INTRODUCTION


During World War II, 1939—45, and for nearly twenty years after, Pope Pius XII was almost universally regarded as a saintly man, a scholar, a man of peace, a tower of strength, and a compassionate defender and protector of all victims of the war and genocide that had drowned Europe in blood for six years. At the end of the war Western nations paid tribute to his steadfast efforts on behalf of the oppressed. Jews heaped praise on him for his help in their darkest hour and, at his death thirteen years later, they were among the first to express sorrow and gratitude for his solicitude for Jews during the Holocaust.

In the 1960s, however, there began a campaign of vilification against the Pope. The overall effect was to replace the judgment of Pius XII as a great and good man with the judgment of him as a weak, cold, church bureaucrat. Today the media, liberal Catholics, academicians, and editorial commentators with few exceptions accept as unquestionably true the claims made by his detractors - that he lacked courage, human compassion, and a deep sense of moral rectitude. Even when no solid evidence is provided to support such demeaning allegations, he is judged guilty of a sin of omission, such as not having personally raged against Hitler or not having excommunicated all Catholics serving under Hitler.

The accusers' strategy is to rewrite history, to ignore the reality of who had the power and the will to destroy mercilessly from 1933 to 1944 and to pretend that Pius XII possessed some kind of extraordinary ability that no one else in the world had - to make Hitler obey him. Their essential logic is this simple: the Holocaust occurred, millions died, and the mighty Pope refused to exercise his incredible authority. Therefore, he is guilty and shares responsibility for the Nazi crimes. (p. 13)

Still, Pius XII’s critics insist that if he had confronted Hitler directly - publicly excommunicating him and all who supported him - that German Catholics might have risen up in revolt. That is the accusation of the New York Times of March 18. 1998: “The Pope did not encourage Catholics to defy Nazis’ orders.” The idea that the Pope could bring about massive German defiance is completely implausible. Nearly ten years of Nazi rule had proved that anyone, Catholic or Communist, brave enough to defy the Nazis was immediately seized and punished. The Times first endows the Pope with power he did not possess and then demands that he act on that power. Essentially, it is a demand that he should have accepted the sacrifice of innocent people. The only certain result of papal moral rage would have been Hitler’s immoral rage. Further, the historical record on excommunications is clear. They have been notoriously ineffective over the last four or five centuries. Excommunicating Luther did not slow Protestantism nor did it cow Henry VIII nor any subsequent king or emperor out to humble and loot the Vatican. A pontifical excommunication against the Catholic powers of Venice (1606) only succeeded in demonstrating the uselessness of the act. Those who vest Pius XII’s Vatican with the kind of power held for a limited period in the Middle Ages but never demonstrated before or since are being disingenuous. It is unconscionable to malign a brave and good man with such feeble arguments.

In February 1945 Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Palestine stated: “The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion, which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world.”

Jewish leaders worldwide recognized the greatness of Pius XII - the Pope who had saved the lives of so many thousands of people without distinction of race, nationality, or religion. The Jewish Post reported: “It is understandable why the death of Pope Pius XII should have called forth expressions of sincere grief from practically all sections of American Jewry. For there probably was not a single ruler of our generation who did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late Pope.”

Today the principal admirers of Pius XII are devout Catholics, those who have studied his life and actions, the Vatican, and John Paul II. Those who have most carefully reviewed every day of his life and every word that he wrote - select members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints - are so convinced of his worthiness that they are pushing forward his cause for beatification and canonization.


Excerpts from "Pope Pius XII - Architect for Peace" by Sister Margherita Marchione (Paulist Press, 2000)


Sister Marchione, as well as many other writers, has presented the historical facts so clearly that here is no need for any additional defense of Pope Pius XII from his revisionist detractors.

The rest of this site is dedicated to the memory of this great Pope's life. All photographs and comments, sometimes slightly edited for continuity on this site, are from Sr. Marchione's book "Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pope Pius XII", Paulist Press/ Urbi et Orbi, 2002





Short biography of Sister Margherita Marchione

Pope Pius XII beatification petition