Word: pius
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...Pope Pius XII sat through the Holocaust in the Vatican, either turning a blind eye or quietly resisting - depending on whom you believe. But for Pope John Paul II, then Karol Wojtyla of Wadowice, Poland, the Holocaust was a lived experience, as he made clear during an emotional address at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial on Thursday. And whatever his judgment on the acts and omissions of the Vatican at the time, there was no moral ambiguity about the response of the young Catholic seminarian who watched as the Jewish friends and neighbors with whom he'd grown...
...failings - not only in respect to Jews, but also in relation to Muslims, Christians of other denominations and even sometimes its own flock - are the exception rather than the norm in papal history. But a specific apology for the actions of a predecessor currently in the process of beatification (Pius XII) may have been beyond his reach, given the complex and contested process by which the Vatican makes decisions. The absence of an apology for Pius XII didn't in any way diminish the power in the spectacle of the bishop of Rome making a heartfelt expression of solidarity with...
...late." They will probably feel similarly about the homily, scheduled for last Sunday, in which John Paul was expected to reiterate regret for Christians' past anti-Semitic acts without admitting church culpability. Lau tells TIME he expects private pledges from John Paul to halt the canonization process for Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of "silence" during the Holocaust, but such promises are unlikely...
...letter. A similar tendentiousness, he says, mars Cornwell's whole work: "He ignores a great deal of material which doesn't fit his theory and makes grave accusations without supplying the evidence." Blet was one of four Jesuits who compiled the official 12-volume record of Pius' war years from Vatican archives. He too has a new book: a useful summary titled Pius XII and the Second World War. Blet maintains that the 1933 pact was "practically imposed by Hitler." And papal power was hardly its only carrot: "The Nazis offered such good conditions that it would have been crazy...
...feud over Pius is likely to intensify as he moves closer to sainthood; his beatification could occur by next year. Jewish groups are increasingly hostile to it, and the Vatican is increasingly resentful of their critiques. But debate should be welcome. It illuminates previously neglected episodes in the life of this prospective saint. And it alerts us to flaws in the received version, as when, defending Pius against Cornwell last week, at least one cleric reached again for the story of the Dutch reprisals...