New WWII research supports Pope Pius XII, historian says
June 01, 2015
A new study of records from World War II shows “the profound hatred of the Third Reich leadership for Pius XII and the Church.”
Historian Pier Luigi Guiducci, the author of a new book on the wartime record of Pope Pius XII, says in a Catholic World Report interview that the latest historical research weighs heavily against complaints that the Pope cooperated with the Nazis. Documents of the Nazi regime, which were held for years in Moscow and only recently made available to historians, show that the Pope actively opposed Nazi plans, and was viewed by the Nazi regime as a mortal enemy.
Guiducci argues that criticism of Pope Pius XII deflects attention from other Western institutions that could be charged with complicity with the Nazi regime: the corporations that made agreements with the Third Reich, the Swiss banks that accepted gold confiscated from Jews, the Allied governments that did not inform Jews of impeding Gestapo raids, the Red Cross for failing to report on the horrors of concentration camps, and the countries that cooperated in the escape of war criminals.
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Posted by: rik92vin8086 -
Jun. 02, 2015 7:00 PM ET USA
Slander of the Catholic Church from modern days to historical times...the news biases everything we do now and hostorians have written false histories. Not the first time. Look at even how prominent people like our president don't understand the crusades or the inquisitions. Spanish historians noted the horrors of the inquisitions were written by mainly English (the other world power of the time) documentarians. Go figure that the Protestant reformers would slander Spanish Catholics. What? Noooo
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Posted by: Minnesota Mary -
Jun. 01, 2015 11:46 PM ET USA
Unfortunately, Pope Pius XII's good name has been tarnished by his detractors, who lied, and it is their lies that will live on in the memories of people who heard them.
