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Catholic World News News Feature

Beatification dossier answers critics of Pius XII, official says April 13, 2007

The Vatican directly addresses questions about the wartime conduct of Pope Pius XII in a document prepared for his beatification cause, an official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has reported.

Father Peter Gumpel, SJ, said that the 3,000 page positio on the life of Pope Pius XII is now ready for submission. The document, he said, provides answers to the complaints that Pope Pius was indifferent to the Holocaust.

The controversy that has existed for years about the actions of Pope Pius XII flared again this week, when the apostolic nuncio in Israel threatened to boycott a Holocaust memorial service because of an exhibit in the Yad Vashem museum that renews the charges against the Pontiff.

Defenders of Pope Pius XII have cited both the statements of Jewish leaders during World War II, and the work of historians in more recent years, to show that the Pontiff worked quietly but effectively to protect Jews from the Nazi extermination drive. Only after the war did rumors emerge charging that the Pope had failed to act; some of these rumors were apparently the product of a Soviet disinformation campaign.

Last October, Father Gumpel reacted angrily to a statement by Oded Ben Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, who had said that the cause of beatification of Pius XII had been "stalled" because of questions about his role during the Holocaust. That statement, the Jesuit priest said, was "irresponsible" and inaccurate. The weight of evidence continues to support the Pontiff's cause, he said, citing the words of the British historican Martin Gilbert, who concluded: "I believe, all things considered, morally and politically, Pius XII acted appropriately and made the right decisions."