Wrap up on Pius - December 2012 - January 2013

This is a summary of some of the latest posts on Pius XII from the last month of 2012 and the first half of the first month of 2013.

1.  Doris Bergen's review of Hubert Wolf's detailed study of the Vatican's relationship with the Third Reich, Pope and Devil (2010) appeared in the January 2012 Harvard Theological Review.  Her opening line sums up one of the fundamental truisms of sound history work: "... that the writing of good history requires access to good sources". 

2. Bill Loughlin reviews Gordon Thomas's The Pope's Jews (2012) in The National Catholic Register (not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter).  What caught my eye was Loughlin's opinion that two of the most significant sources for the history of Pius XII are the former chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, who disappeared from Rome just before the German razzia and who later converted to Catholicism in 1946, and Sr Pascalina Lenhert, Pius' deeply unpopular and greatly resented housekeeper who wrote a very personal take on the pope a long time after her unceremonious departure from the Vatican in 1958.  Loughlin has not changed my general sense of scepticism about the book especially with his final paragraph:

For decades, papal critics have used the delay in opening the papal archives as an alibi to justify their complaint that Pius was silent. Given the public record, so well scrutinized in Thomas’ The Pope’s Jews and by others, there’s little reason to expect the opening of archives will alter the end results, namely that the Catholic Church, under Pius’ leadership, rescued more Jews than any other institution or government.

3.  In some of the darker corners of the Catholic Church lurk some who still hold to attitudes and beliefs that the vast majority of believers have long abandoned.  Accusations of "Jewish conspiracies" have a long and tortured history within mainstream Christianity and were appropriated by the Nazis as one of the mainstays of their Antisemitism.  This article from Forward is a reminder that some who call themselves Catholics live on a different planet to the rest of us.

4. Writing on the publication of Pius XII and the Holocaust by Yad Vashem for Vatican Insider Andrea Tornielli gives a general review of the 2009 symposium attended by a number of historians and scholars who have written in the field. I was one of those who attended.  Tornielli also mentions the recent - November 2012 - gathering at the Sorbonne in Paris.  I hope that there will be more information on the Sorbonne conference in the near future.

5.  Finally, just before Christmas, the Catholic League published a major advertisement in the New York Times under the eye-catching heading "New York Times salutes Pope Pius XII".   There was a minor flurry but it seems to have passed without major damage.  Bill Donohue has a long-time reputation of rushing to defend the Catholic Church against the enemies arrayed against it.  He enjoys no official endorsement from the Church and his comments should be taken as a personal expression, not as a statement from the Church.

Pius XII's Legacy Divides Catholics Too

From Forward 25 November 2012.

Adam Gregerman's comments are worth the read.  He places much of the "debate" over Pius XII within the context of current tensions within contemporary Catholicism.  And while I disagree with the naming of sides as "progressive" and "conservative" - too black and white in my opinion - I recognise that they are convenient terms.  However, I hope that readers go beyond the labels and show a willingness to explore the subtleties within different positions.

This is my response to Gregerman's article posted on the Forward website:

Adam Gregerman has written a well balanced summary of the current tensions within Catholic Christianity.  His comments about Pius XII are based on what is known from the available historical record, a record that is incomplete and in need of ongoing serious study - a process that has been underway for nearly half a century in the work of mainstream scholars, Christian, Jewish and neither. From my reading of the available material, and especially of the published Vatican records from WWII, the war objectives of the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pius XII were to preserve the Church throughout Europe, and then Asia once Japan began expanding, prevent the spread of Communism in whatever ways it could, speak and act for the victims of the war using the extensive networks of papal representatives, local bishops and Catholics of good will and work for the establishment of a new world order built on Christian principles.  Pius XII did act for the Jews of Europe, but in an emerging and reactive manner that was always tempered by diplomatic protocols.  Whereas he spoke out clearly in defence of "innocent victims" of war, for POWs, for refugees and displaced people, he spoke of Jews using a cumbersome and non-explicit language that was interpreted as support for the suffering Jews of Europe, but was not a vigorous protest in the same manner as used for other groups.  From my reading of the published data as well as documents emerging from the Vatican archives (up to 1939) the picture emerges of a very able and competent diplomat who understood Hitler, Nazism and the hatred that motivated them, but whose first priority was the safety and well being of the Church, and that is in accord with his position.  Concern for the Jews was also there, but it was never a "top" priority in the way the fear of a communist takeover of Europe was.  Pius was no antisemite or Jew-hater.  He was a devout, conservative Tridentine Catholic who believed Judaism was a superceded religion.  In the noise surrounding Pius XII, historians need a quiet space to get on with what we do best - read, research and write.  The full story of Pius XII may never be completely known, but there is a mass of evidence that is available and broad lines can be seen clearly and there are several clear statements that can be made: Was he "silent" - no.  Was he a "saviour" of the Jews - no. Was he a good man - yes.  Did he make mistakes - yes.