Vatican Defends Status of WWII Pope

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: December 23, 2009

ROME — In an effort to calm growing tensions with Jewish groups, the Vatican said Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision moving the wartime pope Pius XII closer to sainthood was not a “hostile act” against those who believe Pius did not do enough to stop the Holocaust.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement saying that the beatification process evaluated the “Christian life” of Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, and not “the historical impact of all his operative decisions.”

Moving Pius toward sainthood “is in no way to be read as a hostile act towards the Jewish people, and it is to be hoped that it will not be considered as an obstacle on the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church,” Father Lombardi wrote.

Benedict confirmed the “heroic virtues” of Pius — along with those of John Paul II — on Saturday, opening the door to beatification once a miracle is attributed to each. A second miracle would be required for sainthood.

The move created anger among many Jewish groups, which have argued that Pius did not speak out vocally enough against the Nazis or intervene to save Jews during World War II, and that the Vatican helped many former Nazis escape to South America after World War II.

The decision by Benedict — a German who was an unwilling member of the Hitler Youth — to move Pius closer to sainthood was the latest in a series of controversies. It came less than a year after he revoked the excommunication of a schismatic bishop who had denied the scope of the Holocaust, an act that caused the pope and the Vatican to issue a series of extensive clarifications. Benedict also upset many Jews when he did not directly mention the Nazis or Germany during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel in May, as John Paul II had done, although Benedict has denounced the Holocaust on many other occasions.

Even as the Vatican sought to separate the religious aspects of the beatification process from Pius’s historical record, observers said that Benedict’s decision to move Pius toward sainthood sent a strong message, effectively endorsing his actions.

Jewish groups had asked Benedict to delay Pius’s beatification process until the Vatican opened the archives from his papacy to scholarly scrutiny. Father Lombardi said that the Vatican “understood” the request to open the archives, and that the copious number of documents from Pius’s papacy were expected to take several more years to process.

Defenders of Pius, who was the Vatican secretary of state in the 1930s, say that his reticence was sound diplomacy, and that speaking out more directly against the Nazis would have caused more deaths in Rome and beyond. Benedict has said that Pius worked “secretly and silently” to save Jews.

In his statement, Father Lombardi said that confirming Pius’s “heroic virtues” was not intended “to limit discussion concerning the concrete choices made by Pius XII in the situation in which he lived.”

He added that the Vatican hoped the pope’s expected visit to the Rome synagogue next month would reaffirm ties between Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church. After days of tension, Roman Jewish leaders said that the visit was still expected to take place.

The legacy of Pius is particularly sensitive for the Jewish community in Rome. More than 1,000 of its members were rounded up in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz. Documents in the Vatican archives indicate that Pius knew of the deportation and did not act to stop it.

In a statement, the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, said he welcomed the Vatican’s statement. “Certainly the historical evaluation remains open and controversial,” Rabbi Di Segni said. “But the Vatican’s understanding of requests to open all paths to research is significant.”

Pope visit to Rome synagogue under cloud

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's decision to move his controversial wartime predecessor Pius XII closer to sainthood has put a cloud over his planned visit next month to Rome's synagogue, with some fearing it risks being canceled.

The pope on Saturday approved a decree recognizing the "heroic virtues" of Pius, accused by some Jews of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust. The two remaining steps are beatification and canonization, which could take years.

Jewish leaders expressed concern because they said the Vatican had given them private assurances that the procedure leading to possible sainthood would be frozen until more study of Vatican archives for the wartime period could be studied.

The World Jewish Congress said the beatification of Pius would be "inopportune and premature" before opening of the archives and said "strong concerns about Pope Pius XII's political role during World War II which should not be ignored."

The timing of the decision, which a number of Jewish leaders called "insensitive," has cast a cloud over the German pope's plan to make his first visit to Rome's synagogue, on January 17.

"I hope it goes ahead but after this latest move I wouldn't be surprised if it is canceled," said Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, president of the Assembly of Italian Rabbis.

"While I respect the autonomy of the Church in matters of sainthood, I don't see how the pope could have taken such an untimely decision. Anything can happen now," he was quoted as telling the Rome newspaper La Repubblica.

Since his election in 2005 Benedict has visited synagogues in his native Germany and in the United States.

But his visit to the synagogue on the Tiber is significant because relations between the Vatican and Rome's Jewish community -- the oldest in the diaspora -- have often been considered a bellwether of Catholic-Jewish relations worldwide.

NOW OR NEVER

Vatican sources feared that if the Jewish community withdrew its invitation for the visit -- which would be only the second by a pope to the Rome temple -- the move could have devastating consequences on long-term Catholic-Jewish relations.

"If he does not go to the Rome synagogue on January 17, he will never go," one Vatican source said. "They will never want to reschedule something like that."

Pope Benedict has come under great pressure from both Catholics and Jews over the possible sainthood of Pius, who led the Catholic church from 1939 to 1958, years when the current pope was a teenager and young priest. "He admires Pius as the pope of his youth," another source said.

The Vatican department that makes saints submitted the heroic virtues decree to the Benedict in 2007 but he decided not to approve it immediately, opting instead for what the Vatican called a period of reflection. The delay pleased Jews concerned about Pius' place in history.

Some Jews have accused Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of not doing enough to help Jews, a charge the Vatican denies.

The Vatican maintains that Pius worked quietly behind the scenes because direct interventions might have worsened the situation for both Jews and Catholics in Europe. Many Jews have rejected this position.

In a speech on Monday recapping the year's events, the pope recalled his visit in May to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, calling it "a monument against hate." He made no mention of Pius.

Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's head of Inter-religious Relations, called the move "undiplomatic."

"While it is not the business of the Jewish community to tell the Holy See who its saints are, if the Church claims as it does that it seeks to live with the Jewish community in a relationship of mutual respect, we expect it to take our sensitivities into serious consideration," Rosen said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Israel asks Vatican to open Holocaust-era archives

Published: 12.20.09, 15:09 / Israel News

Israel asked the Vatican to open the Church archives from World War II following Pope Benedict's decision to renew the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who is accused of not taking action to save Jews during the Holocaust.


Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said to AFP that Pope Pius' candidacy for sainthood does not affect Israel, but the Catholic Church. However, he said that historians must be allowed to evaluate the pope's actions during the war by opening the archives. (AFP)