PREFACE: There are members of my Family that are Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish. I am more studied in Judaism, than Protestantism, even less so in Catholicism. I am sadly ignorant of Muslim, Buddhism, and all Asian religions, although I have Reference Books on them. 

I say this since many have automatically assumed that I am Catholic, and any such Reports, as those below are transmitted out of "blind devotion".

Such is NOT the case! They are transmitted because my Reports focus ONLY on Italian American and Italian matters, and since 90% of Italians are Catholic, and the Catholic Church is based in the Vatican, Italy, that attacks on Catholicism must be treated seriously by the those of Italian ancestry. 

And that which I have become convinced is a misguided and disinformational "Crusade" vs Pope Pius XII, and the Catholic Church, is to be countered with  recognized and respected opposing views.

It is in the interest of Truth and Fairness that the following is submitted.
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WITH THIS SISTER, IT’S NO ACT
by Ronald J. Rychlak
 

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY: DEFENDING POPE PIUS XII

By Margherita Marchione (Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, 2002)

Not long ago I had dinner with several Catholic scholars from around the nation. During a lull in the conversation, I ventured my observation that Pope Pius XII was at the center of the attack on the Catholic Church. I said that the phony charges against him were actually part of a much broader assault on the Church itself. I don’t think anyone agreed with me.

Since that time we have seen book after book critical of Pius XII, but behind almost every book was a larger attack on the papacy and the Catholic Church. The culmination is Daniel Goldhagen’s hate-filled piece in the January 21, 2002 issue of The New Republic, scheduled to be released in book form later this year. Goldhagen took all the lies and half-truths from earlier books, combined them with his own lack of knowledge, and repackaged them into a true broadside against the Church. One of the scholars from my earlier conversation called me up. "I never saw it coming," he said. Now, however, he agreed.

The person who has seen this coming for the longest time, and who has waged a difficult, often lonely battle to defend the honor of Pope Pius XII (and hence the Church), is Sister Margherita Marchione. It is largely due to her efforts that Pius XII’s reputation was not rolled over in the last several years by books like Hitler’s Pope and those that followed in its wake.

While Sister Margherita has done much for Pius XII, she has done as much or more for many other people (and historical figures) during a life in which she earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University, authored over 40 books, served as a Fulbright Scholar, been honored by the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame, and hobnobbed with popes, presidents, scholars, and royalty. 

Prior to defending Pius XII, Sister Margherita wrote about Italian literary figures—Clemente Rebora, Giovanni Boine, and Giuseppe Prezzolini, but her most significant efforts were directed towards the promotion of Philip Mazzei, a key figure in the American Revolution. Not only did she write several books about him, but in conjunction with the bicentennial celebration she led the successful effort to have his image placed on an international commemorative airmail stamp. She also was behind the effort to have his bust sculpted and placed in Monticello and to have his image placed on an Italian postage stamp.

Although pressured for years, only in the spring of 2000 did Sister Margherita agree to write her autobiography, The Fighting Nun: My Story (Cornwall Press, 2000). In these memoirs she devotes a full chapter to defending Pius XII. She became interested in this topic when she learned that Jews had been sheltered in three convents of the Religious Teachers Filippini in Rome during World War II. That discovery led to research and a new passion. Over the past decade, no one has written more letters, authored more books, or made more presentations defending the honor of Pius XII than Sister Margherita.

Consensus and Controversy is Sister Margherita’s most recent contribution to the on-going study of Pius XII. As in her earlier books, she strongly defends the World War II pontiff against the charges of callous indifference to human (particularly Jewish) suffering. Refreshingly, she acknowledges that she does not write from a detached perspective. In an earlier book (Pius XII: Architect for Peace) she wrote: "When I think of Pius XII, I feel inspired. How can I not dedicate myself to him with the same fervor that impelled me to write about others?" On this topic, too many authors (most notably John Cornwell, but also James Carroll and Gary Wills have tried to disguise motives that become clear in their writings. Sister Margherita does not do that. While it is true that some of her arguments involve personal beliefs, she openly states her position and her arguments remain valid. By dismissing her work without considering the merits, her critics are overlooking a great deal of valuable evidence.

Not only does she make arguments; unlike most of her critics, she lays out primary source documents. For instance, in Architect for Peace, almost half of the book is given over to appendices of tremendous importance. She includes an interview with Father Peter Gumpel, the relator (independent investigating judge) of Pius XII’s cause for sainthood, a very helpful chronology of Pius XII’s life, and a good annotated bibliography. She also includes articles written by two of the four Jesuit priests (Robert A. Graham and Pierre Blet) who compiled and published 11 volumes of documents relating to the Holy See during the Second World War from the archives of the Vatican Secretariat of State. Perhaps most importantly, she includes over 100 pages of those documents.

Sister Margherita calls Consensus and Controversy a sequel to Yours Is a Precious Witness and Architect for Peace, and that is quite clearly true. In this new book, she builds on her previous work and deals with new issues that have been developing so quickly that it is difficult for one book adequately to cover them all. Viewed, however, as a continuation of her previous works, Consensus and Controversy does a fine job of bringing forth additional evidence, including a very nice summary of the Vatican collection of documents.

No one who honestly and carefully reads the evidence that Sister Margherita presents in her body of work can give the slightest credence to the attacks against Pope Pius XII that have been made by John Cornwell, Daniel Goldhagen, Susan Zuccotti and others. She may be outnumbered, but this "fighting nun" never gives up, particularly when fighting for a good cause.
 
 

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Professor Ron Rychlak is Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Mississippi, School of Law, where he has been on the faculty since 1987. Prior to joining the faculty at Ole Miss, Ron practiced law with Jenner & Block in Chicago, and he served as a clerk to Hon. Harry W. Wellford of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The Weekly Standard called Ron's most recent book, Hitler, the War, and the Pope (Genesis Press, 2000), "the best and most careful of the recent works [on the Church during World War II], an elegant tome of serious, critical scholarship."  Ron's first book, Demonstrative Evidence: Applications and Theory (The Michie Co., 1995), is scheduled for a second edition release in 2003. His co-authored textbook on Gaming and Gambling Law (Lexis-Nexis Publishing) is also scheduled to be released in 2003. 

Ron has written several articles for the Mississippi Law Journal. He has also written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement (London), UCLA Law Review, Boston College Law Review, The Stanford Environmental Law Journal, and many other legal, political, and historical journals. He is a member of the committee appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to revise the state's criminal code,  and he serves as a delegate at the U.N. meetings on the establishment of an International Criminal Court. He also was recently invited to collaborate with the King Prachadipok Institute project on the democratization of Thailand.
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