Cardinal Tisserant advised papal discretion during World War II, says former secretary
November 24, 2008
One of the most prominent priests in the Archdiocese of Vancouver revealed in a column dated today that one of the Vatican's leading prelates, Cardinal Eugene-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant (1884-1972), advised Pope Pius XII not to condemn Hitler’s atrocities during World War II. Cardinal Tisserant served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches from 1936 to 1959 and Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1951 to 1972.
Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo, PA, who was ordained in 1951, served as Cardinal Tisserant’s secretary during the 1960s. He recounted that after Rolf Hochhuth’s play critical of Pope Pius XII was staged in 1963, he asked Cardinal Tisserant about it. ‘The cardinal told me that he himself had advised the Pope not to intervene,’ Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo recounted. ‘Hitler has no respect for Your Holiness and you cannot stop him,’ Cardinal Tisserant said (according to Msgr. Lopez-Gallo’s contemporaneous notes). ‘On the contrary, you will move him to exterminate Catholics as well. If you ask the advice of the German bishops, I am sure they will implore you to stay away.’
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