Muslims mimic threatened actions of Jews in Boycotting Pope's visit to Rome Synagogue, by Canceling  of Rome Mosque's Imam to Rome's Synagogue. Jews make weak case vs Pius XII during WWII, while Muslims cite Israel continued to "refuse to restore the rights" of Palestinians and the Israeli blockade of Gaza had been "the final blow". ...

An historic visit by the imam of Rome's mosque, Ala Eldin Mohammed Ismail al-Ghobashy, to the Rome synagogue tomorrow has been called off at the last moment on instructions from Muslim authorities in Cairo. 

...Italian reports quoted Abdul Fattah Allam, spokesman for Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of Al Azhar University in Cairo, as saying the sheikh had ordered the imam not to meet Rome's Jews while Israel continued to "refuse to restore the rights" of Palestinians. Reports said the Israeli blockade of Gaza had been "the final blow". ...

The paper said that "What the Cairo statement really means is that Muslim dialogue with Jews in Italy is only possible once Israel has been eliminated". The synagogue visit was planned two years ago when a Jewish delegation headed by Riccardo Di Segni, Rome's Chief Rabbi, visited the Rome mosque. 

Rabbi Di Segni told Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, that while he detested Islamophobia as much anti Semitism, the Muslim world was "having to confront in five generations of  problems of intolerance, identity and integration which the Jews have been confronting ....". 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3230397.ece

The Chief Rabbi of Rome yesterday sought to defuse a row over threats by leading Italian Jews to boycott an historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the city?s synagogue. 

Giuseppe Laras, head of the Italian Rabbinical Assembly, said he would not attend Sunday?s papal visit because it ?will bring nothing good and will only benefit the more reactionary sectors of the Church?. 

He said Pope Benedict had offended Holocaust survivors by putting Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, on the path to sainthood last month, despite allegations that he failed to raise his voice against the Holocaust. 

In an interview with The Times Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi, said: ?We discussed extensively whether to cancel the visit and decided that it must go ahead despite what happened?. He said he and Rabbi Laras had ?different views, and time will tell which of us has made the right choice?. 

He agreed that Pius XII?s record ?remains a controversial historical problem for us?. However the issue should be ?studied in a calm way, in other forums?, with the Vatican opening its archives on the wartime pope to scholars, Rabbi Di Segni suggested. 

The Vatican, which has said the archives cannot be made available until 2014, insists Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save Jews, and that Benedict?s recent decree recognising his ?heroic virtues? was not an historical assessment of his pontificate but confirmation that he had led a Christian life. 

Piero Terracina, an 82-year-old Italian Jewish Holocaust survivor, also plans to boycott the visit because Pius XII had ?not said one word? when over a thousand Jews were rounded up in the Rome ghetto in October 1943 and sent to death camps. 

However Shlomo Venezia, 86, who like Mr Terracina was deported to Auschwitz, said he would go because ?the Pope is the Pope, a great spiritual head. We have to find a way to go foward together, as brothers.? Benedict?s visit will be his third to a synagogue but his first to the one in Rome. 

In his interview with The Times, Rabbi Di Segni said some Italians had not faced up to the country?s role in persecuting the Jews under Fascism, or acknowledged the ?considerable number? of Italian Jews sent to concentration camps. Asked if there had been complicity between the Nazis and the Catholic Church, he said: ?Let?s say, acquiescence.? 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6989046.ece

COMMENTS:

Priscilla Dean wrote: Since when do these carping nuisance have veto rights over Christian religions? People so worried about "Holocausts" should start with Gaza.
  
Michael Gilhooly wrote: I think it is worth remembering that numerous Jewish leaders, including Albert Einstein, Israeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett, and Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, expressed their public gratitude to Pius XII, praising him as a "righteous gentile," who had saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. In his meticulously researched and comprehensive 1967 book, Three Popes and the Jews, the Israeli historian and diplomat Pinchas Lapide, who had served as the Israeli Counsel General in Milan, and had spoken with many Italian Jewish Holocaust survivors who owed their life to Pius, provided the empirical basis for their gratitude, concluding that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands." To this day, the Lapide volume remains the definitive work, by a Jewish scholar, on the subject. It seems to be studiously ignored by so many who ought to know better, sadly. 

Pius XII Did Help the Jews

The historical evidence that the wartime pontiff gave orders for Rome's convents and monasteries to take in Jews fleeing the Nazis 
The London Times; William Doino Jr; January 4, 2010
In the Autumn of 1987, during one of his many meetings with the Jewish community, Pope John Paul II gave an important speech on the Roman Catholic Church and the Holocaust. Recalling ?the strong, unequivocal efforts of the Popes against anti-Semitism and Nazism,? he cited Pius XI?s condemnation of Nazism as ?an enemy of the Cross of Christ,? and went on to praise his successor, Pius XII : ?And I am convinced that history will reveal ever more clearly and convincingly how deeply Pius XII felt the tragedy of the Jewish people, and how hard and effectively he worked to assist them during the Second World War.? 

A decade later, John Paul issued a document on the Holocaust, We Remember    which again noted Pius XII?s humanitarian acts, and soon thereafter praised Pius?s entire pontificate: "He was a great Pope"

Shortly before Christmas, Pope Benedict XVI validated John Paul?s judgment by signing a decree declaring Pius XII ?Venerable,? advancing his cause for sainthood. 

Benedict?s decision is certainly debatable, but it was not, as some have suggested, rushed, much less deliberately ?insensitive.? It was rather the end result of a well-thought out, process. 

In May 2007, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted unanimously to recommend that the Church recognise Pius XII?s "heroic virtues". They did so after considering 3,000 pages of documentation on every aspect of the life of Eugenio Pacelli, the birth name of Pius XII. Many wanted Benedict to declare Pius XII Venerable then, but he resisted, choosing instead to further study the controversy himself. 

For two years Benedict reviewed all the documentation, pro and con, consulted historical experts and Vatican archivists (who have access to every internal file on Pacelli), reviewed first-hand testimonials, and endorsed a three-day historical conference in Rome, which addressed and answered every major charge against the wartime pontiff. Only then did Pope Benedict finally act, believing Pius XII worthy of the honour. He is not alone in that view. 

The anti-Nazi Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, priest-rescuers Henri de Lubac, Michel Riquet, and Pietro Palazzini, the papal assistant John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, and the American diplomat Harold Tittmann, among many others, bore witness to the fact that Pius XII, contrary to popular notion, did ?speak out.? Palazzini, recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile, credited Pius for inspiring his actions: ?Under the pressure of events, although so very tragic, men rediscovered the Christian message, that is, the sense of reciprocal charity, according to which it is a duty to charge oneself with the salvation of others. 

To rediscover it, one voice was often raised among the din of arms: it was the voice of Pius XII.? Riquet?s testimony is equally strong: ?Pius XII has spoken; Pius XII has condemned; Pius XII has acted?.Throughout those years of horror, when we listened to Radio Vatican and to the Pope?s messages, we felt in communion with the Pope, in helping persecuted Jews and in fighting against Nazi violence.? (Le Figaro, January 4, 1964). 

In the wake of Benedict?s decree, some have tried to qualify his announcement, pointing to the subsequent Vatican statement making an alleged distinction between the personal sanctity of Pius XII and his much-debated historical choices. 

But a careful reading of that statement, issued by Father Federico Lombardi, includes this key line: ?Naturally, such evaluation takes account of the circumstances in which the person lived, and hence it is necessary to examine the question from a historical standpoint, but the evaluation essentially concerns the witness of Christian life.? (emphasis added). In other words, being a saint primarily involves one?s personal spirituality, fortitude, charity, and commitment to Christ?qualities Pius demonstrated in abundance ? but also includes one?s historical judgments and acts. 

This is particularly true of Pius?s wartime actions. 

His first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus  issued soon after the War began, is a searing condemnation of racism and totalitarianism, and was hailed by the Allies?even as it infuriated the Nazis. It specifically quotes St. Paul?s letter to the Colossians (3:10-11), stressing the unity of the human family, ?where there is neither Gentile nor Jew.? 

In early 1940, Pius XII personally confronted the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, garnering this headline from the New York Times: " Pope is Emphatic about Just Peace: Jews Rights Defended." (March 14, 1940). 

Pius?s allocutions condemning race-based murder?particularly his 1942 Christmas address and June 2, 1943 speech to the College of Cardinals--provoked the Nazis to brand him a ?mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals,? and censor his words in occupied lands. Those who secretly distributed Pius XII?s speeches were arrested and sometimes executed. 

Vatican Radio played a key role in fighting the Holocaust. Sanctioned and sustained by Pius XII, the station helped break the news of Nazi crimes in Poland, highlighting ?the unimpeachable testimony of eye-witnesses? who revealed how ?Jews and Poles are being herded into separate ?ghettoes,? hermetically sealed?.? (Broadcast, January 21, 1940). 

The Palestine Post   reported: ?In their sermons, Catholic priests have cited the warning by the Vatican Radio that anyone furthering the persecution of Jews is an accomplice to murder.? (September 20, 1942). And these unequivocal words came forth too from the Vatican station: ?He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God?s commands.? (New York Times, June 27, 1943). 

Controversy continues to surround Pius XII?s reaction to the Nazi round-up of Rome?s Jews in October 1943, but Michael Tagliacozzo, a leading authority on the raid, and himself a survivor of it, has affirmed that Pius XII was the only one who intervened to impede the deportation of Jews on October 16, 1943, and he did very much to hide and save thousands of us. It was no small matter that he ordered the opening of cloistered convents. Without him, many of our own would not be alive.? 

On March 12, 1945, Vatican Radio recounted this of Pius XII: ?During the occupation of Rome, between 8th September, 1943 and 5th June, 1944, he gave shelter in 120 institutes for women and 60 institutes for men, as well as in other houses and churches of Rome, to more than 5,200 Jews who were thus able to live free from fear and misery. As a father to his children, the Pope has, in these long years of war, devoted himself with untiring care?.? 

New evidence has also emerged in recent years?private letters from Pius XII, measures he took to protect Jews and others at Castel Gandolfo, videotaped testimony of his subordinates, who acted on his explicit instruction to rescue those threatened with death; religious diaries revealing his support for Rome?s persecuted Jews and revelations about Pius XII?s efforts to overthrow Hitler. 

The Vatican has already released a huge amount of important wartime archives (largely unread, alas); but because some still remain to be catalogued and released, many people, including some who support the cause of Pius XII, think it might be best to wait for their final publication before moving ahead with the next stage of Pius XII?s sainthood cause. It is not an unreasonable request, especially since the Pope and Vatican are fully confident that the remaining archives will only enhance Pius XII?s reputation. 

In 1946, in the wake of the Holocaust, the Conference on Jewish Relations published Essays on Antisemitism  a book that pulled no punches on how that evil prejudice has infected civilisation, including certain Christians, who betrayed the teachings of their faith. The book?s editor, Professor Koppel Pinson, when considering the papacy?s wartime record, made this statement: 

?We may agree or disagree with the general lines of political policy of the Vatican. But this much is undisputed fact: never has the papacy spoken in such unmistakable terms against racialism and anti-Semitism as in the words and deeds of the present pope, Pius XII, and his predecessor Pius XI.? 

Invoke history to assess Pius XII by all means, but first consult it, before passing judgment. 
 

William Doino, Jr. writes for Inside the Vatican magazine and is a contributor to The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII  (Lexington Books). 

COMMENT: Piers Cadell wrote: 

Pinchas E.Lapide, who is Jewish, wrote "The Last Three Popes and the Jews" in 1967, partly as a protest against "The Representative" but mainly against the silence on the part of those who knew what Pius XII had done to rescue Jews from the Nazis. He demonstrates, using mainly Jewish sources, that the Catholic Church was instrumental in saving 860,000 lives of European Jews, and he shows exactly what they, under the guidance of Popes Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII did and did not do to denounce the Nazi persecution of the Jews and to save the victims from death. In short, this book is required reading!

Pius XI responded to ever increasing Nazi hostility to Christianity by issuing in 1937 the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge condemning the Nazi ideology of racism and totalitarianism and Nazi violations of the concordat, and it was read in all parishes of Germany. 

Pius XII was appointed in 1939, probably due to his diplomatic experience with Germany. At the same time he appointed several Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican. He continued the work of Pius XI to oppose German atrocities, and Lapide demonstates many of the concrete actions of Pius XII to save lives. 

The position of the Catholic Church was well known at the time, and it is only recently that people with a desire to discredit the Catholic Church have attempted to rewrite history.
 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6975139.ece
 
 

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