Good to see that noted Catholic author James Carroll is speaking out:

He has written an essay on Pope Benedict's move to making ius XII a saint:

The Pope's Big Holocaust Lie

There are various charges against Pius XII for his behavior during World War Two, and some can be countered (unconvincingly, in my view) by saying that the Pope was constrained in what he could do.

But there are two items that is no defense for:

• The Pope's failure to restrict priests from ministering to those Germans and Poles who were rounding up and killing Jews throughout the conflict.
  
  
• The Pope's failure to speak out after Rome was secured by the Allied troops in June of 1944

Instead of arguing about Pius' 1942 Christmas address, or what responsibility - if any - he has for the Vatican's operation of the "Rat Line", or realpolitik dynamics, the two bulleted items (above) are pristine examples of Pius XII not giving a damn about the Jew's fate.


posted by Quiddity at 12/24/2009 01:26:00 PM