Since a new book, entitled Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of
Pius XII, which is filled with errors and of slander, has just been
published to discredit, once more, the great Pope Pius XI I concerning
his action during World War II in condemning Nazism and saving Jews,
I would like to bring to your attention some truths, which seem to have
been completely ignored by the author John Cornwell.
Mr. John Cornwell gives away his intentions with the title of his volume,
manifesting that he is not going to present the work of a historian,
but of a partisan who has already made up his mind, in order to condemn
the victim without a hearing. He ignores the evidence of facts, which
would prove not only the innocence of Pope Pius XII, but shows exactly
the contrary of what he has unjustly been accused!
The whole purpose of this vile book tends to prove that the Pope was
anti-Semitic and that the Vatican did little to help the Jews. The author
attempts to justify these unspeakable slanders on the account of a single
letter written by Pope Pius Xil in 1919 and an account of a handful
of Vatican officials, for whom we prefer to let God be the judge of
their intentions.
Let us then recall a few facts which speak for themselves and which
refute bluntly the so-called demonstration of Cornwell.
Before he became Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Pacelli drafted the papal
encyclical denouncing Nazi racism "Mit Brennender Sorge -With
Burning Concern," which had been published by Pope Pius XI
and had been read from every pulpit. Hitler was said to have screamed
in anger when he heard this.
That is why, the day after his election, the Berlin Morgenpost
said: "The election of Cardinal Pacelli is not accepted with
favour in Germany because he was always opposed to Nazism and practically
determined the policies of the Vatican under his predecessor. "
When World War II started, Rabbi Herzog appealed to Pius XII from Jerusalem.
The Pontiff answered that he would do "all which is in my power
to end the persecution of the Jews."
As a result, thousands of Jewish refugees poured into Vatican City.
Thousands of others sought shelter in the basilicas and other buildings
of the Holy See in Rome and in Italy. No fewer than 15,000 Jews were
sheltered in Castel Gondolfo, the private residence of the Pope, near
Rome.
Pius XII sent by hand, a letter to the Bishops instructing them to
lift the enclosures from convents and monasteries so that they could
become refuges for the Jews. Thanks to these instructions, priests and
nuns, often at great personal risk, smuggled Jews to places of sanctuary
in churches, monasteries and other institutions.
More than 180 places of refuge were made available in Rome and secret
asylum was given to more than 7000 fugitive Jews.
Pope Pius XII ordered that the assets of the Vatican be used to ransom
Jews from the Nazis, protecting them from immediate deportation from
Rome, which would mean an increase of persecutions with its trail of
atrocities and death.
To save these poor people, Pius XII ordered that religious vessels
should be melted in order to raise a hundred pounds of gold which were
then given to the Chief Rabbi of Rome for that purpose.
In 1944, Pius XII organized a Pontifical Commission to assist the refugees,
supplying over 2 billion meals. He also organized an underground network
to help the Jews to escape from the occupied countries.
Many Jewish Personalities gave witness of their gratitude!
The unbelievable number of Jews who have been saved by Pius XII is
officially acknowledged by Jewish personalities such as Pinhas Lapid,
who was Consul of Israel in Milan during Pius XII's reign. Pinhas
Lapid said that Pius XII saved from Nazi persecution 850,000 of his
fellow Jews. And when, at the end of the war, he had been received
by Pius XII at the Vatican, he "transmitted to him the gratitude
of the Jewish Agency, which was the leaders' organization of the worldly
Zionist Movement, for all that he did in favor of Jewish people"
(Pie X11, The Outraged Pope, by A. Carvers, p. 44).
As well, David Hertsig wrote that, from Romania alone, 360,000 Jews
now living in Israel owe their lives to Pope Pius XII. The Chief Rabbi
of Bucharest, Alexander Saffron, did express his gratitude to the
Catholic Church and wrote to the Papal Nuncio to Romania: "In
the most difficult hours which we Jews of Romania have passed through,
the generous assistance of the Holy See was decisive and salutary."
Because of the action of Pope Pius XII, the Jews of Italy had a far
higher survival rate than in most other countries. Indeed, the World
Jewish Congress donated a great deal of money to the Vatican in
1945 as mark of gratitude and during the same year, Isaac Herzog, the
Chief Rabbi of Palestine, wrote: "The people of Israel will never
forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates . . . are doing
for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of
our history. " He then thanked Pope Pius XII "for his lifesaving
efforts on behalf of the Jews during the occupation of Italy. "
When the Pope died in 1958, Golda Meir, then Israeli foreign minister,
gave a eulogy at the United Nations praising the man for his valiant
work on behalf of her people. She declared: "We share the sorrow
of mankind for the death of His Holiness Pius XII . . . During the decade
of the Nazi terror, when our people endured a fearful martyrdom, the
voice of the Pope rose to condemn the persecutors and to implore pity
toward their victims."
The great scientist Einstein declared after the end of the war: "The
Catholic Church has been the only One institution to raise her voice
against the assault led by Hitler against liberty. "
On the 26 of May 1955, 94 Jewish musicians, natives of 14 different
countries, played under the direction of Paul Kletzki, the 9th
Symphony of Beethoven, in the presence of Pius XII: "in gratitude
for the grandiose humanitarian work accomplished by His Holiness to
save a great number of Jews during the Second World War. "
In 1945 the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, publicly embraced Roman
Catholicism. Rabbi Zolli was a scripture scholar, and his studies led
him to embrace the True Faith. Nevertheless, his extraordinary conversion
was partly due to his admiration for the Pope's sheltering and saving
of so many Italian Jews. "The radiating charity of the Pope,
"he said, bent on all the misfortunes generated by the war, his
goodness for my hunted fellow people, have been for me, the hurricane
which swept away my scruples to become a Catholic." On February
17, 1945, Israel Zolli and his wife were baptized in the Basilica of
St. Mary of the Angels in Rome and it is not by chance that the former
Rabbi took "Eugenio," the Pope's Christian name, as his own.
The intention of John Cornwell to write this polemic book: To Prevent
Pope Pius XII's canonization!
It is in the last chapter of his book that Cornwell will reveal the
real motive of his work of defamation against Pius XII, which is an
attempt to prevent his eventual canonization. He writes indeed: "To
make of Pius XII a saint, would be for the traditionalists a decisive
victory upon the modernists in their reading of Vatican II."
This statement is most relevant! The enemies of the Church fear, indeed,
the canonization of Pius XII and try to prevent it because they know
that would be a victory of Tradition against Modernism.
