God’s Pope, Not Hitler’s
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Thursday, October 09, 2008 8:36 PM
Benedict XVI celebrated mass today to mark the 50th anniversary of his predecessor Pius XII’s memory.
The homily was beautiful: a noble tribute to possibly the world’s most maligned man save Christ himself.
I always think Pope Pius should be the patron saint of the internet, because his story epitomizes the power of slander.
The picture is a contemporaneous postcard from the Holy Year Pius called in 1950. You can see how people thought of him while he reigned. A great man, hailed as a hero in his time—personally responsible, in the estimation of Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide for the rescue of some 860,000 Jews during the Nazi persecution of Europe—has been defamed in death as a coward or Nazi sympathizer by those aiming to harm the Church.
You can read more about that in this article by Rabbi David Dalin, who’s since written an entire book
We know where the lie began: a German playwright who was also a Communist sympathizer penned “The Deputy” in 1963, which claimed that the Church was responsible for the holocaust because Pius XII was so focused on defeating Communism he ignored Nazism. Soviet propaganda also promoted the “black legend.”
No one who actually lived through the war remembered Pius’ courage could believe such a thing, but younger people did—even many Catholics.
I’ve adored Pius XII since reading a biography of him years ago. His courage, prudence and sanctity during the war years are beginning to be rediscovered, but I can’t wait for his writings to be rediscovered….in particular his writing on the role of women (to whom he must have given great thought, since he defined the dogma of the Assumption and proclaimed the Queenship of Mary).
He also has numerous discussions of media—including an exhortation to film executives about the ideal film. He proclaimed St. Clare the patroness of television.
Read what Benedict said about him. This passage is especially powerful when we recall that Joseph Ratzinger is a witness to the things he’s talking about:
The war highlighted the love he felt for his “beloved Rome,” a love demonstrated by the intense charitable work he undertook in defense of the persecuted, without any distinction of religion, ethnicity, nationality or political leanings. When, once the city was occupied, he was repeatedly advised to leave the Vatican to safeguard himself, his answer was always the same and decisive: “I will not leave Rome and my place, even at the cost of my life” (cf Summarium, p. 186).
His relatives and other witnesses refer furthermore to privations regarding food, heating, clothes and comfort, to which he subjected himself voluntarily in order to share in the extremely trying conditions suffered by the people due to the bombardments and consequences of war (cf A. Tornielli, “Pio XII, Un uomo sul trono di Pietro”). And how can we forget his Christmas radio message of December 1942? In a voice breaking with emotion he deplored the situation of “the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline” (AAS, XXXV, 1943, p. 23), a clear reference to the deportation and extermination of the Jews.
He often acted secretly and silently because, in the light of the concrete realities of that complex historical moment, he saw that this was the only way to avoid the worst and save the largest possible number of Jews. His interventions, at the end of the war and at the time of his death, received numerous and unanimous expressions of gratitude from the highest authorities of the Jewish world, such as, for example, the Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir, who wrote: “During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people went through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and commiserate with their victims”; ending emotionally: “We mourn a great servant of peace.”
Benedict’s conclusion is striking as well, coming from someone who survived World War II.
In this world of ours, which, like then, is assailed by worries and anguish about its future; in this world where, perhaps more than then, the distancing of many from truth and virtue allows us to glimpse scenarios without hope, Pius XII invites us to look to Mary assumed into the glory of Heaven. He invites us to invoke her faithfully, so that she will allow us to appreciate ever more the value of life on earth and help us to look to the true aim that is the destiny of all of us: that eternal life that, as Jesus assures us, already belongs to those who hear and follow his word.
The internet has made the cliche about a lie traveling ‘round the world before the truth puts its boots on true on a daily basis. Maybe the take-home message of Pope Pius XII is: even in the media age, the Lord still sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, while the Lord looks on the heart. Or perhaps he simply invites us to reflect: how quickly what “everyone knows” changes. “Everyone knew” Pius was a hero until “everyone knew” he was a coward. The full truth takes a little time to come out.
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