| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"J Young" |
| Date: |
19 Feb 2005 10:40:50 PM |
| Object: |
His Holiness Pope Pius XII |
IN DEFENSE OF POPE PIUS XII
"The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness
enveloping Europe this Christmas..He is about the only ruler left on
the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all".
(Editorial, the New York Times, Dec 25, 1941).
"A full explanation of Pope Pius' conduct is needed..It now falls to
John Paul and his successors to take the next step toward full
acceptance of the Vatican's failure to stand squarely against the evil
that swept across Europe" (Editorial, the New York Times, Mar 18,
1998).
How the times - and the Times- do change. During the second world war,
Pope Pius XII was lauded for his singular efforts to halt the carnage.
And for years after, he was praised for the Church's efforts in saving
an estimated 700,000 Jews from the Nazi death camps - mainly by issuing
false baptismal certificates to Jews, disguising some in cassocks and
hiding others in cloistered monasteries and convents. But last week,
after the Vatican issued its long awaited "mea culpa" for failing to do
more, critics of the Church greeted the Vatican's statement with the
sound of one hand clapping. Asa the Times editorial suggests, they are
demanding nothing less than a moral outing by the Vatican of Pius XOO.
Something shameful is going on. That Pius XII was silent in the face of
the Holocaust; that he did little to help the Jews; that he was in fact
a pro-German if not pro-Nazi; that underneath it all he was anti-Semite
- are all monstrous calumnies that now seem to pass for accepted
wisdom. Most of these accusations can be traced to a single originating
source: "The Deputy", by Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 play that created an
image of Pius as moral coward. That Golda Meir, later a prime minister
of Israel, and leaders of the Jewish communities in Hungary, Turkey,
Italy, Romania, and the USA thanked the Pope for saving hundreds of
thousands of Jews is now considered irrelevant. That he never
specifically condemned the Shoah is all that seems to matter. In fact,
Pius XII was neither silent nor inactive. As the Vatican's secretary of
State in 1937, he drafted an encyclical for Pope Pius XI condemning
Nazism as un-Christian. The document was then smuggled into Germany,
secretly printed there in German and read from Roman Catholic pulpits.
The Nazis responded by confiscating the presses and imprisoning many
Catholics. In his 1942 Christmas message, which the New York Times
among others extolled, the Pope became the first figure of
international stature to condemn what was turning into a Holocaust.
Among other sins of the Nazi's New Order, he denounced the persecution
"of hundreds of thousands, who without any fault of their own,
sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down
for death or progressive extinction."
The Nazis understood the Pope only too well. "His speech is one long
attack on everything we stand for," declared the Gestapo. "Here he is
clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews. He is virtually accusing the
German people of injustice toward Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece
of the Jewish war criminals." In February 1942, Protestant and Catholic
leaders of Nazi-occupied Holland prepared a letter condemning the
deportation of Jews to death camps in "the East". But only the Catholic
bishops, "following the path indicated by our Holy Father", read the
letter aloud from the pulpit despite threats from the Nazis. As a
result, occupation forces swept Holland's Catholic convents,
monasteries, and schools, deporting all Jews who had converted to
Christianity, something that had never been done before. When word of
this reached Rome, the Pope withdrew a four-page protest he had written
for the Vatican and burned it. As the eleven volumes on the war years,
published by the Vatican archives make clear, Jewish as well as
Christian groups pleaded with the Pope not to make a public protest
because it would only intensify the Nazi persecution. The Pope's crime
- if that is what it is - is that he chose the role of diplomatic
peacemaker rather than martyr for the cause. Both the Allies and the
Axis powers pressured to take their side. It was clear, as the Times
reported and the Nazis complained, that Pius XII stood for western
freedoms. But the Pope refused to sign an Allied condemnation of Nazi
attrocities against the Jews (and Christians) if he could not also
condemn the slaughter of Jews and other religious believers by Stalin,
then an ally of the United States. As it happened, about 5 million of
the 6 million Jews who died came from Russia and Poland, where the Pope
had no power to command anyone. Historian Christopher Browning is right
in concluding that "the Holocaust is a story with many victims and not
too many heros. I think we are naive if we think one more hero could
have stopped it." It is also naive to complain - as the New York Times
did last week - that Pius XII "did not encourage Catholics to defy Nazi
orders." He could hardly direct others to court certain death and
remain politically neutral himself. Morever, in the Roman Catholic
Church that kind of pastoral leadership rests with the local bishops.
Rightly, the hierarchies of Germany and France recently confessed the
failure of wartime Catholics to oppose the Holocaust. That is where
resistance was called for by sorely wanting. Those "righteous Gentiles"
who did risk their lives to save Jews are rightly honored: they put
themselves to the test, an ordeal the Pope could not demand from Rome.
No one person, Hitler excepted, was responsible for the Holocaust. And
no person, Pius XII included, could have prevented it. In choosing
diplomacy over protest, Pius XII had his priorities straight. It's time
to lay off this Pope.
* not original author
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| User: "The Real Riain" |
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| Title: Re: His Evilness Pope Pius XII |
19 Feb 2005 10:47:52 PM |
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"J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1108874450.447245.201660@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
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| User: "Smith W" |
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| Title: Re: His Holiness Pope Pius XII |
19 Feb 2005 11:49:05 PM |
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On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:40:50 -0800, J Young wrote:
As it happened, about 5 million of
the 6 million Jews who died came from Russia and Poland, where the Pope
had no power to command anyone.
Poland was, and is, a Catholic country.
The Pope had no power to command anyone in Poland? But had power
elsewhere? That means that he had as much power as Nazis found
expedient to leave to him.
Yes, more Jews were killed in Russia and Poland. The reason
was simple. In Russia, Ukraine etc hiding Jews was punishable
by death. Apparently not so in Holland.
The Pope? How many divisions has he got? (Joe Stalin)
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| User: "BernardZ" |
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| Title: Re: His Holiness Pope Pius XII |
20 Feb 2005 04:52:33 AM |
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In article <pan.2005.02.20.05.48.55.216443@truth.gov.oc>,
smithw@truth.gov.oc says...
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:40:50 -0800, J Young wrote:
As it happened, about 5 million of
the 6 million Jews who died came from Russia and Poland, where the Pope
had no power to command anyone.
Poland was, and is, a Catholic country.
The Pope had no power to command anyone in Poland? But had power
elsewhere? That means that he had as much power as Nazis found
expedient to leave to him.
Yes, more Jews were killed in Russia and Poland. The reason
was simple. In Russia, Ukraine etc hiding Jews was punishable
by death. Apparently not so in Holland.
The Pope? How many divisions has he got? (Joe Stalin)
In Yugoslavia, the Catholics killed in the popes name not Hitler's. He
certainly could have done something there.
--
Life is always changing, that is what makes it interesting.
Observations of Bernard - No 72
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| User: "Wieland der Schmied" |
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| Title: Re: His Holiness Pope Pius XII |
20 Feb 2005 03:21:48 PM |
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BernardZ wrote:
In article <pan.2005.02.20.05.48.55.216443@truth.gov.oc>,
smithw@truth.gov.oc says...
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:40:50 -0800, J Young wrote:
As it happened, about 5 million of
the 6 million Jews who died came from Russia and Poland, where the Pope
had no power to command anyone.
Poland was, and is, a Catholic country.
The Pope had no power to command anyone in Poland? But had power
elsewhere? That means that he had as much power as Nazis found
expedient to leave to him.
Yes, more Jews were killed in Russia and Poland. The reason
was simple. In Russia, Ukraine etc hiding Jews was punishable
by death. Apparently not so in Holland.
The Pope? How many divisions has he got? (Joe Stalin)
In Yugoslavia, the Catholics killed in the popes name not Hitler's. He
certainly could have done something there.
To be more exact, it was the Croatian Ustasha movement, led by a
Catholic bishop.
Also the relations of the Catholic church to the following organisations
were rather close:
- the Italian fascists
- the Spanish fascists
- the Hungarian fascists
and many more during WWII
and finally the organisers ot the "Rat Line", helping
war criminals to escape to South America.
It helps to understand history, if you recognise Fascism as
a European movement, and the RCC supported it in many countries.
Regards
Wieland the Smith
EAC: Herder of the Trolls
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