A Jewish organization dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust has raised strong objections to an ongoing process by which Pope Pius XII, pontiff during World War II and the Holocaust, might be elevated to sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church.
Prompted by what he perceived as recent indications that the Vatican may be close to completing the first step in the canonization of Pius XII, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, sent a letter to a top Vatican official questioning the worthiness of the prelate he describes as the “pope of silence.”
Other sources, however, both Jewish and Catholic, maintain that there are no significant new developments in the decades-long effort to beatify Pius.
They emphasize that the real issue now is the Vatican’s continued refusal to unseal its archives from the Holocaust era. Jews and Catholics involved in interfaith relations are redoubling their efforts to get the records opened to scholars. Only then, they say, will the controversy over Pius and the Vatican’s role in the Holocaust be resolved.
The controversy has simmered ever since 1965, when Pope Paul VI proposed that his two immediate predecessors, Popes Pius and John XXIII, be considered for sainthood.
The beginning of such a process is an exhaustive canonical investigation as a first step toward beatification. If that step is achieved, church authorities must then determine that God has worked an authentic miracle through the candidate’s intercession, following his beatification. Only then can the candidate be considered for canonization.
The Vatican’s investigation prior to beatification is so thorough that it has taken 27 years to gather material pertaining to the life and sanctity of Pius XII, who was pope from 1939 until his death in 1958.
2 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CASE
The Wiesenthal Center decided to intervene, first through correspondence with the Vatican and now publicly, because of two recent developments, Hier said.
The first was a May 1992 letter from Father Paolo Molinari in response to a question raised by a graduate student working in the Wiesenthal Center library.
Molinari, the Vatican-designated advocate on behalf of Pius, wrote that “the canonical investigations concerning the life, activity and renown of holiness of Pope Pius XII, which had to be completed on the diocesan level, have been completed.”
He went on to say that the vast material collected in Rome and in seven other dioceses had been edited, and that two in-depth studies were near completion. “With a view to the beatification, we have an excellent case,” he wrote.
The other indication of Pius’ imminent beatification, said Hier, is a paper titled “Church, Shoah and Anti-Semitism: The Holy See Facing the Tragedy of the Jewish People (1939-1945),” which was presented by a Vatican representative to a meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee in Baltimore last May.
Pius was described in the paper as “not ‘silent’ during World War II. He was not even ‘neutral.’ His public statements, from the first encyclical, were clearly directed against the National Socialist regime, and were so understood on both sides.”
Hier takes issue with the evidence and conclusions presented in the paper. “This is a serious case of historical revisionism,” he said. “Not once did Pope Pius mention the Jews publicly during the war or in his dealings with Hitler.
“It is true that in late 1943 and early 1944, he undertook private initiatives to aid Jews, but by that time 4.5 million Jews had been murdered and Germany was clearly on the road to defeat.
Last June, Hier initiated his inquiry by writing to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. “While it is normally not the practice of non-Catholics to comment on the worthiness of the church’s candidate for sainthood, Pope Pius XII must surely qualify as an exception to that rule,” Hier wrote.
BEATIFICATION NOT IMMINENT
Eugene Fisher, director of Catholic-Jewish relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was puzzled as to why the Wiesenthal Center chose to intervene at this time.
“The first level of paperwork (on Pius’ application for beatification) is completed, but it doesn’t seem that beatification is imminent,” said Fisher.
“I have no idea why they decided to make a big thing about it now. It’s not an issue which can be well addressed through headlines in the press,” said Fisher.
Hier, when asked why he was making his view public eight months after the speech was presented and the letter was sent, said that he waited because until recently because he hoped to schedule a meeting with Vatican officials on the matter.
Hier said his request for a meeting with Cardinal Cassidy was turned down.
But Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of inter-religious affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, will be meeting with Cassidy and a representative of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on these matters when he goes to Rome later this month.
For him, the critical issue is that Pius’ record remains unclear, and that the archives must be completely opened in order for the Vatican’s role in this period to be fully understood.
“At this moment in history it is the obligation of the Vatican to open all the files between 1933 and 1945 concerning Europe and the rest of the world, to see what each of the (papal) nuncios in each country occupied by Nazis did in favor of the Jews,” said Klenicki.
“What were the secret orders of the pope? This matter is of great, great importance to us,” said Klenicki.
Of Pius he said, “We know he opened churches and monasteries in Rome to hide Jews.” But for the most part, “his record is unclear.”
Added Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, “The record of Pius XII is a constant flashpoint. We need much more documentation than the Vatican has opened up.”
(Contributing to this report was JTA staff writer Debra Nussbaum Cohen in New York.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
