The Late Pope Pius XII Controversy

Posted on 18. Sep, 2009 by admin in Spring 2009

The recent Inside Vatican Magazine article said:
“It now seems that Israeli authorities are willing to re-examine their position on Pius. That position has been dramatically summarized by the display at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national museum to commemorate the Shoah, on the wartime pontiff. This display states that Pius XII was ‘silent’ about the Holocaust and did little or nothing to help Jews. The caption to a photo of Pius XII reads, in part: ‘Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the pope did not protest, either verbally or in writing. In December 1942, [Pius XII] abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews. When Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, the Pope did not intervene. The Pope maintained his neutral position throughout the war, with the exception of appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia toward its end. His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react.’

A short time ago, however, the Yad Vashem authorities called for a meeting of Pius specialists to give their judgment on this Pius display. To a large extent, this meeting is the result of passionate protests, by independent scholars and the Vatican’s Nuncios in Jerusalem, who’ve pointed out that the statements on display were not only biased but factually inaccurate.”

Tags: Controversy, Pope