Portrait of Pius XII (CNS photo)
The eyes of the mass media will be on Pope Benedict XVI this Sunday when he visits Rome’s synagogue.
After the furore among some Jewish leaders following his decree last month declaring Pius XII venerable, many are wondering what the Holy Father will say to bring Catholic-Jewish relations back on track.
But as with previous recent disputes between the Vatican and Judaism, after some initial protests, tempers die down and relations return to normal.
Speaking with me a few weeks after the Williamson affair last year, Father Norbert Hoffman, the Vatican’s Secretary for the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, said this quick resumption of dialogue shows just how far relations have come.
“Fifteen or even ten years ago, the Williamson affair or controversy would have had another effect - it would have broken down the relations for several years,” he said. “But now, you see, we could manage these things in a couple of weeks or months and so this is a good sign.” The fact that Sunday’s appointment is going ahead could be yet more proof of this.
But while protests over the Pope’s decree on Pius XII may have abated, the controversy over Pius XII’s war record will probably go on for some time yet – despite mountains of evidence acquitting him of the charge that he didn’t do nearly enough to save Jews during World War Two.
A prominent critic of the Pope’s decree last month was Rabbi David Rosen, the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department for Interreligious Affairs.
Rosen, who is a moderate and well liked at the Vatican, said that although he acknowledges there is now “significant evidence” in Pius’s favour, he nevertheless wants the Vatican archives opened and believes “it is somewhat disingenuous” of the Vatican not to recognize how the beatification process “is perceived and will be perceived.”
So I asked him what Pius needed to have done to avoid upsetting today’s Jews over his beatification. Would only laying his down his life have sufficed?
“For most Jews, and many others, the only ones whom appear saintly in the face of that evil were those who lay down their very lives in opposition to it,” said Rosen. “I would dare to say that the Catholic Church should see matters in the same light. However even if it cannot, it should be able to understand that Jews perceive as insensitive the idea that anyone who did not put their life on the line at that time can be considered saintly or as warranting a move in that direction.”
Yet as most of us now know, straight after the war, Jews had only words of tribute for Pius’s heroism. And historians now say that he did put his life on the line, mainly through ordering 155 monasteries and convents to hide thousands of Rome’s Jews. Documents also show that Hitler wanted to kidnap and possibly kill him.
Just because Pius survived, does that make him any less heroic?
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The problem with Pius I’m having is his policy of silence specifically toward Jews in Europe as the persecution was heating up between 1938 and 1941. An example is Bishop Preysing of Berlin, who wrote a letter to Pius January 17, 1941, asking whether “the Holy See couldn’t do something in this matter, issue an appeal in favor of these unfortunate people?” Pius answered in a letter on March 19 praising the Bishop in various measures but did not address specifically the Jewish question. It is open to debate whether his silence would have increased the suffering. No doubt, this was a prudential decision by Pius, but was it heroic?
All that I can say is, read Rabbi David G. Dalin’s “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope”. and if you doubt that Hitler was anti-Catholic, read “Mein Kampf”.
But maybe to those who want to malign the Church no evidence in favor of Pius XII is enough; they will always claim that there must be some still-hidden document that proves that Pius XII and Hitler were good friends.
Sometime I do think you Americans are simple and naive. Maybe it is just because you never have the chance to live under the dictatorship. You read fragments from the newspaper and search pictures on Internet but you can never learn from your own experience how terrible the dictatorship really is. I am not Christian. But as one from a country with thousands of years of dictatorship history, I fully understand and agree with Pius XII’s approach. No doubt delivered an impassioned speech is politically right and can attract eyeballs. BUT do you really believe that Hitler, Stalin or Mao will listen to, or even obey the will of anybody, no matter how distinguished, that has different political view from them? If they yield to moral and justice, then they would no longer be themselves. It is easy to be a martyr, and martyr will be revered by others. BUT it’s much harder to “bite the bullet”. You survive to save thousands of lives. You issue several statements although not mentioning name of Nazi, everybody knew who you are condemning. At last you are blamed for keeping silence and not laying down your own life. It’s absurdly ridiculous. In case of the similar thing, how we are to do ?
Re Mr Askwith’s point: I could see that the pope might have thought an appeal/condemnation of no help to the Jews and of possible hurt to Catholics. As famously happened in Holland a year and a half later.
I’m looking forward to following the canonization process of Pius. The church cannot error in these matters. It comes down to Christian discipleship. What price are we willing to pay to follow Jesus Christ. No doubt, I believe Pius was led by the Holy Spirit in his decisions. 20/20 hindsight. Should Hitler been more aggressively opposed early on? Could that have prevented the horrors that followed? How do we fight moral evil? Cancer has to be caught early to cure it, otherwise it’s too late and will metastisize. The rebellion against Church teaching on contraception, Humanae Vitae, in 1968 preceded the legalization of abortion in 1973. Just a though
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