The following article was published in The Catholic Spirit, a newspaper of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Jewish leader says Pope Pius XII has been demonized falsely
By Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service
Monday, 15 September 2008
Pope Pius XII has been demonized and his legacy of helping Jews during World War II has been poisoned by inaccurate and incomplete historical accounts, said the Jewish founder and president of Pave the Way Foundation.
Pope Pius XII, who led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, is seen in an undated formal portrait - CNS photo "We have to change history" and tell the world the truth about this wartime pope "who saved so many lives," Gary Krupp, foundation president, told Catholic News Service, He spoke at the start of a Sept. 15-17 symposium that studied the papacy of Pope Pius and unveiled new evidence of the pope's hidden acts and orders aimed at saving Jews from the Nazis. The symposium, sponsored by the U.S.-based foundation, featured Catholic and Jewish speakers and video footage of interviews with people who were saved from the Holocaust through the church's intervention. "The scholars, the historians have failed, they've simply failed over the last 45 years" to retrieve and present firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses, Holocaust survivors, diplomats and archival material, Krupp said. Some authors also have based their accounts not on facts, but opinions and "nonsense" which "are poisoning the memory of this man," Krupp said. He told CNS Sept. 15 he grew up hating Pope Pius, thinking the pontiff did nothing to stop the slaughter of 6 million Jews. But years later, he was shocked to discover through his own amateur research that the pope had been far more active in directing a clandestine network of safe houses for people escaping Nazi persecution through the church's religious orders, communities, convents and seminaries in Europe. Krupp said of the 60-70 guests he invited to attend the symposium, all of them had been suspicious of or negative toward Pope Pius' actions during the war. Audience members included rabbis or their representatives from Europe and Israel. He said experience showed that if a European leader was outspoken against Nazi persecution, it did nothing to reverse the injustices. On the contrary, it resulted in accelerated or widened persecution of the Jews and those speaking out on their behalf, he said. Therefore, keeping the pope and the church's good works hidden was crucial, he said. Krupp said the time has come for the world "to forgive Pius XII for not talking the talk but truly commend him for walking the walk."
