In Praise of Pius XII

“WE PRAY THAT the cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Pius XII may proceed successfully,” Pope Benedict XVI said at a special Mass on October 9 to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII’s death.



Nothing remarkable about that – a pope praying that one of his predecessors might be raised to the honour of the altars. Yet it made international headlines, for the historical figure of Pius XII still causes controversy. Specifically, the charge has been made that Pius XII did not do enough to oppose the Holocaust.



The most extreme critics have slandered the late pope, saying that he was anti-Semitic, or that he facilitated the Holocaust in one way or another. Yet the historical evidence has mounted that during World War II, even when Rome was under Nazi occupation, Pius XII secretly saved thousands of Jews from deportation to the death camps. Stories are told of the papal apartment at Castel Gandolfo (the summer residence of the popes), becoming something of a maternity ward and nursery, as pregnant Jewish women were given sanctuary there. Indeed, when the Jews of Rome began to be rounded up for deportation to the death camps, Pius XII immediately protested, with the result that the vast majority of Roman Jews were not deported in October 1943.



The main charge is somewhat different, but very grave. Pius XII did not raise his voice in stern and explicit condemnation of the Holocaust. The argument is that had he done so, it may have saved more Jews, or even, perhaps, persuaded Adolf Hitler to cease the killing.





Complex situation





Defenders of Pius XII’s discretion point out that he had prepared such a condemnation to be read in 1942, but before it was published the Dutch Catholic bishops issued their own strong condemnation of the deportation of Jews to the camps. The reprisals were swift – the Nazis ordered that all Catholics of Jewish ethnicity also be sent to the death camps. This was the order that led to the killing of Edith Stein – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and her sister. Hearing that the Dutch protest made things worse rather than better for the Jews, Pius XII ordered his text to be burned.



So the debate continues over the ‘silence’ of Pius XII. Was it wise discretion, which sought not to provoke further reprisals while giving scope for maximum covert action to save Jews – by some estimates, several hundred thousand? Or was it cowardice or even complicity by omission?





The Myth of Hitler’s Pope





The debate has been fierce. American author John Cornwell wrote a book entitled Hitler’s Pope accusing Pius XII of support for the Nazi regime. An American rabbi, David Dalin, responded with his own book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, in which he argues that Pius XII should be honoured as a “righteous Gentile” for his work in saving Jews.



That debate arrived in the heart of the Vatican during the synod of bishops last October. The first Jew ever invited to address a synod, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, added remarks to his main address in which he referred to the “silence” of Pius XII, and said that Jews cannot “forgive and forget.”



That set the stage only a few days later for the anniversary Mass for Pius XII, where Benedict decided to enter decisively into the historical debate. His remarks in defence of Pius’ policy were extensive.



“The war highlighted the love [Pius] felt for his ‘beloved Rome’, a love attested by the intense charitable work he promoted on behalf of the persecuted, without distinction of religion, race, nationality or political affiliation,” the Holy Father said. “When the city was occupied and he was repeatedly advised to leave the Vatican to seek safety, his determined answer was always the same, ‘I will not leave Rome and my duty even if it means I should die’. Relatives and other witnesses also mentioned the deprivation of food, heating, clothes, comforts to which he voluntarily subjected himself in order to share the condition of the people, so harshly tried by the bombing and the consequences of war.”





“And how can we forget his Christmas radio message in December 1942?” continued Benedict, referring to one of the landmark addresses of World War II. “His voice broken by emotion, he deplored the situation of ‘hundreds of thousands of men and women who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline’, with a clear reference to the deportation and extermination of the Jews. He often acted secretly and silently because, in the light of the practical situations of that complex period of history, he foresaw that only in this way could he avoid the worst and save the greatest possible number of Jews.”



Then, as is rarely done in a papal address, Benedict quoted other sources to reinforce his point.





Attestations of gratitude





“Numerous and unanimous attestations of gratitude for his interventions were addressed to him at the end of the war, as well as at the time of his death, from the highest authorities of the Jewish world,” Benedict argued. “For example, Israel’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Golda Meir, who wrote, ‘When fearful martyrdom came to our people, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict’ and concluded with emotion: ‘We mourn a great Servant of peace’.



In the aftermath of the Pope’s strong homily, the papal press spokesman clarified that while Pius XII’s cause for beatification continues, no particular schedule was foreseen. Benedict XVI has yet to sign the decree attesting to the heroism of Pius’ virtues, and it remains a matter of the Holy Father’s “study and meditation”.



Regardless of the decision Benedict eventually takes about Pius XII, it is clear that he will resist any attempt to reconfigure the Holocaust as an act of Christian violence against Jews. To the contrary, Benedict understands the Holocaust as an act of totalitarian violence precisely against God, and therefore against his Chosen People. That was the argument he made at Auschwitz in May 2006.





Tearing up the taproot





“The rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people, to cancel it from the register of the peoples of the earth,” Benedict said. “Thus the words of the Psalm: ‘We are being killed, accounted as sheep for the slaughter’ were fulfilled in a terrifying way.  Deep down, those vicious criminals, by wiping out this people, wanted to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai, and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid. If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who spoke to humanity and took us to Himself, then that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone – to those men who thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world. By destroying Israel, by the Shoah, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful.”



Sixty years on from the Holocaust, fifty years on from Pius XII, and the debate continues. Now, though, it has been joined at the highest level of the Catholic Church.