Cardinal Spellman Attacks ‘the Deputy’; Says Pope Was Mourned by Jews

Francis Cardinal Spellman called “The Deputy” a “slanderous and outrageous desecration” of the late Pope Pius XII and expressed the hope that the play would not be allowed “to drive a wedge between Catholics and Jews” in this country. The first American performance opened on Broadway last Wednesday.

The Cardinal did not mention the play–which accuses the late Pontiff of failing to speak out publicly against the Nazi wartime slaughter of European Jewry–by name in a prepared statement. He conceded he had not seen nor read the play “but like most people, I feel I know its tack — so much has been written and said about it.”

He said that when Pope Pius died in the fall of 1958, he was mourned by people of all faiths “especially the Jewish people to whom he had been a loyal friend in the tragic hours of Nazi persecution.” He declared that the play “in effect holds Pope Pius XII guilty of the Nazi crimes. Only six years after his death our Holy Father is being tried and condemned on the stage.”

“I pray that the people of New York will not allow it to drive a wedge between Christians and Jews, with whom we have suffered together, for whom we have the greatest respect and the friendliest feelings and for whom also we have deep and heartfelt sympathy in the terrible and tragic sorrow which they have known,” the Cardinal stated.

Herman Shumlin, producer of the drama here, said after the Cardinal’s words had been read to him over the telephone that the general effect of this statement is almost a calculated threat to really drive a wedge between Christians and Jews. To this, Msgr. Timothy J. Flynn, of the archdiocesan offices commented: “I cannot comprehend how anyone reading or hearing the Cardinal’s statement would reach the conclusion that Mr. Shumlin claims he reached.”