FRANKLY FRANGO

Pacelli and Hitler: A Questionable Duo

by John Frango

4-7-00

John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope, The Secret Story of Pius XII" (Viking) is a compelling read. The title is somewhat misleading, but that does not take away from Cornwell's unquestioned integrity or his inestimable talent as a writer and a researcher.

Only four days after becoming Pope Pius XII in 1938, Eugenior Pacelli, once nuncio in Munich in the 1920s and an ardent Germanophile with strong hostility toward Jews, writes in part to Adolph Hitler:

"To the Illustrious Adolph Hitler, Fuhrer and Chancellor of the German Reich! Here at the beginning of Our Pontificate We wish to assure you that We remain devoted to the spiritual welfare of German people entrusted to your leadership. . . During the many years We spent in Germany, We did all in our power to establish harmonious relations between Church and State." The pronouncement was almost pusillanimous.

Cornwell recalls when Francis D'Arcy Osborne, British minister to the Holy See, urged Pope Pius X11 to endorse a joint allied document noting the persecution of the Jews in Germany, the answer came back: the Pope could not condemn "particular" atrocities nor could he verify Allies' report on the number of Jews killed.

Meanwhile, Osborne was told brusquely Pope Pius XII could not "take sides." That His Holiness refused to recognize the difference between democracy (even if Russia was an ally) and the ignominy of Nazism and Fascism was almost heresy.

Cornwell further notes there is little argument Pacelli knew well of Hitler's maniacal obsession with "International Jewry" and of the sinister construction of concentration camps and crematoriums--the most heinous undertaking in the history of mankind.

Pinchas E. Lapides, Israel consul in Milan in the 1960s, calculated that Pius XII "directly or indirectly, saved the lives of 890,000 Jews." Lapides also thanks Pope John XXIII for admitting and apologizing for the "long tradition of Catholic anti-Judaism."

It was universally known that Pius XII tolerated--and even consorted with--some of the most violent thugs of the 20th century, many of them Catholic, including Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Miklos Horthy, Ante Pavelic (the cretin of Croatia) and Josip Broz Tito, a former priest.

Under Pavelic's leadership (even Catholic clergymen took part) Croatian soldiers participated in the estimated massacre of 487,000 Serbs, 27,000 Gypsies and 45,000 Jews. Then Pavelic has a "devotional" audience with Pope Pius XII and is treated as a hero.

Incidentally, when Allied forces were ready to occupy Rome, Pacelli was terribly concerned that "colored" soldiers would roam the streets--another example of the Vicar of God and his love for all mankind.

Cornwell argues that "Pacelli betrayed an undeniable antipathy toward Jews, and that his diplomacy in German in the 1930s had resulted in betrayal of Catholic political associations that might have challenged Hitler's regime and thwarted the Final Solution."

Now there is serious talk that Pope Pius XII may be canonized and that despite the fact that Cornwell has amassed irrefutable documentation that Pacelli was a virulent anti-semite and not in the class of the merciful Mother Teresa.