Society That Thinks Pope Pius XII Rules

Pius XII And The Jews

2010-01-10T11:16:00.002-05:00

There has been a lot of talk recently about Pius XII and his actions during World War II and the Jewish People, now that Pope Benedict has declared him to be a Venerable and furthering his cause for canonization. Most of the secular media has slandered the good name of Pius XII based on ignorance and a complete lack of facts. They have bought into a lie that was told back in the 60's that Pius was "Hitler's Pope." Nothing could be further from the truth. Pius XII did more to save the Jewish People from Hitler than any other leader in the world during World War II.

However, there is one group, Pave the Way Foundation, led by Gary Krupp (who is himself Jewish) that has done a considerably amount of work on finding documents and evidence to show that Pius XII was indeed a righteous gentile and a man of heroic virtue who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. His website is full of eyewitness interviews, documents, transcripts, etc. that prove this. Please check out the facts for yourself on the website and if you know of anyone slandering Pope Pius XII direct them there as well!

For more info, check out these great books:
The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany by Rabbi David Dalin.
Did Pius XII Help the Jews? by Margherita Marchione

Also, these two posts:
Nun Defends Man Some Call "Hitler's Pope."
Unprecedented Slander

Also posted at Irish, Catholic and Dangerous

Remembering Pope Pius XII

2008-07-04T11:31:00.003-04:00

Great News!

As the 50th Anniversary of the death of the Venerable Pope Pius XII approaches, a group of supporters of his beatification/canonization has formed a committee in order to commemorate his saintly life and pontificate. Prelates as well as laymen are part of this committee, including Sr. Margherita Marchione, who has written extensively to defend his life and pontificate.

Please, go to the website below for a list of the members of the committee and the mission statement.

Here is the link to the website: http://www.rememberingpopepiusxii.blogspot.com/

Sign The Petition

2007-12-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

Petition to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Beatification of Pope Pius XII

Pius XII visits St. John Lateran

2007-04-17T10:55:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Here is another video clip of Pius XII visiting St. John Lateran (Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput).

Almost at the end of the clip, you can see Pius XII standing on the Sedia (on the loggia) and giving the Papal Blessing!

Pio XII visita San Giovanni in Laterano

Enjoy!

The Holy Eucharist

2007-04-16T15:02:00.000-04:00

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Belief in the Real Presence

I believe, Lord, with a firm and gratifying faith that even when the words of Consecration may have sprung from unworthy lips, like lilies from the mire, in obedience to them Thou wert really and substantially present beneath the forms and appereances of bread and wine. I believe it because Thou, the Absolute Truth; Thou, the Essential and Unfailing Light didst never deceive, art not one to deceive, much less the immense flock of little ones who adore Thee, seek Thee and receive Thee as being truly present; because Thou hast said it. Lord, I believe in Thy creative word.

Why do I believe? Because Christ, the sole Author of the Sacraments, is All-powerful:

He summons the bodies of the dead, and they return to life from the corruption of the grave. He utters a word of command to the most rebellious diseases, either in the sick person’s presence or several miles away, and those diseases leave not a trace behind. He reproves the boisterous winds and waves, and they sing down calm and silent, like a class of prankish schoolboys at the shout of a feared master. He treads the sea, and it sustains Him with rock-like solidity. Over a few loaves and fish, He bestows a single word of blessing, and they multiply indefinitely.

Not once did Christ give a command –and He gave many- to any element of the material world, that He was not obeyed without the slightest resistance or hesitation. In other words, He ever showed Himself an Absolute –we might even say Tyrannycal- Master over matter, doing with it and in it whatever He willed; for the simple reason that it was He Who had brought it into existance out of nothing, endowing it with the capacities He pleased. Will He not, therefore, be able to do with it more, infinitely more, than anything my blunt mind can possibly cope with?

Lord, I believe. For Thou canst annihilate the whole world, if it should please Thee; Thou canst transform it to Thy liking; Thou canst change the substance of bread and wine into Thy own Body and Blood, and thus multiply Thy Presence beyond all human scope and measure. What was possible for Thee became an actual fact, for Thou didst say but the word, and never was it necessary for Thee to voice Thy commands to inert matter twice over. “Ipse dixit et facta sunt” (Ps. 32:9).

Again, why do I believe? Because the whole Church believes. No, I am not alone; I share this belief with millions and millions of human beings from every nation, race, and climate; with all the centuries of Christian history, with people of every age and condition and temperament, with souls joyful and sorrowful, with souls raised aloft in the auroral splendors of grace, or sunk in the night of sin; with the little children who seal the first dawning of reason with an act of faith in Christ’s Eucharistic Presence and their first Holy Communion, as with a morning star; with all those who close their length of days with the heavenly clasp of Holy Viaticum.

I believe with the Church, whose Faith in the Eucharist is Her very life. Wrench from Her this belief, and you will have destroyed Her entire Liturgy, demolished Her Cathedrals and churches, killed Her priesthood, effaced from Her history the most brilliant and holy pages written with Her blood and tears. It was for Thee, O Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, that She allowed Herself to be persecuted and bled, and allowed remnants of Her vesture and entrails to cleave to the claws of tyrants! Today, the same as in the Catacombs, the same as in the Middle Ages, and in the century that witnessed the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi; today, as truly as then, and perhaps even more so, this belief in the Eucharist urges the faithful on to the sublimest acts of adoration ever recorded in history.

Resolutions:

I will make more frequent acts of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ upon our Altars. This I will also teach others time and time again, until they, of their own accord, go eagerly in quest of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, loving Him and adoring Him in this Sacrament before everything and everyone else, preferring His Presence to every picture or statue or shrine, however devotional or miraculous; giving Him precedence over every popular Saint, over the Most Holy Mother of God Herself, over His most cherished and venerated images.

Accusations Against Pius XII Will Not Hold

2007-04-13T20:31:00.000-04:00

There has been a recent attack on the character of our beloved late Holy Father, Pius XII. This time it was in a Holocaust memorial exhibit at the Yad Vashem museum in Israel. The apostolic nuncio in Israel, however, defended Pius XII against the slanderous and false lies told about him. For more of the story, read here.

Dogma of the Assumption

2007-04-02T20:52:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Guys, you should all go to traditionalcatholicism and listen to Angelic Pope declaring the dogma of the Assumption of the Mother of God! Don't miss it because it is in Latin!

Pius XII: More Pictures

2007-03-25T19:32:00.000-04:00

O.K. dear bloggers, here are some more pictures of the great Pope Pius XII!

††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† ††††† †††††

Pius XII is receving the Precious Blood using a fístula (a decorated golden straw)

Here our Pope is praying the Rosary

This is a picture of Pius X's Canonization Mass: the Pope is venerating the relics of his saintly predecessor

Pius XII with the majestic Papal Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Dante at the Canonization of Pius X

Here he is at the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest. Excellent picture!

Preaching

No comments needed!!!

Last years of Pius XII

2007-03-25T18:45:00.000-04:00

Videos like this one have been going around on youtube lately, but since they have not been included here, I will link this one for now.

Last years of Pius XII

I hope it works. Enjoy!

Pius XII and the Holocaust

2007-03-25T18:12:00.000-04:00

This article was sent to me by a reader of this site. The reader said that the article was written by Sr. Margherita Marchione and asked if it could be posted here. So, here it is:

To the Editor: Pius XII and the Holocaust

Sixty-eight years ago, on March 12, 1939, Pius XII received the papal tiara. World War II began six months later. The

Vatican

was a neutral State. As its sovereign, Pius XII could not and did not take a public stand against the Nazis, Fascists, or Allies. However, he condemned the persecution of people based on their race, was in contact with the anti-Nazi Resistance, approved a plot to assassinate Hitler, and defended minorities. He vigorously protested the deportation of Jews and ordered his nuncios to intervene. He was not anti-Semitic. He authorized Vatican Radio and L’Osservatore Romano to publicly condemn Nazi atrocities. The Nazis called him “the mouthpiece of the Jewish was criminals?”

The record shows that more than sixty protests condemning Nazism and Fascism were made by Eugenio Pacelli as Secretary of State and as Pope. He openly and consistently defied the Nazis and encouraged the German bishops to continue to do so. Pius XII made strong protests against the Nazi seizure of Rome’s Jews, and permitted false documents, forged protective passes, and faked baptismal certificates to be issued. He was the spiritual leader of Catholics throughout the world. When he learned about the plight of the Jews and other victims, it was for fear of worsening their condition that he did not issue a public condemnation of the Holocaust. However, he succeeded in mobilizing all the forces of the Church and extended his charity to all war victims, without distinction of nationality, race, or religion. In fact, he refused to leave the

Vatican

and was prepared to face captivity or death at the hands of the Nazis. He repeatedly stated: “Whatever happens, I will not leave Rome voluntarily. My place is here and I will fight to the end for the Christian commandments of humanity and peace.” How can anyone doubt Pius XII’s integrity!

The Holocaust was the evil consequence of a demonic mind, that of Adolf Hitler, who planned to dominate the world, destroy Christianity, and foster a new Godless religion. Dr. Robert W. Kempner, Deputy Chief, U. S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, who compared those who defame Pius XII with revisionists who deny the full reality of the Holocaust, stated: “Every propaganda move of the Catholic Church against Hitler’s Reich would have been not only ‘provoking suicide’…but would have hastened the execution of still more Jews and priests.”
The historical record shows that Pope Pius XII, through his world-wide network of apostolic delegates, was able to save the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. While some individuals, including Jews, betrayed their Jewish friends, the Pope’s so-called “silence” saved lives. He did all he could to avoid reprisals against Jews and Catholics. As the spiritual leader of all, including 40 million German Catholics, he could not endanger them. Not only did he provide money, ships, and food, but he placed his radio, his diplomacy, his convents, at the disposal of the refugees.

Pius XII was a prudent leader whose silence saved thousands of Jews from extermination. What would survivors have preferred—words or actions? Would the Nazis and the Fascists have tolerated the charitable work of the Catholic Church during World War II? If he had publicly condemned Hitler or Mussolini, would thousands of Jews have survived? In a recent interview, Sir Martin Gilbert explained: “As a Jewish historian, I have felt the need to fully recognize the help given by Catholics to Jews during the Second World War…. Priests and bishops saved Jews wherever they were threatened, including

Poland

France

and

Italy

…. The Nazis recognized the fact that Pope Pius XII directed his representatives to save the persecuted Jews by opening the doors of Catholic institutions. They considered Pope Pius XII an enemy of

Germany

.”

While Pius XII was saving the Jews “in silence,” some Jewish leaders, interested in a Jewish state, did nothing to save their brethren. Pius XII felt that if he spoke out about the Jewish killings specifically, the situation would only grow worse. An American diplomat, Harold Tittmann, stated in his memoirs: “Personally, I cannot help but feel that the Holy Father chose the better path by not speaking out and thereby saved many lives. Who can say what the Nazis would have done in their ruthless furor had they been further inflamed by public denunciations from the Holy See?”

The Catholic Church saved 860,000 Jews from extermination. In his book, Antisemitismo, Rabbi

Israel

Zolli wrote: “World Jewry owes a great debt of gratitude to Pius XII for his repeated and pressing appeals for justice on behalf of the Jews and, when these did not prevail, for his strong protests against evil laws and procedures. …No hero in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic than Pius XII in pursuing the work of true charity!...and this on behalf of all the suffering children of God.” In his 1954 memoirs, Before the Dawn, he praised Pius XII’s leadership: “…The Holy Father sent by hand a letter to the bishops instructing them to lift the enclosure from convents and monasteries, so that they could hide the Jews.” The extraordinary tributes the Jewish community offered Pius XII for saving Jews and fighting anti-Semitism is part of world history. Documents on the papacy of Pius XI are available. So far, scholars have found nothing that would incriminate Pius XII, whose own papers consist of 6 million documents in 50,000 cases which will be available to scholars only after they are catalogued.

Pope Pius XII was a scholar and a diplomat who inspired all who approached him. An exceptional, saintly individual, he was a symbol of mercy, of hope and of love, during a period in history full of lies, desperation and hatred. His goodness and spiritual strength, his intelligence and his extraordinary capacity to understand the sufferings and the dangers of people everywhere, endeared him to all. Thousands of Jewish refugees hidden in 155 Catholic institutions in the city of Rome were saved, thanks to Pope Pius XII.

Margherita Marchione, PhD, author of: Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy (1997); Pius XII: Architect for Peace (2000); Consensus and Controversy (2002); Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pius XII (2002); Man of Peace (2003); Crusade of Charity: Pius XII and POWs (2006); Did Pope Pius XII Help the Jews? (2007) Paulist Press. [E-mail Sr.Margherita.Marchione@ATT.NET / Tel. 973-538-2886, Ext.116 / FAX 973-539-9327] .

Smear Campaign Against Pius XII Initiated By KGB

2007-01-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

A former high-ranking officer with the KGB claims that the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence agency in the 1960s were set on executing a smear campaign against the Catholic Church, and the main target was Pope Pius XII.

In a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII “as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer.”

“In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe,” writes Pacepa. “Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB’s main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. ‘Dead men cannot defend themselves’ was the KGB’s latest slogan.”

The code name for this operation against Pope Pius XII was “Seat-12.”

The KGB used the fact that Archbishop Pacelli had served as the papal nuncio in Munich and Berlin when the Nazis were beginning their bid for power against him. “The KGB wanted to depict him as an anti-Semite who had encouraged Hitler’s Holocaust,” says Pacepa.

To do this, the KGB wanted some original Vatican documents to “slightly modify”. So they called in Pacepa, who was working for the Romanian intelligence service.

Pacepa says he became the Romanian point man. He was authorized to falsely inform the Vatican that Romania was ready to restore its broken relations with the Holy See, in exchange for access to its archives — in order to find historical roots that would help the Romanian government publicly justify its change of heart toward the Holy See — and a one-billion-dollar, interest-free loan for 25 years.

Between 1960 and 1962, the Romanian spy sent hundreds of archival documents connected in any way with Pope Pius XII to the KGB. Pacepa says none of the documents were incriminating in themselves, but they were sent to the KGB in any case.

The KGB used these documents to produce a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII, entitled The Deputy. It eventually saw the stage in Germany in 1963, under the title The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy. It proposed that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged him to go ahead with the Jewish Holocaust. The German director claimed to have 40 pages of documentation attached to the script that would support the thesis of the play.

The play ran in New York in 1964 and was translated into 20 languages. The play then led to a flurry of books and articles, some accusing and some defending the pontiff.

“Today, many people who have never heard of The Deputy are sincerely convinced that Pius XII was a cold and evil man who hated the Jews and helped Hitler do away with them,” Pacepa writes in the National Review Online. “As KGB chairman Yury Andropov, the unparalleled master of Soviet deception, used to tell me, people are more ready to believe smut than holiness.”

Pacepa says the truth has finally begun to emerge with the canonization process of Pius XII, which was opened by Pope John Paul II.

“Witnesses from all over the world have compellingly proved that Pius XII was an enemy, not a friend, of Hitler,” says Pacepa.

He also refers to the book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis, by David G. Dalin, which has compiled further proof of Archbishop Pacelli’s friendship for the Jews.

“At the start of World War II, Pope Pius XII’s first encyclical was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany,” he concludes.

[source]

Vatican urged to halt beatification

2006-10-26T21:20:00.000-04:00

By Richard Owen

Israel has urged the Vatican to halt procedures putting Pius XII, the controversial wartime Pope, on the path to sainthood.

Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, said: “I am asking the Vatican to block the beatification process for Pius XII.” He added that the process should be halted until archives relating to the Second World War were opened to scholars.

Pius XII, formerly the papal nuncio to Germany and later Pius XI’s Secretary of State as Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, is accused of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust and remaining silent about Nazi anti-Semitism. Mr Ben-Hur was speaking at the launch of The Holy See and the Jewish Question, a study by the Italian historian Alessandro Duce. He said that even those close to Pius XII were critical of his failure to condemn Nazi atrocities.

Vatican officials said that the Pope had sought to save Jews in Rome through quiet diplomacy, fearing that public attacks on Hitler would make matters worse. Scholars said Vatican archives from the period of Pius XI showed that as a diplomat the future Pius XII was often indecisive.

link

Bishop Pacelli and Fatima

2006-10-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

Pacelli consecrated Bishop on October 13th, 1917

Isn't this great! Consecrated Bishop on the same day Our Lady of Fatima appeared to the three little shepherds at the Cova da Iria.

The video is short. It just says that Pacelli was consecrated Bishop on the day of the apparition at Fatima.

Pacelli: The Flying Cardinal

2006-09-30T01:24:00.000-04:00

Cardinal Pacelli and his travels

Pacelli e i viaggi: Because he traveled a lot to establish communication with other States – since Rome was not the center of the world anymore and to help the Church have an important role in the modern world – he was known as flying Cardinal (il Cardinale volante). He traveled to Argentina (for the Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires) where he was received as a head of State, as a King, by the government and more than a million faithful. He was almost considered a “vice-Pope.” Cardinals and many Bishops (Archbishops) usually accompanied him. He went to Lourdes (France) in 1935; in 1936 he traveled to the US; in 1937 went to Lisieux (France) for the dedication of the Basilica consecrated to the Little Flower where he condemned the idolatry of race and Communism (in condemnation of the racial laws in force in Germany).

Clip of the election of Pius XII

2006-09-30T01:09:00.000-04:00

Election of Cardinal Pacelli

Loose translation/summary of the clip:

Elezione di Pio XII: About what usually happens after the death of a Pope and the preparations for the conclave. At that time, 42 votes were needed to elect the next Pope. After the first voting session, Cardinal Pacelli received 36 votes, after the second session, he received 5 more (41), and after the third voting session, he was elected Pope. It was one of the shortest conclaves in the Church, and at the end he said: Accípio in Crucem = I accept it as a Cross. He was the first Pope to be from Rome since 1670. The Pope himself took pleasure in the fact that his last name Pacelli means Peace from Heaven (Pax Cæli).

Pacelli's War

2006-09-30T00:39:00.000-04:00

Pacelli's War

Here is a summary of what is said in the clip:

Guerra di Pacelli: The Pope finds out about Hitler’s plans to invade and take over the Vatican, but he is unwilling to flee. Prince Pacelli does not want any privileges. He multiplied his works of penitence: ate little, no heart in his room, to save paper (recycle), he wrote his drafts (of letters) on the back of used papers; winter of 1944, the Vatican distributed 100, 000 meals each day; many people found refuge at Castelgandolfo; many more were hidden/sheltered (including Jews) in other papal residences and churches. As a form of security, the Pope redoubled the number of soldiers (from 400 to 4000) guarding the Papal residences and churches. The Pope affirmed (May 1950), “Whoever dares to attack Rome will be guilty of matricide.” He was called the last defender of Rome: he was called “Defénsor Civitátis."

Video Clip: Death of Pius XII

2006-09-29T15:01:00.000-04:00

Short video of the death of Pius XII

This video is also in Italian, but even if you do not know Italian, it is still worth watching it. It talks about the health of Pius XII, his own premonitions about his health and death, about the rumors that he had visions of Jesus and Mary, and then the procession of his funeral. Just Beautiful!

Pius XII: Papal Blessing

2006-09-29T14:48:00.000-04:00

Pius XII imparting a Solemn Papal Blessing.

Some of it is in Italian, and the actual Blessing is in Latin -- well, this was in 1958, not 1988!

A Visual Tribute to the Pastor Angélicus

2006-09-29T13:49:00.000-04:00

This is for all those who admire and defend Pius XII!

Cardinal Pacelli at Eucharistic Congress in Budapest

Actress Grace Kelly before Pope Pius XII with Price Ranier

Pius XII declaring the Dogma of the Assumption

Papa Pacelli blessing an image of Our Lady of Arabia

Pastor of souls

Pacelli saying Mass

Il Cardinale Volante

The Pope being carried in procession

2006-09-27T10:59:00.000-04:00

"Nothing could better obstruct the confrontation of man with God than the notion that we 'go unto the altar of God' as we would go to a pleasant, relaxing social gathering. This is why the Latin mass with Gregorian chant, which raises us up to a sacred atmosphere, is vastly superior to a vernacular mass with popular songs, which leaves us in a profane, merely natural atmosphere."
-Dietrich von Hildebrand

"Dietrich von Hildebrand is the 20th century Doctor of the Church."
-Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII's Franciscan Side

2006-09-09T23:18:00.000-04:00

For the full story go to this Jewish Website!
(the bird story starts on paragraph 16)

Pius XII Hid Jews During War

2006-08-18T13:54:00.000-04:00

By: Philip Crispin

The Roman convent of Santi Quattro Coronati sheltered political fugitives and Jews during the Second World War on the direct orders of Pope Pius XII, according to the diary of one of the Augustinian convent's sisters.

According to the Italian daily La Stampa, which has seen the 60-year-old-plus diary, the Pope, who has often been criticised for keeping his counsel during the Holocaust, instructed the mother superior to open, exceptionally, the enclosure of the contemplative order's convent in order to shelter those fleeing the Germans.

The anonymous author of the journal provides detailed names and dates of more than 10 Jews and non-Jews who were sheltered in the convent from September 1942 to June 1944. One of these was Amalia Viterbo, the Jewish niece of Palmiro Togliatti, one of the creators of the Italian Communist Party and secretary of the Comintern before the Second World War.

The Augustinian sister writes that the Pope wished to save "his children as well as Jews" and ordered that monasteries and enclosures should be opened up to those persecuted.

Later, when the convent superior perceived that the SS were flouting the sanctuary of convent enclosures, she had false identity papers drawn up for her guests.

The diary should interest historians who have been at loggerheads for 60 years over the attitude of Pope Pius XII concerning concentration camps and the Holocaust. Many have accused him of complicity through his silence. [source]

Prayer of Pope Pius XII To Our Lady Of The Assumption

2006-08-16T15:44:00.000-04:00

O Immaculate Virgin,
Mother of God and Mother of Humanity,
we believe with all the fervour of our faith
in your triumphal Assumption
both in body and in soul into heaven
where you are acclaimed as Queen
by all the choirs of angels
and all the legions of saints;
we unite with them to praise and bless the Lord
who has exalted you above all other pure creatures
and to offer you the tribute of our devotion and our love.

We know that your gaze,
which on earth watched over the humble
and suffering humanity of Jesus,
in heaven is filled with the vision
of that humanity glorified
and with the vision of uncreated Wisdom,
and that the joy of your soul
in the direct contemplation of the adorable Trinity
causes your heart to throb with overwhelming tenderness;
and we, poor sinners whose body weights down
the flight of the soul,
beg you to purify our hearts so that,
while we remain below,
we may learn to see God and God alone
in the beauties of his creatures.

We trust that your merciful eyes
may deign to gaze down upon our miseries and anguish,
upon our struggles and our weaknesses;
that your countenance may smile
upon our joys and our victories;
that you may hear the voice of Jesus
saying to you of each one of us,
as He once said to you of His Beloved Disciple:
"Behold you son,"
and we who call upon you as our Mother,
we, like John, take you as the guide,
strength and consolation of our mortal life.

We are inspired by the certainty that your eyes,
which wept over the earth crimsoned by the blood of Jesus,
are yet turned toward this world
racked by wars and persecutions,
the oppression of the just and the weak.
From the shadows of this vale of tears,
we seek in your heavenly assistance,
tender mercy, comfort for our aching hearts,
and help in the trials of Church and country.

We believe finally that in the glory where you reign,
clothed with the sun and crowned with stars,
you are, after Jesus,
the joy and gladness of all the angels and the saints,
and from this earth,
over which we tread as pilgrims,
comforted by our faith in the future resurrection,
we look to you our life,
our sweetness, our hope;
draw us onward with the sweetness of your voice,
so that one day, after our exile,
you may show us Jesus,
the blessed fruit of your womb.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.

Amen.

Cardinal Kasper Defends Pius XII

2006-07-19T19:28:00.000-04:00

From CWNews.com

Pope Pius XII "did what was humanly possible" to protect Jews from Nazi persecution during the years of World War II, Cardinal Walter Kasper has told an Italian weekly.

Cardinal Kasper told Il Consulente Re that Pope Pius did his best to "strike a balance in such a tragic situation." By acting quietly-- in the belief that a more public protest against Nazi racism would have triggered still worse persecution-- the Pope "helped countless victims," the German prelate argued. Cardinal Kasper concluded that it is "unfair to judge Pius by today's standards."

Despite some complaints that he failed to take action against the Holocaust, Pope Pius XII is a candidate for beatification. The postulator for his cause, Father Peter Gumpel, has said that the cause is proceeding normally, with beatification likely in the next few years.

Cause For Canonization

2006-07-19T19:03:00.000-04:00

Today in my Theology of the Church class, my professor mentioned that Pius XII was reported to have had visions of Jesus. I was immediately interested because this would help his cause for canonization. Here's what I found on two websites, Appearences of Mary and The Messengers of St. Anthony.

"There were occasional rumors of visions and "angelic" phenomema associated with Pius XII during the entire duration of his papacy (1939 - 1958). He purportedly experienced mystical visions of both Jesus and Mary. After one of these "visions" he reportedly told one of his assistants, "Mankind must prepare itself for sufferings such as it has never before experienced."

He expressed dismay at what he saw facing humanity in the not so distant future, describing those times as "the darkest since the deluge". He described the times that were unfolding as a period of great spiritual conflict, noting, "The hour has struck - the battle, the most widespread, bitter and ferocious the world has ever known, has been joined. It must be fought to the finish." He made these comments having communicated with Sister Lucia, the surviving visionary of Fatima, a correspondence which he conducted through intermediaries. Apparently as a result of these contacts, he consecrated the entire Church and the world to Mary's heart in 1942 implicitly accepting Sister Lucia's visions at Tuy and Pontevedra in the late 1920's. In the late 1940's he learned from Sr. Lucia that, failing a Church-wide collegial consecration of Russia by the bishops in unison with the Pope, the tribulations prophecized at Fatima might still be ameliorated if the world could be consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Heart. If such a consecration could be again be performed, this time with the bishops of the Church and with a special mention of Russia in the words of dedication, then the tribulations which he saw in his visions could be mitigated.

To reaffirm the trust he exhibited in the Mother of God, he also witnessed the inexplicable solar phenomena of Fatima while walking in the Vatican gardens. He wrote to one of his cardinals,
"Having lifted the papers I had in my hand, I was struck by a phenomenon I had never seen before. The sun, which was fairly high, looked like a pale yellow opaque globe completely surrounded by a luminous halo, which nevertheless did not prevent me at all from staring attentively at the sun without the slightest discomfort. A very light cloud was before it. The opaque globe began moving outward, slowly turning over upon itself, and going from left to right and vice-versa. But within the globe very strong movements could be seen in all clarity and without interruption."

After nearly 1,500 years as a common belief of many of the faithful and after nearly fifty years of intensive theological study, two days after his experiences in the Vatican garden Pius XII formally declared as Catholic Dogma that Mary was Assumed body and soul into Heaven - a doctrine known as the Assumption."

Vatican files to cast new light on Pius XII, Jews

2006-07-04T16:14:00.000-04:00

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - Wartime Pope Pius XII's views on the Jews, one of the sorest points in Catholic-Jewish relations, could be in for an important reappraisal when archives from his years as Vatican prime minister are opened in Rome in September.

The Vatican said on Friday it would open all files from the Pius XI papacy which ran from 1922 until just before the 1939 outbreak of World War Two. Critics say successor Pius XII, whose views as a Vatican official would be reflected in the files, did too little in the war to save European Jews from the Holocaust.

Supporters and critics of Pius XII are miles apart. The late Pope John Paul wanted to make him a saint but many critics, including Jewish groups, call him "Hitler's Pope".

The archives contain internal documents showing how Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pius XII, worked as Secretary of State from 1930 to 1939 dealing with major political issues.

"That will put research into Pacelli into a new league," said Professor Hubert Wolf, an historian at Muenster University in Germany and a leading expert on the Vatican Secret Archives.

"We will have nine years of him dealing with church affairs around the world," Wolf told Reuters. The files will show his discussions inside the Vatican bureaucracy and policy instructions to papal nuncios (ambassadors).

"We'll see his comments in the margins of a report. We'll have his tiny, shaky handwriting as he passes judgment on issues. You cannot get any closer to Pacelli," he said.

Wolf, a Catholic priest, could not say how the late pope would seen after the files are opened: "I'm an historian, not a prophet. The documents have to answer that question."

CHANGING VIEWS

Pius XII toed a cautious line during the war to avoid reprisals against Catholics in Germany and Nazi-occupied countries. He was initially praised for speaking out as openly as he could and helping to save Jews in secret.

This view changed radically in 1963, when German playwright Rolf Hochhuth depicted him in "The Deputy" as a cynic who kept silent despite knowing about the Holocaust.

The two sides have feuded ever since, with defenders -- including some Jewish historians -- citing private anti-Hitler comments and critics presenting him as an anti-Semite.

The 1922-1939 archives will include hitherto secret notes for internal policy sessions of the Secretariat of State, including what Pacelli -- the Vatican's "political brain," in Wolf's words -- said in strategy sessions about Jewish issues.

For example, Edith Stein, a German convert from Judaism who was killed in Auschwitz, wrote to Pacelli in April 1933 about anti-Jewish repression in the early days of Nazi Germany. He responded a week later saying he had passed it on to Pius XI.

"Something happened in Rome between those two letters," Wolf said. "Now we can ask what effect Stein's letter had in the Curia. Who dealt with it? Did Pacelli ask anyone for advice?"

SPECULATION

The new documents should also show Pacelli's private views on the 1933 Concordat with Nazi Germany, relations with Fascist Italy, the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War and the Nazi annexation of Austria and the Munich Agreement in 1938.

Wolf said he was sure the Vatican would not hold back embarrassing documents and would apologize if grave errors came to light

"Pope Benedict...says it makes no sense to continue to fuel speculation by being secretive," said Wolf, who discussed the archives with the German-born pontiff in March.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, welcomed the news of the opening of the Pius XI files but urged the Vatican to hurry up with the really crucial ones -- those from the 1939-1958 Pius XII papacy itself.

Prayer for the Imprisoned

2006-06-26T12:08:00.000-04:00

I was just chatting with a long time friend of mine and my family's and he was telling me that his wife and very new Catholic's Confirmation name is Barbarba. I went onto a site which I swear by for figuring out who is the patron of what. I checked on St. Barbara just because I was curious, and found out that one of her patronages is of the imprisoned, and on that page I found this, a beautiful prayer for prisoners written by our man, Pius XII. Being pontiff during WWII, I think this was a prayer that bore especial relevancy. Of course, there are those who are such incredible wags that they'll assert this prayer was only meant to be said for German POW's...

2006-05-20T00:41:00.000-04:00

And to think, the New York Times nowadays contradicts what they said in the 40's.

†††† †††† †††† †††† †††† †††† †††† †††† ††††

On Christmas Day, 1941, the New York Times, commenting on Pius XII’s Christmas Message, carried the following editorial:

The Pope’s Message

The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas. The Pope reiterates what he has said before. In general, he repeats, although with greater definiteness, the five-point plan for peace which he first enunciated in his Christmas message after the war broke out in 1939. His program agrees in fundamentals with the Roosevelt-Churchill eight-point declaration. It calls for respect for treaties and the end of the possibility of aggression, equal treatment for minorities, freedom from religious persecution. It goes farther than the Atlantic Charter in advocating an end of all national monopolies of economic wealth, and so far as the eight points, which demands complete disarmament for Germany pending some future limitation of arms for all nations.

The Pontiff emphasized principles of international morality with which most men of good-will agree. He uttered the ideas a spiritual leader would be expected to express in time of war. Yet his words sound strange and bold in the Europe of today, and we comprehend the complete submergence and enslavement of great nations, the very sources of our civilization, as we realize that he is about the only ruler left o the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all. The last tiny islands of neutrality are so hemmed in and overshadowed by war and fear that no one but the Pope is still able to speak aloud in the name of the Prince of Peace. This is indeed a measure of the "moral devastation" he describes as the accompaniment of physical ruin and inconceivable human suffering.

In calling for a "real new order" based on "liberty, justice and love," to be attained only by a "return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power," the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement between belligerents "whose reciprocal war aims and programs seem to be irreconcilable," he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace. "The new order which must arise out of this war," he asserted, "must be based on principles." And that implies only one end to the war.

Taken from a Catholic League article

Elementary School Kids Know The Truth

2006-05-11T10:46:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken at St. George's Catholic School in Erie, PA.

Haurietis Aquas

2006-05-10T07:59:00.000-04:00

Rorate Cæli has a recent post celebrating 50 years of Pius XII's encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Draw the living waters - 50 years of Haurietis Aquas - I.

A New Book On Pius XII

2006-05-04T07:45:00.000-04:00

More Churches Voice Their Desire To Make Pius XII A Saint

2006-05-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

Nothing too amazing about this. You would expect as much...

However, this is big news:

But you know the cause is going strong when this happens:

I even managed to find a celebrity endorsement from the 50's!

The Cause Has Reached The North Pole

2006-05-03T09:44:00.000-04:00

The Chicago Cubs Think Pius XII Rules

2006-05-03T09:16:00.000-04:00

Wrigleyfield Sign Generator

The Record of Pius XII's Opposition to Hitler

2006-05-02T10:53:00.000-04:00

What? You still don't believe that Pius XII was a foe of Hitler? Read this!

Still at it

2006-05-01T20:42:00.000-04:00

The news is reporting yet again on Pius XII's canonization moving along.

A Denial

2006-05-01T16:16:00.000-04:00

Franciscan Holy Land leader denies he criticized Pope Pius XII

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land has denied that he criticized Pope Pius XII for not doing enough to defend the Jews during World War II.

In a May 1 clarification to statements reported in the Jerusalem newspaper Ha'aretz in late April, Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is in charge of Christian sites in the Holy Land, said that in his April 25 speech at an academic conference in Tel Aviv, "No reference -- direct or indirect -- was made to Pius XII or the authorities of the Holy See.

"It was not my intention to express any historical judgment on what had happened during the war," he added in the statement, e-mailed to Catholic News Service May 1.

"The statements reported by Ha'aretz and attributed to me are, then, incorrect and false," he said.

In his clarification and in a telephone interview with CNS, Father Pizzaballa said he did not state anything that had not already been said in papal documents or in documents by European bishops.

Ha'aretz quoted Father Pizzaballa as criticizing "church leaders, including those of the highest level, who did not adopt a courageous stand in the evangelical spirit in the face of the Nazi regime."

Ha'aretz then reported: "Dr. Simcha Epstein of the Hebrew University's Vidal Sassoon Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism said the phrase 'high-level leaders,' was a veiled reference to Pope Pius XII."

Supporters of Pope Pius' sainthood cause recently gathered in Rome to hear about his virtues and denounce criticism that he did not do enough to help Jews during World War II. Some believe his cause has been delayed because of such criticism.

Santo Subito

2006-04-28T12:03:00.000-04:00

Sense of urgency: Pope Pius XII supporters await progress on cause

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII coming up in two years, supporters of his sainthood cause are growing a little impatient.

They're also growing older. The generation of church people who lived and worked with Pope Pius is quietly passing from the scene.

That may have accounted, in part, for the sense of urgency among those who gathered recently at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University to hear new evidence of Pope Pius' virtues and denounce the "continuous attacks" from those who fault him for not doing enough to help Jews during World War II.

The feisty tone was set by Italian Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, 89, a personal friend of the late pontiff. After listening to a Vatican envoy read a message from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, in praise of Pope Pius, Cardinal Angelini asked the monsignor to take a message back to his superiors.

"Pius XII must be declared a saint! Admiration isn't enough -- people need to get moving!" he said to applause from the packed auditorium.

"Too much time has already passed," he said.

The Vatican message only hinted at Pope Benedict XVI's views, saying he was happy to see attention given to the great efforts of Pope Pius to "prevent the war, ease its pain and hasten its end."

The suspicion among many in the room was that Vatican officials long ago placed Pope Pius on the slow track because he is a controversial figure whose beatification could cause problems.

But on that score, the audience received some good news. Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, who has assembled evidence in support of the cause, said the Vatican's saint-making machinery may be grinding toward a conclusion of this cause.

In late 2004, he said, experts handed in documentation totaling more than 3,000 pages in six volumes. Earlier this year, two preliminary meetings of historians and theologians were held to review the documentation.

Father Gumpel said that, despite some "errors and misguided suggestions" from one of the four historians and some scrupulous queries from some of the nine theologians, the overall assessment was very positive.

Father Gumpel is preparing written answers to their questions, and before the summer he expects a definitive meeting on the cause. If the historians and theologians approve it, it goes to the full Congregation for Saints' Causes for similar approval, then to Pope Benedict for an ultimate decision.

Once Pope Pius' heroic virtues are declared, the church must recognize two miracles attributed to his intercession, one before his beatification and another before his canonization.

So when can the church expect his beatification?

"I'm not a seer, but the cause is advanced, and there are serious reasons to think it will come in the not-too-distant future," Father Gumpel said.

Criticism of Pope Pius has grown more shrill in recent years, according to Father Gumpel, who blames "communists, Masons and other fringe groups that are hostile to the church."

One of the volumes consigned to the Vatican was an appendix listing representative criticisms, along with analysis and rebuttal, he said.

Like many church people in Rome, Father Gumpel is convinced that Pope Pius worked quietly to help save many Jews during the war and that strong public statements by the pope would only have worsened the Nazi persecution.

The Rome conference heard from two people who agree -- a rabbi and a nun.

U.S. Rabbi David G. Dalin -- whose book, "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis," takes aim at what he says is the smearing of Pope Pius -- said he has documented dozens of instances where the pope spoke against Nazism and helped save Jews from deportation.

"Pius XII was not Hitler's pope, but a protector and friend of the Jewish people at a moment in history when it mattered most," he said.

He said this was a commonly accepted fact among Jews after the war and for many years afterward. In 1955, for example, on the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Rome, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra came to play a concert in tribute to Pope Pius, he said.

"Israeli public opinion would never have accepted the Israeli Philharmonic traveling to play a concert for 'Hitler's pope,'" he said.

Sister Margherita Marchione, a member of the Religious Teachers Filippini order in Morristown, N.J., unveiled the latest in a series of books she has written defending Pope Pius.

Titled "Crusade of Charity," it includes a sampling of the 10 million letters from families -- Christian and Jewish -- who sought the pope's help in finding missing loved ones in the war. The Vatican Secret Archives made the letters available to scholars two years ago; many of the letters express deep gratitude to the pope for his efforts.

While the media may view Pope Pius strictly in the context of World War II, Cardinal Angelini reminded the audience that he was much more than a wartime pope.

"He was a man of God and a man of prayer, an ascetic and a great pastor," the cardinal said. He said the late pope was prophetic in his comments about materialism and communism and helped set in motion the events leading to the Second Vatican Council.

Often overlooked, Cardinal Angelini said, were Pope Pius' groundbreaking statements about modern medicine. For example, the pope's acceptance of pain relievers -- even if they may unintentionally shorten human life -- was revolutionary, he said.

Cardinal Angelini closed with another applause line: "The holiness of Pius XII doesn't need to be defended. It needs to be better known."

Unprecedented Slander

2006-04-27T18:34:00.000-04:00

I just read this article from Haaretz.com. It seems as though Fr. Pizzaballa does not know his history very well. The author, Amiram Barkat, has also loaded the article with anti-Pius lies. Nowhere does he mention all of the Jewish leaders who are calling for him to be recognized as a "Righteous Gentile."

If you have read the previous posts on this sight, you will clearly see that the attacks on Pius XII are unwarranted and slanderous.

Gov't: Criticism of papal silence on Holocaust 'unprecedented'

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

Government sources have called statements made by a senior Vatican official condemning the silence of the Holy See during the Holocaust "unprecedented."

What's unprecedented is the slander by Fr. Pizzabala.

Sources in Jerusalem said it is still too early to tell whether the statements made Tuesday by Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land, reflect a change in Vatican policy about the silence of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.

They in fact do not reflect a change. The beatification process is still continuing. What it does reflect is that Fr. Pizzaballa has been reading too many of John Cornwell's books (who later recanted the title of "Hitler's Pope.") and other conspiracy theories.

Speaking in Hebrew at a conference at Tel Aviv University on the actions of the Church during the Holocaust, Pizzaballa criticized "church leaders, including those of the highest level, who did not adopt a courageous stand in the evangelical spirit in the face of the Nazi regime."

Dr. Simcha Epstein of the Hebrew University's Vidal Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism, said the phrase "high-level leaders" was a veiled reference to Pope Pius XII.

Hmm...I guess the anti-Nazi speaches Cardinal Pacelli made, the thousands of Jews saved by Pius XII, and the fact that Hitler wanted Pius XII assassinated means that they were in league with Hitler.

Jewish organizations and historians for years have been at the forefront of a struggle against the Vatican initiative to beatify Pius due to his inaction during the Holocaust.

Oh really? Is that why Jewish leaders want him to be named "Righteous Gentile" and when he died there were tributes from virtually every Jewish group around the world?

Here's a quote from a Rabbi:
"He probably rescued more Jews than any single individual. From that vantage point, Pius XII deserves recognition," said Mr. Dalin, professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University, a Catholic university in Naples, Fla.

Jerusalem was expecting that with the ascendance of the new pope, Benedictus XVI, the process of beatification would be stopped. However, sources in Jerusalem told Haaretz it is ongoing, albeit at a slower pace.

Really? All of Jerusalem wished for it to be stopped? That's news to me. Did you interview all of Jerusalem, Mr. Amiram Barkat, or just Fr. Pizzaballa who is in Jerusalem?

Pizzaballa said that after the Holocaust, the Church struggled with "the question of how it failed at the task of molding the conscience of the faithful so they would refuse to cooperate with the Nazi machine of destruction. How so many of the faithful cooperated and even more stood and did nothing." Pizzaballa added that the 1965 Vatican declaration absolving the Jews from killing Jesus was a "response to the deep crisis created after World War II."

The 1965 Vatican declaration was not a "response to the deep crisis created after World War II." It was because we ALL are guilty of Jesus's crucifixion.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"597 The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. the personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on our children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . .

Neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.

All sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion"

He said the Church subsequently had made a number of far-reaching changes, among them emphasizing the Jewish identity of Jesus and recognition of the Hebrew Scriptures as an inseparable part of Christian tradition, and that "preachers and the greatest of teachers" had presented Jews in a distorted way, which laid the groundwork for modern anti-Semitism.

That's because Jesus IS Jewish! And the Hebrew Scriptures ARE an inseparable part of Christian Tradition!

"I cannot avoid the horrific thought that if Jesus were alive in the Holocaust, he would have been condemned to the same fate as the Jewish people, as would his mother, his family and his disciples." Pizzaballa said.

They would have been condemned by Hitler, not Pius XII and the Catholic Church!

Rabbi David Rosen, the international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee and a member of the Permanent Bilateral Commission of the State of Israel and the Holy See, said he has heard similar declarations in the past from American cardinals. However, such a statement is rare from a clergyman of Italian origin like Pizzaballa.

"The attitude is that of a man who is aware of Jewish and Israeli sensitivities, and it is therefore more nuanced than the official position, however, it does not reflect a change in the official stance," Rosen told Haaretz.

Fr. Pizzabala is not aware, although, of how stupid he sounds when he says things that are based on lies!

Hitler's foe

2006-04-26T14:28:00.000-04:00

An article in the Washington Times, via Don Jim.

Hitler's foe
By Shelley Widhalm
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 26, 2006

A man publicly labeled as "Hitler's pope" instead deserves to have his historical reputation cleared, according to a spate of recent scholarship on World War II and Pope Pius XII.

Indeed, the wartime pope should be recognized as a "righteous gentile" at Israel's most important Holocaust memorial, said scholar Ronald J. Rychlak, who made his case last year in his book "Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis."

"He deserves that designation," said Mr. Rychlak, a law professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and an adviser to the Vatican's delegation to the United Nations. "When you ... look at all of the people who were sheltered and clothed by the Catholic Church under the inspiration and direction of Pius XII, he did tremendous work saving victims of the Nazis."

Rabbi David G. Dalin made a similar estimate and recommendation in his book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis," citing Jewish historian and diplomat Pinchas Lapide's estimate that Pius and the Catholic Church rescued more than 700,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

Since 1962, Israel's Holocaust Memorial and Museum at Yad Vashem has honored as "righteous gentiles" about 11,000 non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, and the rabbi said Pius should be honored among them.

"He probably rescued more Jews than any single individual. From that vantage point, Pius XII deserves recognition," said Mr. Dalin, professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University, a Catholic university in Naples, Fla.

Pius, born in 1876 as Eugenio Pacelli, reigned as head of the Catholic Church from 1939 until his death in 1958. During the war, the Vatican remained neutral, as required by the treaty with German ally Benito Mussolini that guaranteed church sovereignty over a small sliver of the city of Rome. But the Vatican sympathized with the Allied powers, said William Doino Jr., a Catholic researcher and writer living in western Connecticut and a contributing editor to Inside the Vatican, an international monthly Roman Catholic publication.

"He was on the right side of the struggle and an enemy of Hitler," Mr. Doino said.

After the war, Italian leftists responded to Vatican condemnation of communism with propaganda saying Pius was in league with the Nazis, but their attempts to blacken his reputation failed, Mr. Rychlak said.

"When Pius XII died in 1958, there were tributes from virtually every Jewish group around the world," he said.

In 1963, German playwright Rolf Hochhuth drew on the communist propaganda to write "The Deputy," which accused the pope of silence and inaction toward helping the Jews and began the decline in Pius' reputation.

"The play and a number of books that followed that are basically fiction, very poor history and very inaccurate history," said Drew L. Kershen, professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman.

In 1999, journalist John Cornwell attacked the pope and the Catholic Church in "Hitler's Pope," a moniker Mr. Cornwell has since recanted, Mr. Rychlak said.

At the time, Mr. Rychlak had submitted the manuscript for "Hitler, the War, and the Pope," published in 2000. After hearing of Mr. Cornwell's work, he added an epilogue to respond to the charges. Other writers took up the issue of Pius and the Catholic Church during World War II with attacks or defenses of the church's actions.

Not long after "The Deputy" was released in 1965, Pope Paul VI began the lengthy process of declaring Pius a saint.

"It's quite impossible for Pius to be Hitler's pope, a vindictive, small-minded church bureaucrat and Jew hater, with the opposite view, which is he is very likely to be declared a saint of the church for his stand against Hitler. He can't be both things," said J. Fraser Field, executive officer of the Catholic Educator's Resource Center in British Columbia.

For his second book, Mr. Rychlak took a lawyerly approach as he examined each of the charges against the pope, researched church archives, including a confidential Vatican report on Pius, and documented what he did to help the Jews.

Some of the charges against Pius, Mr. Rychlak said, had more to do with efforts to influence the selection of Pope John Paul II's successor and with dislike for the Catholic Church and its teachings on matters related to sex and sexuality such as priestly celibacy, contraception and the all-male priesthood.

"John Cornwell was right in one respect. Hitler has a favorite cleric, but he was wrong who it was," Mr. Dalin said, giving that title to Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the anti-Semitic grand mufti of Jerusalem, whom Mr. Dalin calls "Hitler's mufti."

"He established several anti-Jewish riots. He led these riots, which resulted in the killing of many Jews," the rabbi said.

A Jewish historian coming to the defense of Pius is significant, said Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things magazine, and Mr. Dalin's co-editor of "The Pius War, Responses to the Critics of Pius XII," which was published in 2004.

"The stereotype is it is only right-wing Catholics who would defend this indefensible man, and here we have a Jewish rabbi and a serious historian doing it," Mr. Bottum said, claiming that the "Pius war" is now mostly over.

"It was a long and arduous struggle, vituperative and cruel, but, in the end, the defenders of Pius XII won every major battle. Along the way, they also lost the war," he said in the introduction.

The war is lost, he said, because Pius' reputation remains poor despite the scholarly defenses, because what the public remembers are only the charges.

Pius Quote Of The Day

2006-04-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

"The great benefit that mankind will draw from this definition [that of the Assumption] lies in the fact that it will turn men toward the glory of the Most Holy Trinity."

-From Munificentissimus Deus

"He has been Raised"

2006-04-16T15:37:00.000-04:00

The Society That Thinks Pope Pius XII Rules wishes everyone a Happy Easter!

Willing to Quit if need be

2006-04-14T01:03:00.000-04:00

Pius XII considered resigning to thwart Nazis

Apr. 13 (CWNews.com) - Pope Pius XII was aware of Hitler's plan to kidnap him, and prepared a letter of resignation to take effect if he was captured by the Nazis, according to the author of a new German book on the wartime Pontiff.

The authors of the new book, Werner Kaltefleiter and Hans Peter Oschwald, say that Pope Pius had signed the resignation letter, stipulating that he would revert to the status of a cardinal if he was taken hostage, the Italian ANSA news agency reports. Excerpts from their forthcoming book have appeared in the German daily Bild.

Father Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit historian who is working on the cause for beatification of Pope Pius XII, confirms that the Pontiff had tentative plans to resign in case he was captured. While skeptical about the existence of a signed resignation letter, Father Gumpel believes that a "verbal agreement" had been reached to allow for a change in leadership at the Vatican in his absence.

In their book, Spione im Vatikan, Kaltefleiter and Oschwald explore espionage efforts against the Vatican from the beginning of World War II to the present day. The book gives special attention to the efforts by Hitler's Nazis and by later Communist regimes to undermine the power of the Church. The authors say that Hitler enthusiastically authorized a raid on the Vatican, to take place in 1943, with the objective of kidnapping the Pope.

Hitler's implacable hostility toward the wartime Pontiff, and the determination of Pope Pius to thwart the kidnapping plans, contrast sharply with the charges made by critics who say that the Pope was too willing to tolerate the Nazi regime.

Pius Quote Of The Day

2006-04-13T00:08:00.000-04:00

"To describe this Church of Christ-which is the holy, catholic, apostolic, Roman Church-there is no name more noble, none more excellent, none more divine, than 'the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ'!"

-From the encyclical Mystici corporis Christi

Amen! Preach it brotha!

2006-04-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

Listen to Pope Pius XII recite the Pater Noster

Long, but worth reading

2006-04-12T23:39:00.000-04:00

Pius' Children
By Dimitri Cavalli

In recent years, the often-repeated allegations that Pope Pius XII was “silent” during the Holocaust, actively “collaborated” with the Nazis, and “didn’t lift a finger” to help the millions of Jews who were deported to the death camps have been gradually discredited.

Scholars of different nationalities and faiths, including the Rev. Pierre Blet, a Jesuit; historian Ronald J. Rychlak; Rabbi David Dalin, and Winston Churchill biographer Martin Gilbert, have persuasively made the case for Pius XII. Even John Cornwell, the author of the best-selling “Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,” has withdrawn some of his more extreme charges against Pius XII and now admits that Vatican-led efforts saved many Jews. Decades of negative publicity, emotional attacks, and wild charges have failed to impress the Vatican, which is moving forward with plans to beatify the wartime pope.

In December 2004, the pope’s detractors, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, thought they had finally found a “smoking gun” that could permanently derail beatification efforts. They accused the pontiff of refusing to return baptized Jewish children, who were sheltered and protected by Catholics during the Holocaust, to their surviving relatives. These latest allegations were swiftly dismissed.

But few paid attention.

The latest controversy began on Dec. 28, 2005 when Alberto Melloni, an Italian scholar and the co-director of the John XXIII Center in Bologna, published an article in Corriere della Sera reporting the existence of a 1946 document in which the pope told Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, the papal nuncio in France and future Pope John XXIII, that the Church should keep custody of baptized Jewish children. News agencies immediately picked up the story, giving it global reach.

A copy of the document that Melloni discovered was leaked to The New York Times and published in translation on its web site on Jan. 9. It states that baptized Jewish children should not be turned over to Jewish agencies that would not be able to guarantee their Christian upbringing, and that such children should also be withheld, even if their parents ask for them. A notation at the bottom of the document reads that this decision “has been approved by the Holy Father.”

Some of Pius XII’s critics reacted quickly.

Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), publicly called on the Vatican to stop its plans to beatify Pius XII, open its wartime archives and release all baptismal records from the war. Although he had no evidence, Foxman wrote a piece in The Palm Beach Post suggesting that the Vatican must have sent similar instructions to other countries. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, the author of the notoriously anti-Catholic book, “A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair,” published articles in The New Republic magazine, London Sunday Times newspaper, and the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz attacking the Vatican. He also called for an international commission to investigate how many Jewish children were “kidnapped” by the Catholic Church in Europe.

From the outset, however, the story looked suspicious. Evidence in the public record for decades seemed to undermine the controversy. Pius XII himself was on record as pledging that the Church would return Jewish children, baptized or not. In September 1945, Dr. A. Leon Kubowitzky (later Kubovy), the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), personally discussed the issue with the pope. According to the book, “Unity in Dispersion: A History of the World Jewish Congress,” a collection of the organization’s reports published in 1948, Kubowitzky was “given assurance [by the pope] that a most humane policy would be followed in this delicate matter.”

In March 1946, Pius XII granted an audience to Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Jerusalem, who was seeking the return of an estimated 8,000 Jewish children living in Catholic institutions in France, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. An article in Jerusalem’s Palestine Post published after the meeting reported that Herzog “had the Vatican’s promise of help to bring those children back into the Jewish fold.”

Did the Catholic Church return the children, as the pope promised?

In his 1967 book, “Three Popes and the Jews.” the Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide quotes Kubovy, in 1964, as saying, “I can state now that I hardly know of a single case where Catholic institutions refused to return Jewish children.” In an interview published last year in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Serge Klarsfeld, the French Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and author, disputed the allegation that the French Church kept Jewish children. (As for Melloni, he admitted that he had no figures on the number of children prevented from rejoining their families.)

There is evidence that Pius XII himself intervened in several cases.

Author Peter Hellman, in his 1980 book “Avenue of the Righteous,” tells the story of Leokadia Jaromirska, a Polish Catholic woman who saved the life of a Jewish girl and was subsequently honored as a “Righteous Gentile” by the state of Israel. After the war, Jaromirska was unwilling to return the girl to her Jewish father. Jaromirska wrote to the pope, asking his permission to keep custody of the child whom she was raising as Catholic. “She was instructed by the pope to return the child to its father,” Hellman writes. In fact, the pope told Jaromirska that it was her duty as a Catholic to return the girl and to do so in goodwill and friendship.

Is the papal note to Roncalli a hoax? Was Melloni deceived, as Der Stern was over the fraudulent Hitler diaries? The Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit, the Vatican official who is serving as the independent judge for the cause of Pius XII’s beatification, told the press that no copy of the document, which is a 28-line memorandum, exists in the Vatican archives. He added that the memorandum is unsigned, typewritten in French instead of the Vatican’s customary Italian, and not produced on Vatican stationery.

Two Italian scholars, Matteo Luigi Napolitano and Andrea Tornielli, did some detective work and discovered the memorandum is genuine. Melloni’s reporting, however, was misleading. The document did not come from the Vatican as reported, but from the archives of the French Catholic Church — Melloni omitted this fact. The memorandum was actually written by someone who worked under Roncalli in the apostolic nunciature in Paris and was circulated to the French Catholic hierarchy.

According to Tornielli and Napolitano, the memo was drafted in response to an official dispatch dated Sept. 28, 1946, that Monsignor Domenico Tardini, the Vatican’s Secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, sent to Roncalli. (When Roncalli was elected pope in 1958, he appointed Tardini the Vatican Secretary of State.)

An English translation of the complete text of Tardini’s letter was published by John Allen in his column for the National Catholic Reporter in mid-January. A comparison of the two texts shows notable differences in tone, language, and content. Tardini does state that Jewish orphans who lacked means of support and were being cared for by the Church should not be returned to parties that had no legal right to them. Here, he was referring to Jewish relief organizations that would take custody of the orphans and resettle them in what was still Palestine. Nowhere in his letter does Tardini write that Catholic institutions should withhold baptized Jewish children from their surviving relatives. After explaining the Vatican’s guidelines, Tardini affirms, “It would be something else if the children were requested by their relatives.”

For reasons that remain unclear, the individual who wrote the memorandum went far beyond what the Vatican had specified. The allegation that Pope Pius XII orchestrated the “kidnapping” of Jewish children is false.

Two Catholic historians, Rev. John Jay Hughes of St. Louis and Rev. Vincent Lapomarda of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., pointed out that baptismal records are typically kept in individual parishes. If a parish closes, its baptismal records are sent on to the local diocese. It is unlikely that baptismal records from any nation ended up at the Vatican during and after World War II.

These facts do not mollify Vatican detractors. Since Rolf Hochhuth turned Pius XII into a villain with his 1964 play, “The Deputy,” the Vatican finds itself on the defensive in all matters concerning Pius. By contrast, charges leveled by critics are not submitted to similar scrutiny.

But Pius detractors are facing an uphill task. In February 2003, the Vatican began the process of opening its archives from 1933-1945. In his book, “Hitler, la Santa Sede e gli Ebrei” (“Hitler, the Holy See, and the Jews”), Jesuit priest Giovanni Sale writes that many of the documents that have been gradually emerging from the archives establish the Vatican’s opposition to both Nazism and anti-Semitism. If evidence that establishes Pius XII’s guilt isn’t found, perhaps critics will turn to alleging that the Vatican destroyed incriminating documents against the pope and fabricated all the ones that exonerate him.

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The Society that Thinks Pope Pius XII Rules thanks Thomas the American Papist for the heads up.

Pius Quote Of The Day

2006-04-12T00:20:00.000-04:00

"The distinction between the juridical Church and the Church of charity is an erroneous one. Things are not thus; rather, this juridically founded Church, whose head is the Sovereign Pontiff, is also the Church of Christ, the Church of charity and the universal family of Christians."

A Lonely Voice Crying Out Of The Silence

2006-04-07T13:09:00.000-04:00

From A Catholic Response

In recent years, the media have accused the Catholic Church of either helping the Nazis or being silent during the Holocaust. As an example, the January 26, 1998 issue of Time magazine on page 20 claims that the Catholic Church apologized for "collaborating with the Nazis during World War II." Even the new Holocaust Museum in New York unjustly criticized Pope Pius XII for being silent during World War II. The Church has recently spoken on this topic.

The Israeli consul, Pinchas E. Lapide, in his book, Three Popes and the Jews (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967) critically examines Pope Pius XII. According to his research, the Catholic Church under Pius XII was instrumental in saving 860,000 Jews from Nazi death camps (p. 214). Could Pius have saved more lives by speaking out more forcefully? According to Lapide, the concentration camp prisoners did not want Pius to speak out openly (p. 247). As one jurist from the Nuremberg Trials said on WNBC in New York (Feb. 28, 1964), "Any words of Pius XII, directed against a madman like Hitler, would have brought on an even worse catastrophe... [and] accelerated the massacre of Jews and priests." (Ibid.) Yet Pius was not totally silent either. Lapide notes a book by the Jewish historian, Jenoe Levai, entitled, The Church Did Not Keep Silent (p. 256). He admits that everyone, including himself, could have done more. If we condemn Pius, then justice would demand condemning everyone else. He concludes by quoting from the Talmud that "whosoever preserves one life, it is accounted to him by Scripture as if he had preserved a whole world." With this he claims that Pius XII deserves a memorial forest of 860,000 trees in the Judean hills (pp. 268-9). It should be noted that six million Jews and three million Catholics were killed in the Holocaust.

We must remember that the Holocaust was also anti-Christian. After Hitler revealed his true intentions, the Catholic Church opposed him. Even the famous Albert Einstein testified to that. According to the December 23, 1940 issue of Time magazine on page 38, Einstein said:

Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks...

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.

In another, similar statement, Einstein referred explicitly to the Catholic Church (Lapide, p. 251). This is an extraordinary testimony by an agnostic German scientist of Jewish heritage. Even though there were traitors in her ranks, the Church still opposed the Nazi movement.

The December 23, 1940 issue of Time magazine contains an interesting article about Christians living in Germany, both Catholic and Protestant, who opposed and suffered under the Nazis. On page 38, it claims that by late 1940 over 200,000 Christians were prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, with some estimates as high as 800,000. On page 40, it reports on the Archbishop of Munich, Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, who led the Catholic opposition in Germany against the Nazis. In an Advent 1933 sermon, he preached: "Let us not forget that we were saved not by German blood but by the blood of Christ!" in response to Nazi racism. In 1934 the Cardinal "narrowly missed a Nazi bullet", while in 1938 a Nazi mob broke the windows in his residence. Even though he was over seventy and in poor health, he still led the Catholic German resistance against Hitler.

Not trusting the new regime, the Vatican signed a Concordat with the Reich on July 20, 1933 in an attempt to protect the Church's rights in Germany. But the Nazis quickly violated its articles. In Lent 1937 Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge" (With burning sorrow) with the help of German bishops and Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII). It was smuggled into Germany and read in all German Catholic churches at the same hour on Palm Sunday 1937. It did not explicitly mention Hitler or Nazism, but it firmly condemned the Nazi doctrines. On September 20, 1938, Pius XI told German pilgrims that no Christian can take part in anti-Semitism, since spiritually all Christians are Semites.

The recent slander against the Church and Pope Pius XII can be traced back to 1963 with Rolf Hochhuth's play, "The Deputy." In this play Hochhuth criticized Pius for being silent and portrayed his silence as cold indifference. Even though fiction, people took it as fact.

Pope Pius XII was a diplomat and not a radical preacher. He knew that he first needed to preserve Vatican neutrality so that Vatican City could be a refuge for war victims. The International Red Cross also remained neutral. Secondly, he knew how powerless he was against Hitler. Mussolini could quickly shut off electrical power to Vatican Radio during his broadcast (Lapide, p. 256). Finally the Nazis did not tolerate any protest and responded severely. As an example, the Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht in July 1942 protested in a pastoral letter against the Jewish persecutions in Holland. Immediately the Nazis rounded up as many Jews and Catholic non-Aryans as possible and deported them to death camps, including Blessed Edith Stein (Lapide, p. 246). Pius knew that every time he spoke out against Hitler, the Nazis could retaliate against the prisoners. His best attack against the Nazis was quiet diplomacy and behind-the-scenes action. According to The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (V8.01) under Pius XII, "Wishing to preserve Vatican neutrality, fearing reprisals, and realizing his impotence to stop the Holocaust, Pius nonetheless acted on an individual basis to save many Jews and others with church ransoms, documents, and asylum."

The charity and work of Pope Pius XII during World War II so impressed the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, that in 1944 he was open to the grace of God which led him into the Catholic faith. As his baptismal name, he took the same one Pius had, Eugenio, as his own. Later Israel Eugenio Zolli wrote a book entitled, Why I Became a Catholic.

But Pope Pius XII was not completely silent either, especially in his Christmas messages. His 1941 and 1942 Christmas messages were both translated and published in The New York Times (Dec. 25, 1941, p. 20 & Dec. 25, 1942, p. 10). To prevent retaliation, he did not refer to Nazism by name, but people of that era still understood him, including the Nazis. According to The New York Times editorial on December 25, 1941 (Late Day edition, p. 24):

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... the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism... he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace.

Also The New York Times editorial on December 25, 1942 (Late Day edition, p. 16) states:

This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent... Pope Pius expresses as passionately as any leader on our side the war aims of the struggle for freedom when he says that those who aim at building a new world must fight for free choice of government and religious order. They must refuse that the state should make of individuals a herd of whom the state disposes as if they were lifeless things.

Both editorials recognize and highly praise Pius' words against Hitler and totalitarianism.

Now there were traitors in the Church who were Nazis or helped Hitler. There were Catholics who committed sins of bigotry. There were also Catholics, who, out of fear or indifference, sinned through silence. The Church is full of sinners for whom Christ died. We killed Jesus with our sins (Is. 53: 5-6). But Pope Pius XII and many Catholics did not remain "silent." Could 860,000 Jewish lives be saved by "silent" indifference? In our own day, there are people who claim to be Catholic but promote and participate in abortion, assisted-suicide and artificial birth control. In the next century, will the world also falsely accuse the Church and the Pope for being silent during the "culture of death" holocaust?

A Pius Life

2006-03-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

The Sanctity of Pius XII

- by Sr. Margherita Marchione

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints will soon begin an examination of the Positio [the multi-volume biography and documented testimony] on the beatification of Pius XII. With regard to Pius XII's sanctity, Father Peter Gumpel, relator, judge, and leading authority on this process, recently stated: "After reading over 100,000 pages of the documents related to the process of beatification, I am more and more convinced that Pius XII was a saint."

A beatification is strictly an internal affair of the Catholic Church. This is not an honorary title. It is the declaration of an individual's holiness. The requirements for beatification and canonization demand years of investigation. The life of the individual is scrutinized; documentation of his heroic virtues is made available to the Congregation; miracles attributed to his intercession are scientifically examined. This is done through the work of collecting testimonials and documentaries as well as through theological and medical assessments. The moral certainty and the formulation of a judgment must be well-founded, serious and precise. Finally, the case must be submitted to the Holy Father who decides on the promulgation of the decree.

Since the beginning of the year 2005, there has been an increased interest in the beatification of Pope Pius XII among Catholics throughout the world. Pius XII was a man of deep faith and extraordinary charity. As has been copiously documented by my books and others, no other head of state or religious leader before, during, and after World War II did as much as Eugenio Pacelli to save Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution. In his famous book, Three Popes and the Jews (1967), Israeli historian Pinchas Lapide did not hesitate to estimate that "the Catholic Church, under the pontificate of Pius XII, was instrumental in saving at least 700,000 but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands."

More recently, Sir Martin Gilbert, the world's leading Holocaust researcher, stated that such life-saving acts were not accomplished spontaneously, as if they were totally independent from the Vatican (as Pius's detractors have argued), but were being guided and inspired by Pius XII: "Hundreds of thousands of Jews, saved by the entire Catholic Church, under the leadership and with the support of Pius XII, would, to my mind, be absolutely correct." ("Inside the Vatican," August, 2003, p. 31)

Eugenio Pacelli was the Pope during a tragic period of history. He was a model of sanctity. In him was manifested the heroism of the one who works under extreme responsibility: it was the sanctity that flows from decisive action in the face of total warfare; a sanctity that knows it cannot stop because of Nazi threats of kidnapping and death. The miracle of Pius XII is that, because of him, the house built upon the rock (Mt. 7:24) -- the Church -- which he kept intact during a period of the most radical evil, was capable of providing shelter and protection for millions of Europeans, including hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews.

Pope Pius XII is a lofty model of charismatic responsibility and rational rigor, of which we have a tremendous need in today's world. When he passed away on October 9, 1958, an editorial "Fighter for Peace" in the "Los Angeles Examiner," expressed the sentiments of Catholics and non-Catholics: "It was God's will that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church through years of grave trial should be a man with beautifully sensitive hands, a face of compassionate wisdom, a frail body, and a voice of quiet and profound solace.

"Yet this Pope's hands could clench in battle, his face could be that of a warrior, his body could endure the rigors of disease and the erosion of the years, his voice could thrust like steel against Godless Communism. The incredible strength of the Spirit lived beneath that delicacy of manner, that fragility of frame.

"Pius XII was known as 'the Pope of Peace.' He called himself a fighter for peace. His self-description was more accurate, for the years of his reign, beginning in March, 1939, were those of the horrible violence of war or the stealth and treachery of Communist evil. It was in these and through these continuous ordeals that the gentle and ascetic scholar became God's warrior; a bulwark against despair, a magnificent fighter for peace, a repository of the hopes of mankind.

"Never, during these troubled years, did Pius XII lose his gift of gracious beneficence. No other Pope received so many people. They numbered many millions. Whether the audiences were large or small, he conveyed a sense of intimacy and understanding. His gifts to them were hope and courage. This fighter for peace is now in peace with God."

There are volumes of depositions for the beatification of Pius XII. His sanctity has been recorded.

Pius XII was a humble person who did not want his many good works and accomplishments revealed. Respecting his wishes, Sister Pascalina Lehnert -- his housekeeper -- quietly implemented the Pope's charitable works, serving him faithfully from 1923-1958. Only after his death, in her memoirs and deposition to the Congregation, did Sister Pascalina reveal Pius's extraordinary courage and charity.

As early as 1929, when he was still nuncio to Germany, and four years before Hitler came to power, Sister Pascalina remembers how Archbishop Pacelli warned that Hitler was a "madman," capable of destroying everything that went before him; and she describes how the Nuncio criticized Germans who refused to recognize the evil Hitler represented. (See Pascalina's memoirs, Pio XII, il privilegio di servirlo [Milan: Rusconi, 1984]).

Ten years later, after Pacelli became Pope Pius XII, Sister Pascalina describes how the pontiff continued to fight Hitler with every fiber of his being, and how Pius went out of his way to assist the victims of the Third Reich. In her testimony before the Congregation (Session CLXIII, March 17, 1972), Sister Pascalina stated: "The Pope not only opened the doors of the Vatican to protect the persecuted, but he encouraged convents and monasteries to offer hospitality. The Vatican provided provisions for these people. The accusation that Pius XII was indifferent to the needs of the victims is without foundation. He ordered me to spend his inheritance and personal funds to provide for those who wished to leave Italy and go to Canada, Brazil, or elsewhere. Note that $800 was needed for each person who emigrated. Many times the Pope would ask me to deliver to Jewish families a sealed envelope containing $1,000 or more."

Pius XII's pontificate left a lasting mark on the history of the Catholic Church. His life was one of action, inspired by profound piety. He brought consolation, peace and encouragement everywhere. He instituted numerous liturgical reforms: the evening Mass, the new Eucharistic fast regulations and increased lay participation in liturgical functions. The Eucharistic Liturgy was the source from which Pius XII drew strength and wisdom to lead the world.

Pius XII has been called the "Pope of Mary" for his great devotion to the Mother of God, evidenced in the infallible definition of the Assumption. The consecration of Russia and of the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the solemn proclaiming of the Marian Year, the institution of the feast of the Queenship of Mary, and the proclamation of the Centenary of the Apparitions of Our Blessed Lady to St. Bernadette, were also made by Pius XII.

Pius XII spoke numerous languages, but the only language that inspired others, was the language of his heart. He was a minister of peace in a warring world. When he was told that Stalin inquired about the number of divisions in his army, he said: "You may tell my son Joseph he will meet my divisions in heaven." That was Pacelli's secret. Even of Stalin he could say "my son." And mean it.

Pacelli's prayerfulness was noted throughout his life. Very reserved, he did not speak about his personal spirituality, but whoever approached him would realize that he was in constant union with God. When he died, his acting secretary of state, Monsignor Domenico Tardini, declared: "Often the Church bells would ring at noon during our discussions. Immediately Pius XII would stand, fold his hands, lower his eyes and begin to recite the Angelus Domini."

Those who worked closely with Pius XII claim that he lived a life of exemplary temperance and mortification. He was an ascetic and practiced every virtue in an extraordinary way. He wanted only simple food. His meals were that of a poor person. He ate very little and did not eat desserts. He did not use alcoholic beverages or tobacco. Even though he needed special foods, during the war years he forbade any exceptions for his own meals. His weight was reduced to fifty-seven kilos (125 pounds).

He did not want his apartment heated because thousands of refugees hidden by the Vatican could not have their rooms heated. He slept only four hours each day, after working until two in the morning and getting up at six a.m. Even when the time period for fasting in order to receive Holy Communion was lessened, he continued to observe the original fast regulations. Pope Pius XII weighed everything in light of Gospel revelations and Christian traditions. His official speeches and writings alone amount to more than 22 volumes. He restored Church prestige and provided the faithful and the world with extraordinary leadership.

In 1954, Pius XII became gravely ill. He soon resumed his duties, and continued his mission. and gave four more years of fruitful service to the Church. During his final illness in 1958, as he prepared to meet his Master, when he could no longer celebrate Holy Mass, he repeated constantly the prayer, Anima Christi ["Soul of Christ, Sanctify me, Body of Christ, save me, In the hour of my death, call me."]

Cardinal Angelo Roncalli -- the future Pope John XXIII -- revered Pius XII and gave a eulogy in St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, on October 11, 1958. He recalled the magisterium of Pius XII who "adapted himself to modern thought and progress." He stated that history would recall his example, his messages. As leader of the Catholic Church, his name would be listed among the great and most popular of modern history. In his first Christmas Message (1958), Pope John XXIII unofficially canonized his predecessor and referred to "our Father and Pontiff, whom we see already among God's saints in heaven: Supreme Doctor, Light of Holy Mother Church, Lover of the Divine Law." ("Doctor Optimus, Ecclesiae Sanctae Lumen, Divinae Legis Amator"). In the 1960s, there began an effort to villify the wartime Pope, a campaign which Ralph McInerney has accurately labeled "the defamation of Pius XII." Following the Communists, who fabricated charges against the Pope, in hopes of driving the faithful against him, Pius was subject to the most unscrupulous and un-historical attacks in modern history.

Today, his detractors continue to claim, against all evidence, that he lacked courage, human compassion, and a sense of moral rectitude. Hostile attacks by the uninformed and prejudiced media replace the historical record that showed him as a great leader.

In contrast to the universal esteem Pius XII enjoyed until his death, his reputation today still suffers from many scattered attacks. However, according to Michael Novak, these critics "are deflecting attention from themselves. Today's charges against Pope Pius XII cannot stand scrutiny." What Pius XII did for the Jews directly and indirectly through his diplomatic representatives and the bishops is well documented. At the end of World War II, Dr. Joseph Nathan, representing the Hebrew Commission, addressed the Jewish community, expressing heartfelt gratitude to those who protected and saved Jews during the Nazi-Fascist persecutions. "Above all," he stated, "we acknowledge the Supreme Pontiff and the religious men and women who, executing the directives of the Holy Father, recognized the persecuted as their brothers and, with great abnegation, hastened to help them, disregarding the terrible dangers to which they were exposed." The Romans gave Pope Pius XII the title "Defensor Civitatis" ("Defender of the City"); his contemporaries throughout the world acclaimed him "Pastor Angelicus" ("Angelic Shepherd"). Indeed, "Vox populi, Vox Dei" -- the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Pope Pius XII is a unique figure in modern history. He was an extraordinary man who fulfilled his duties with courage and great wisdom, and who was in his personal life an exemplary Christian, priest, bishop, cardinal, and pope. One of the most distinguished prelates ever to serve the Church, his pontificate achieved a wider respect than it had had since the Reformation. He restored Church prestige and provided the faithful and the world with extraordinary leadership. Pope Pius XII's aspirations toward truth and goodness and his extraordinary achievements may be considered one of the great events of the 20th century. The opinion of many of his contemporaries was that he was a saint. Long after his detractors are forgotten, Eugenio Pacelli will go down in history as one of the great religious leaders of his age, or indeed any age. He will be remembered as St. Pius XII.

2006-03-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

The Encyclicals

2006-03-27T10:33:00.000-05:00

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/index.htm

Canonize Pius XII Now!

2006-03-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

The talk last night by Rabbi David Dallin was great! His main argument was that Pius XII was not Hitler's favorite cleric. His favorite cleric was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini who help devise the plan to systematically exterminate Jews in concentration camps. The Grand Mufti was also the mentor to other noted anti-semites such as Arafat and Nassar.

Rabbi Dallin went on to point out that all of the criticism of Pius XII really started toward the end of Pope John Paul II's pontificate by liberal and lapsed Catholics who didn't like JP's orthodoxy. They figured that if they could slander a previous pope, it would make the current one look bad. It's funny, though, how they conveniently overlook the fact that Pius XII had a lifelong Jewish friend and was also responsible for saving thousands of Jews by hiding them in Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence.

Pius's critics also overlook the fact that many Jewish leaders honor Pius for his work in saving Jews during the Holocaust. Rabbi Dallin is pushing for Jewish leaders to bestow the highest honor on a non-Jew to Pope Pius XII, the title of "righteous gentile."

Rabbi Dallin also, while having no bias or preference due to the fact that he is after all Jewish, hopes his book will help revive the process for Pius XII's canonization. He says that all that Pius XII did cannot be ignored, if only on moral grounds.

And so with the suggestion of the good Rabbi and with Greg's help, I have installed a "Canonize Pius XII Now!" tag in the sidebar and call for all the faithful to join us here at the Society That Thinks Pope Pius XII Rules in the movement to have this ultimate example of Christian love and charity made a saint as soon as possible!

Pius XII: A “Righteous Gentile"

2006-03-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

This Sunday, March 26th at 8pm, Rabbi David Dalin will be giving a talk at Franciscan University of Steubenville about Pope Pius XII. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend going! I will be there, barring any unforseen future committments.

Here is an interview with the Rabbi about his book "The Myth of Hitler’s Pope."

Nun Defends Man Some Called 'Hitler's Pope'

2006-03-16T11:08:00.000-05:00

BY NAVID IQBAL
From Dailyrecord.com

MADISON -- Pope Pius XII did not condemn the Nazis during the Holocaust because he wanted to save lives, the Morristown-based author of a new book about the pope said at Drew University on Sunday afternoon.

If the pope had condemned the Nazi Party outright, "the Nazis would have gone after him. He would have been kidnapped," Sister Margherita Marchione said during a book-signing of her latest work, "Crusade of Charity: Pius XII and POWs (1939-1945)." (Paulist Press 2006)

"All the people he saved would have been caught."

Marchione, a resident of Villa Wash, a Religious Teachers Filippini academy in Morristown, has been an outspoken advocate for the canonization of Pius XII, which would elevate the controversial pope to sainthood. Her new book discusses the letters written to the pope by family members who were prisoners of war during World War II.

At 84, her efforts to clear Pope Pius' record have led some people to call her the "the fighting nun," said Regina Mezei, the president of the New Jersey Chapter of the Fulbright Association, which organized the event hosted at Drew University.

Marchione, standing at about 5 feet tall, just cleared a podium as she spoke to more than 60 people at Mead Hall on Sunday before signing copies of some of the 50 books she has authored. At the end of the 45-minute talk, a tear settled on her cheek.

She received resounding applause from the crowd, which included some Drew University students, educators and fellow Fulbright alumni.

When the Holocaust occurred, she was a 19-year-old teacher in Baltimore, she said in response to a question. She said she and others here did not know what was going on overseas.

"Really, it was shameful," she said. "We didn't know anything at all."

In 1957, Marchione, a Little Ferry native, met Pius XII. Forty years later, she became his defender -- so much so that she wants to see something beyond Pope Benedict XVI's initiation last year of the process by which he would become a saint.

The beleaguered record of the late pope would be "cleared"through federal recognition, she said. She said she would try to get her book or other scholarship that defends Pope Pius XII into the Congressional Record.

Marchione's latest book describes the wartime humanitarian efforts of Pope Pius, who continues to be blamed for ignoring Jewish persecution during the Holocaust. Even at what would have been the 130th birthday of Pope Pius, which was marked earlier this week, a polemic about his role -- or lack of one -- during the Holocaust rages on.

Marchione said criticism of the pope began after he criticized communism. A communist newspaper, she said, printed an article that questioned why he kept silent.

The pope also had been criticized in fiction such as Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 play, "The Deputy," which later was made into a movie.

The criticism ignited again in the late 1990s. Books such as "Hitler's Pope: the Secret History of Pius XII," (Penguin 1999) written by Roman Catholic author John Cornwell, accused Eugenio Pacelli -- who became Pius XII in 1939 -- of sympathizing with the Nazis and of helping Adolf Hitler come to power.

Like Marchione, other scholars dispute these contentions.In 2005, Rabbi David G. Dalin, a history teacher at Ave Maria University, wrote "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis" (Regnery Books), which argued against Cornwell's contentions.

Dalin suggested that Pius XII should even be named a righteous Gentile on Israel's Holocaust memorial.

"No one did more to save Jewish victims of the Holocaust" than the Vatican, Marchione said on Sunday.

She said the Vatican had developed a "an underground railroad" that helped prisoners of war communicate with their loved ones. The POW families sent nearly 2 million letters to the Vatican appealing for help. The stories of these letters make up the crust of "Crusade of Charity."

The late pope, Marchione said, "resented, rebelled and contacted the Nazis" as they were capturing Jewish people in Rome to send to the Auschwitz death camp. Pope Pius XII threatened to publicly condemn the Nazis, who stopped the deportation after one day due to his threat, Marchione said. She said many Jewish men even showed their appreciation to the church by joining the Vatican Army, which grew from 400 at the start of the war to 4,000 when it ended.

"He so provoked the Nazis they called him a mouthpiece for the Jewish war criminals," she said.

While he condemned "specific acts of the Nazis," he could not make a broader condemnation because it would jeopardize the Jews and others who were rescued by the Church, Marchione said.

"All experts agreed if the pope had more directly attacked the Nazis, more lives would have been lost," she said.

"There were limits to the power of the Vatican in face of a world power with military domination over a continent."

Evidence such as this is what disputes the claim that Pope Pius, who died in 1958, was an anti-Semite, Marchione said.

"In the name of justice, Pius XXII's efforts must be acknowledged," she said. "He directed the greatest rescue program in the history of the Catholic Church."

All Hail Pope Pius XII

2006-03-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

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