Thursday,
May 31, 2007
Pius XII did more for Holocaust Jews than
American Jews !
When
I first became acquainted with Sister Margherita Marchione, (The
Fighting Nun") online, I was somewhat dubious of her claims of Pius
XII actions on behalf of the European Jews during WWII. I thought she might be
prejudicial, particularly in the face of damning books like "Hitler's
Pope" by John Cornwell.
Cornwell's book was answered by "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against
Nazi Germany" by Rabbi David G. Dalin,and "Hitler,
the War, and the Pope" by Mississippi Law Professor
Ronald Rychlak
Further
Ken Woodward, in Newsweek summarized "Hitler's Pope" as having "errors of fact
and ignorance of context [that] appear on almost every page."
More
recently, Cornwell acknowledged that he had erred in many ways when writing Hitler's Pope,. This came
soon after it was disclosed that while initially Cornwell claimed his book
research which started in the early 1990s was originally meant to be an
exoneration of Pius by a practicing devout Catholic, in fact,
In 1989, Cornwell described himself as a "lapsed Catholic for
more than 20 years". In 1993 he declared that human beings are better off
without a belief in God. As late as 1996, Cornwell called himself an
"agnostic"
The
further I dug, the more the evidence mounted of an AVALANCHE of
testimonials from European Jewish Leaders that praised Pius XII profusely after
the war for his Efforts and Contributions, including the Chief Rabbis of Rome and Jerusalem.
German Documents revealed after the war had Hitler complaining about the
"Jew's Pope", and even
briefly considered Kidnapping Pius XII, because of the magnitude of
the Catholic Church's
"obstructionism" to Hitler's
decrees.( "A Special
Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to
Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius the XII" by Dan Kurzman)
This
is well Documented in Sister Margherita's latest book: "Did Pope Pius XII Help the
Jews?" (Paulist Press, 2007)
It
is very curious that NOW, Leaders of American Jewish Organizations are leading
the charge that the Pius XII didn't
do Enough, just at the time that the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies,
has brought to the fore charges by Peter Bergson, that the US JEWISH
LEADERS were NOT only were NOT Doing ANYTHING, because they say it would have
resulted in a "back lash" or more Anti Semitism, But were SABOTAGING
Peter Bergson's Effort's to DO SOMETHING !!!!!
One
need only to consult books by David S. Wyman (The Abandonment of the Jews: America and
the Holocaust,
1941-1945) and Rafael Medoff (The
Deafening Silence: American Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust) to understand.
Additionally,
on Sunday, June 17, 2007, at the Fordham University School of Law, Jewish
leaders will study the lessons of Americas response to the
Holocaust. However, it will not focus on what American Jewish Leaders didn't do, or which of their actions were "counter
productive", instead this conference will focus on the one group that did
something The Bergson Group, American Jewry, and the
Holocaust,
As
a side note, the attack on Pius XII was an alliance of American Jews seeking to
avoid being a Target of "Do Nothing" charges, and creating a
different Target, and Angry Liberal Catholics exploiting the misdirected attack to
foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church
today.
The
earliest victim in any battle is the Truth!!!!!!
Sr.
Margherita Marchione, is one of the world's foremost authorities on Pius XII, and is the
author of over 50 books and 150 articles, that
besides her voluminous writings on Pius XII, has also written extensively on
Philip Mazzei (4), and books on Peter and Sally Sammartino, Italian Americans, The Life of Lucy Filippini,(an orphan and Founder of Italian
Institute of the Maestre Pie, the Filippine-
the order to which Sister Margherita belongs).
http://www.sistermargherita.com/
Urging Recognition of Pius XII as Venerable
ZENIT.org
MAY 30, 2007
NEW YORK- Here is
an adapted version of a letter to the editors received by ZENIT from Sister
Margherita Marchione, a Pius XII scholar.
* * *
On May 8, members of the Congregation for Saints'
Causes voted unanimously to recommend that Benedict XVI formerly declare Pope
Pius XII "Venerable." Hopefully this recognition that Pius XII lived
the Christian virtues in a heroic manner will bring an end to the controversy
over whether he did enough in defense of the Jews and other victims of the
Nazis. The 30 cardinals and bishops -- from Italy,
Spain, Portugal, Mexico,
Japan, and the USA -- studied
six volumes of documents comprising more than 3,000 pages.
However, soon after the announcement, Abraham Foxman,
national Anti-Defamation League director and a Holocaust survivor, urged
Benedict XVI to suspend the action taken by the congregation regarding Pius XII's
"heroic virtues" until all Pius XII documents in the Vatican Archives
are made available.
Ever since the death of Pius XII in 1958, every Pope from John XXIII to
Benedict XVI noted his sanctity. In fact, in his first Christmas message, John
XXIII said his predecessor was worthy of canonization and called him
"Supreme doctor, light of holy mother Church, lover of the divine
law."
Pope John Paul II at the start of
his 1987 visit to the United States, defended Pius XII during a meeting with
Jewish leaders, recalling "how deeply he felt about the tragedy of the
Jewish people, and how hard and effectively he worked to assist them during the
Second World War."
It was Pius XII who authorized false baptismal certificates to save Jewish
lives. He also distributed visas for Jews to enter other countries, and ordered
the superiors of convents and monasteries to open their doors and hide Jews and
other victims of the Nazis and Fascists. Angelo Roncalli (Pope John XXIII), who
also distributed many certificates, stated that all he was doing was following
the P ope's
directives.
Almost 50 years have passed since Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, then apostolic
nuncio in Istanbul,
wrote in his diary about an audience with Pius XII on Oct. 10, 1941. He
declared that the Pope's statements
were "prudent."
It is interesting to note that when news of Pius XII's death on Oct. 9, 1958, was flashed around
the world, an editorial, "Fighter for Peace," in the Los Angeles
Examiner expressed the sentiments of Catholics and non-Catholics, and declared
that this "Fighter for Peace" was the "Pope of Peace." Of
those mourning the Pope's death,
Jews -- who credited him with being one of their greatest benefactors -- were
in the forefront.
Did Pius XII help the Jews? Indeed he did. Nor can one claim he was
"silent."
Rather one must speak of his "prudence." In his Christmas radio
messages of '41, '42, and '43
following this audience, Pius XII denounced theories that attribute rights to
"a particular race." He revealed that "hun
dreds of thousands of people, through no fault of
theirs, sometimes only because of nationality or race, were destined to
die."
ZENIT is an International News
Agency. whose mission is to provide
objective coverage of events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning
the Catholic Church.
http://www.zenit.org/english/
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