Hitler’s State Department?

According to CatholicCulture.org, the Aug. 14 issue of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano contains an article by Raffaele Alessandri that is strongly critical of the failure of the U.S. State Department to take actions to help Jews after it learned of the Holocaust in 1942.

Reports Catholic Culture, “Blasting the ‘radically false’ characterization of Pope Pius XII as ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ Alessandrini notes that the State Department failed to act during a time when Jews were being hid in convents with the Vatican’s assistance.”

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis