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Pius
XII, one of my heroes
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
On March 2, 1939 (I was 5 years old), Eugenio Pacelli became Pope Pius
XII, the 262nd pope of the Catholic Church. When he died on Oct. 9,
1958, I was less than eight months away from ordination to the
priesthood. Pius XII was the only pope I had known (there was no memory
of his predecessor, Pius XI). He had captured my imagination and still
does. Clearly stamped in my memory are images of Pius XII, arms
outstretched in petition, standing in the ruins of the Tiburtina section
of the Eternal City after it had been bombed by the American Air Force
during World War II, and again on the balcony of St. Peter’s, blessing
American troops who had just liberated Rome from the Nazis. I pray I
will live to see him canonized. Not everyone shares that hope, however.
Sister Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., a woman religious of the Religious
Teachers of St. Lucy Filippini, has devoted much of her latter years
combating accusations that Pius XII was anti-Semitic; that when reports
about the assignation of Jews during the Shoah (Holocaust) reached the
Vatican he did not protest; that he did not condemn the killing of Jews
even when they were being deported from Rome to Auschwitz; and that his
silence and absence of directives forced Catholics to decide
independently how they should react to the persecution of the Jews. The
basic objection to Pope Pius XII is that he failed to do all that could
have been done to prevent the massacre of Jews during the era of Adolf
Hitler and the Nazis.
Recently I had an opportunity to spend time reading Sister Margherita’s
latest defense of the pope, titled Did Pope Pius XII Help the Jews? (Paulist
Press/2007). Her goal is to have the Yad Vashem National Holocaust
Memorial of the Jewish People in Israel, established by the Israeli
Parliament in 1953, posthumously recognize Pius XII as “Righteous Among
the Nations” on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, in
October of 2008. This, she is convinced, would be a major step toward
ending years of gross misrepresentation of Pope Pius XII’s role during
the Shoah.
Some of the points made in the Marchione defense of the pope:
• During WWII, Pius XII provided false identification papers to
potential victims of the Nazis and Fascists. He ordered Vatican
buildings, churches, convents and monasteries to open their doors to
provide hiding places for Jews and other refugees.
• Pius XII’s first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, addressed racism and
totalitarianism. It was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force dropped
88,000 copies over Germany. The head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Muller,
wrote, “The encyclical is directed exclusively against Germany, both in
identity and in regard to the German-Polish dispute. How dangerous it is
for our foreign relations as well as our domestic affairs is beyond
question.”
• Sixty Vatican dispatches were sent to Berlin protesting Hitler’s
treatment of the Jews.
• Pius XII sent the papal nuncio assigned to Berlin to meet with Hitler
at Burchtesgaden to plead for the Jews. That interview ended when Hitler
smashed a glass at the nuncio’s feet. From Hitler’s reaction, the pope
became convinced that public pronouncements would make things worse
rather than better.
• Sister Margherita lists a number of protests filed against the
persecution of the Jews in countries where Pius XII felt he might have
influence, including Italy and France. She also includes moving
testimonials from Jewish survivors. One example: “Pacelli is the only
one who intervened to impede the deportation of Jews (from Rome on Oct.
16, 1943) and he did very much to hide and save thousands of us. It was
no small matter that he ordered the opening of cloistered convents.
Without him, many of our own would not be alive” (Michael Tagiacozzo).
A noteworthy testimonial came from SS officer Adolf Eichmann, who was
condemned to death in Jerusalem in 1961 for crimes against the Jewish
people. He stated in his diary that the Vatican “vigorously protested
the arrest of Jews.”
Israel Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome who hid in the Vatican during the Nazi
occupation, wrote: “World Jewry owes a great deal 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.”
Elio Toaff, chief rabbi of Rome at the time of the pope’s death, wrote:
“More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the
great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity that the pope
displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror.”
The national president of the American Jewish Congress, Rabbi Joachim
Prinz, wrote: “Among his many great contributions to mankind, the
pontiff will be remembered wherever men of good will gather for his
profound devotion to the cause of peace and for his earnest efforts in
the rescue of thousands of victims of Nazi persecution, including many
Jewish men, women and children.”
Golda Meir, Israeli foreign minister and later prime minister, issued a
statement when Pius XII died. It said: “We share in the grief of
humanity … when fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of
Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims … we mourn
a great servant of peace.”
I have long tried to follow the anti-Pius XII campaign. Sister
Margherita’s efforts are not accepted with critical acclaim by all, but
I am grateful to her for her persistence in disputing those who condemn
the one person who may have proactively been instrumental in saving more
Jews during the Shoah than anyone else. That the Holy Father could have
acted differently certainly can be argued. He could, I suppose, have
offered his life in the model of St. Maximilian Kolbe. At the same time,
it is a myth to claim he ignored the plight of the Jewish people or that
he was anti-Semitic.
A quote from Kenneth L. Woodward (Newsweek) in Sister Margherita’s book
sums it up: “No one person, Hitler excepted, was responsible for the
Holocaust. And no one person, Pius XII included, could have prevented
it.” Woodward urged that it is time to move on.
Moving on to me will come when Pope Pius XII, servant of God, is
canonized. |
