Pope Pius XII is credited with saving a million Jewish lives in the 1940s

[UrbScotty]

... When the Nazis occupied Rome on September 10, 1943, following the collapse of the Italian Royal Government, Pope Pius XII opened the Holy See to Jewish refugees. Estimates have suggested that 800,000 to 1,500,000 refugees, including Jews, were helped by Pope Pius, many through the granting of Vatican citizenship. It has also been alleged that Pius directly supported the network of priests who smuggled vast numbers of Jews to safety. Israel Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, was so impressed by Pius's actions that following the war he not only became a Roman Catholic, but took "Eugenio," Pope Pius XII's Christian name, as his own Christian name upon Baptism, becoming "Eugenio Zolli." Furthermore, Jewish relief agencies donated over a million dollars in gratitude to the Holy See after the end of World War II in Europe, while Pius XII was awarded the title "Righteous Gentile" by the state of Israel, and the Israeli Government announced its intention to plant 850,000 trees in his honor - one for each Jewish life he was credited with saving. Upon Pope Pius XII's death he was eulogized movingly and appreciatively by Golda Meir, at that time Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII#The_view_of_Pope_Pius.27_defenders

[Stunster]

1. Quite so

Very true. The whole business of the Catholic Church and Nazism is typically presented these days in a ludicrous unfair and unhistorical manner. To wit:

On March 28, 1928, Pius XI proclaimed: "Moved by Christian charity, the Holy See is obligated to protect the Jewish people against unjust vexations and, just as it reprobates all rancor and conflicts between peoples, it particularly condemns unreservedly hatred against the people once chosen by God; the hatred that goes by the name of anti-Semitism."

On Oct. 11, 1930, the official Vatican newspaper quoted the office of the Vatican Secretary of State (Cardinal Pacelli, later to be pope Pius XII, saying "belonging to the National Socialist Party of Hitler is irreconcilable with Catholic conscience."

On Jan. 9, 1939, Pacelli as Vatican Secretary of State told the world's archbishops that their governments should accept Jews trying to escape Germany, and the next day sent the same order to the American cardinals. (Roosevelt later ordered a ship containing Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to be sent back to Europe, with the Jews still on board).

On Oct. 28, 1939, the New York Times explained Pius XII's first Encyclical with this headline: "Pope condemns dictators, treaty violators, racism."

On Jan. 23, 1940, the New York Times leading item was, "Vatican denounces atrocities in Poland".

On March 14, 1940, the New York Times headline was: ""Pope is emphatic about just peace: Jewish rights defended."

On December 25, 1941, the New York Times described Pius XII as placing "himself squarely against Hitlerism," and lamented that "the voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas."

On August 6, 1942, the New York Times had this headline, "Pope is said to plead for Jews listed for removal from France."

In his December 25, 1942 Radio address, Pius XII condemned the persecution "of hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their
own, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked
down for death or progressive extinction." (NB This was in December 1942, long before any other world political leader said a word about
what was to become the Holocaust.)

Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, who became the Israeli consul to Italy and who extensively researched Yad Vashem in Jerusalem reported that Pope Pius XII led efforts to save hundreds of thousands of Jews, "more than all the other churches, religious institutions, and rescue organizations put together. Its record stands in startling contrast to the achievements of the International Red Cross and the Western Democracies."

Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel wrote: "During the Nazi terror, when our people were subjected to a terrible martyrdom, the Pope's voice was raised to condemn the persecutors and to offer mercy to their victims."

Jeno Levai, the foremost scholar of the Holocaust in Hungary, said that Pope Pius XII "did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences..... From that day on, acting in accordance with the instructions of the Holy See and always in the name of Pius XII, the Nuncio never ceased from intervening against the disposition concerning Jews, and the inhuman character of the anti-Jewish Legislation."

Emilio Zolli, chief rabbi in Rome during the German occupation stated: "No hero in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII." Zolli was so moved by Pius XII's work that, when he became converted to Catholicism after the war, he took the Pope's name as his baptismal name.

Albert Einstein noted that to prevent the Holocaust, "only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth."

The definitive study of Nazi voting patterns: THE NAZI VOTER: THE SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF FASCISM IN GERMANY, 1919-1933, by Thomas Childers, (University of North Carolina Press, 1983).

Using census data and multivariate regression analysis, Childers identifies all the key social variables influencing votes for the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in the elections to the end of the Weimar Republic.
Among other things, he shows quite conclusively that Catholics were far less likely to vote for the Nazis than were Protestants, especially in rural areas where the influence of the Church was strongest. The statistical tables, 4.8 on page 261 ('Party Vote and Religious Confession'), A. II. 1 on page 280 ('National Socialist Vote and Major Structural Variables, 1924-32, Urban Sample'), and A. II. 2('National Socialist Vote and Major Structural Variables, 1924-32,
Rural Sample'), all clearly demonstrate that German Protestants were substantially more likely to vote Nazi than were German Catholics. This was in part because the Catholics were urged to vote for their own party, the Center Party (Zentrum), by the Catholic hierarchy.

Here are some telling quotes from Childers' work:

"Just as the industrial working class remained by and large immune to the National Socialist 'contagion', so areas of Catholic concentration continued to be relatively impervious to Nazi electoral advances."
(page 258)

"In spite of these efforts to reassure Christians, and particularly
Catholics, of the NSDAP's support for Christianity, the party continued to fare far better in Protestant Germany than in Catholic areas. Although the Nazis registered sizable gains throughout the country in 1932, their vote in Catholic towns and villages lagged far behind their totals in Protestant communities." (page 259)

"The NSDAP also encountered a major obstacle to its ambitions in the Catholic population. Although the party won an increasing percentage of the Catholic vote after 1928, its electoral base remained far smaller in Catholic Germany than in Protestant areas. Catholic support for National Socialism was by and large concentrated in the same social and occupational groups that formed the mainstay of the party's constituency in Protestant areas, but the NSDAP was never able to undermine the solid foundation of Catholic support for the Zentrum. Backed by the Church, the Zentrum, like the Marxist parties, offered its followers a well-defined belief system vigorously reinforced by an extensive network of political, social and cultural organizations. Although a vote for the Zentrum was hardly an enthusiastic endorsement of the Weimar system, the strong Catholic support for the party continued to impose a solid barrier to the potential expansion of the National Socialist constituency." (page 266)

[UrbScotty]

2. Thanks for the info.

:thumbsup: for Pius XI and Pius XII!

[Cuban_Liberal]

3. Absolutely true, but post it in GD and see what happens.

:scared:

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Go to the synagogue in Florence, Italy, and they will tell you

that when the Nazis bombed the synagogue and destroyed it, the Catholic Florentines came to help them rebuild it.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. For years, the critics have been complaining that the Vatican

wouldn't allow access to all the archives, therefore they must be hiding something. They wouldn't believe it when the archivists themselves said they were still archiving the materials from the period of history.

Well, finally the archives are open, so Dan Brown, John Cornwell, James Carroll, and Garry Wills (to name four I know of that have leveled accusations of Nazi collaboration at Pope Pius XII) have rushed to Rome to study the newly avilable documents, right?

WRONG!

"These archival papers are the sine qua non of competent research. Therefore, given the frequency of publication on this issue, the Vatican naturally expected them to be in high demand. Instead, Archive Director Msgr. Sergio Pagano had this to say in a January interview with the Italian daily Avenire: “They called for the opening of the archives, as if they were entering a secret fortress and expected to meet resistance. But when the door was opened, those who were calling for the opening did not present themselves—or showed up only for a tourist’s visit.”

"The reference to a “tourist’s visit” is revealing. When someone claims he has visited the Archives and found nothing to change his mind, we must learn to read between the lines."

more. . .

http://www.catholicculture.org/highlights/highlights.cfm?ID=50

[Tinoire]

6. Thanks for posting that

Will have to go read the entire thing when I come home tonight! Peace