally excommunicated Hitler, he would have
killed many more Jews. Dalin
then posed a question: "What could be worse than
the death of six million
Jews? The slaughter of thousands and millions more
Jewish lives."
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