A priest archicalumniado
According L'Osservatore Romano said in its issue of Feb. 1-2 , article by Bernard-Henri Lévy, which paralleled the Popes Pius XII and Benedict XVI as scapegoats in the public eye has sparked the debate. Curiously in Spain was published by a means anything suspected of partiality in favor of Eugenio Pacelli or Joseph Ratzinger: The Country (January 24 edition of the latter). But it is not the only surprise: an Israeli newspaper had published 22 other articles, this time from Dimitri Cavalli journalist specializing in Pius XII, which assume a strong defense of Pope against most widespread accusations against him. The daily Haaretz thus contributes to dispel the myth of an alleged unanimity within the world judío en el rechazo de la figura de Pío XII. Algo se empieza a mover en sentido positivo después de casi medio siglo de calumnias…
por: Dimitri Cavalli*
Algunas cosas no cambian nunca. La controversia sobre las acciones del papa Pío XII durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial se ha vuelto a encender al firmar Benedicto XVI un decreto afirmando que su predecesor demostró “virtudes heroicas” durante su vida. Cuando el domingo pasado el Papa visitó la Gran Sinagoga de Roma, Riccardo Pacifici, presidente de la comunidad judía romana le dijo: “El silencio de Pius XII to the Holocaust as an act still hurts frustrated ". is not the first time that the wartime Pope, who is now closer to beatification, is accused of having remained silent during the Holocaust, had done little or nothing to help Jews and even of having collaborated with the Nazis. To what extent has admitted that these allegations, repeated since the early sixties, and are backed by evidence?
On April 4, 1933, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, ordered the papal nuncio to Germany to see what could be done to counter policies Nazi anti-Semitic.
On behalf of Pope Pius XI, Cardinal Pacelli drafted an encyclical entitled brennender Mit Sorge (With grave concern) , which condemned the Nazi doctrines and the persecution of the Catholic Church. The encyclical was smuggled into Germany and read from the Pupitar of Catholic churches on 21 March 1937.
Although some critics of the Vatican settled the encyclical as a kind of soft rebuke, the Germans as a threat to its security. For ejsemplo, 26 March 1937, Hans Dieckhoff, an official of the German Foreign Ministry, wrote that "the encyclical contains swingeing attack on the German government calls upon Catholic citizens to rebel against state authority and, therefore, is an attempt to endanger international peace" .
Both Britain and France had to interpret the document as a starting guard against the possibility of giving confidence to Hitler or yield to it.
After the death of Pius XI on March 2, 1939 he was elected pope, Cardinal Pacelli. The Nazis were unhappy with the new pontiff, who took the name Pius XII. On March 4, Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, wrote in his diary: "Lunch with the Fuehrer. Is considering the idea of \u200b\u200babrogating the Concordat with Rome in the light of Pacelli's election to the papacy ". During the war, the pope certainly did not remain silent: In numerous speeches and encyclicals defended human rights for all and was called to the belligerent nations to respect the rights of all civilians and prisoners of war.
Unlike many of his detractors last minute, the Nazis understood very well to Pius XII. Having carefully considered the message of Pius XII on the occasion of Christmas 1942, the Reich Central Office for Security concluded: "has not happened before, the Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order (...) Virtually accusing the German people of injustice against the Jews and gives voice to the Jewish war criminals" (consult any book of Critics of Pius XII and find no trace of this important data).
In early 1940, the Pope made an intermediary between a group of German generals who wanted to overthrow Hitler and the British Government. While the plot did not materialize, Pius XII was in close contact with the German resistance and knew two other plots against Hitler. In the fall of 1941, through diplomatic channels, the Pope agreed with Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the fact that American Catholics could support the President's plans to extend military aid to the Soviet Union, invaded by the Nazis . With the consent of the Holy See, John T. McNicholas (photo) , Archbishop of Cincinnati (Ohio), made a highly publicized speech "-in which he explained that the extension of the aid to the Soviets was morally justified because it was to help the Russian people, which was innocent victim of German aggression. In the course of the war, sent the Pope often said the Vatican diplomatic representatives in many areas occupied by the Nazis and the Axis powers to intervene in favor of the Jews in danger. Until the death of Pius XII in 1958 many organizations, newspapers and Jewish leaders praised their efforts. To cite just one of many examples that could be, Alexander Safran, chief rabbi of Bucharest, wrote in a letter dated April 7, 1944 the apostolic nuncio in Romania: 's not easy for us to find the right words to express affection and comfort received through the interest of the Pope, who gave a huge sum of money to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews (...) The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance ".
The campaign against Pius XII is bound to fail because its opponents do not have any evidence to support his main allegations against him, namely that remained silent, which was favorable to Nazism and that little or nothing done to help the Jews. Maybe it had to happen in a world like ours that the only man in the war period, did more than any other leader to help Jews and other victims of Nazism, received the harshest sentences.
* Dimitri Cavalli is an editor and freelance writer living in New York and a contributor to various publications.
Original Source: Haaretz
English translation: RVR
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