I wanted to respond to your column about the worst Catholic saint, an oxymoron if there ever was one. In this column you depart from your high standards and trot out that threadbare, tendentious canard that charges Pope Pius XI and Pius XII with anti-Semitism. To bolster your argument, you refer to John Cornwell’s 1999 book Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Many Jewish leaders who were contemporaries of Pius XII expressed their gratitude for Pius’s help in saving many Jews in Italy and other countries. I hope you will see fit to revisit this issue.
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Though Pius XII was considered saintly while alive, his reputation took a hit in 1963 with the appearance of Rolf Hochhuth’s play Der Stellvertreter (“The Deputy”). Hochhuth depicted the pope and other church leaders as cynical appeasers who, while publicly deploring Hitler’s excesses, privately believed Germany to be the only force that could save the West from the Bolsheviks. Though the play is over-the-top in places, its portrayal of Catholic officialdom’s timidity in the face of totalitarian evil squares well enough with history that many were moved to take a second look at Pius’s papacy. Pius has powerful defenders to this day, however, and has been nominated for sainthood by Pope John Paul II. But others see it this way: The Holocaust presented the Catholic church with the ultimate challenge, and the church pupped.
Space doesn’t allow a detailed treatment, but here are a couple key issues:
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
