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Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Still Hitler's Pope

David Dalin has published a book, in which he claims that Pius 12 was a famous friend of the Jews and no ally of Hitler and the Nazis. Like Miriam, I'm skeptical.

I'll be picking up a copy and looking for reviews, hoping to find satisfactory answers to these burning questions about that holy and horrible man:

(1) Pius protested the treatment of Jews who converted to catholism. He protested the invasions of Luxemburg and Belgium. He protested the treatment of Polish Catholics. He even protested when the Nazi's mistreated German Catholics via an encyclical that was read from every pulpit in Germany. So where was his voice when millions of Jews were being slaughtered?

(2) After 1943 Rome was in Allied hands. The pope was perfectly safe and under the protection of Allied forces. Though deportations, massacres and slaughters of Jews went on for almost another year after the liberation of Rome, the pope continued his silence. Why?

(3) In 1948 the pope, with one declaration, excommunicated every single Communist in the world, but he never excommunicated a single nazi. Why?

(4) In 1943 the Lutheran church published a statement that was read from every pulpit in Scandinavia. It protested the German policy towards Jews and called upon Scandinavian Lutherans to struggle against Hitler. Why didn't Pius do the same?