Israeli ambassador gives into pressure

Yesterday I posted a story about the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See who emphasized the positive role played by the Holy See during World War II.  Now it seems he has given in to outside pressure and taken back his positive comments.

From the Associated Press' Nicole Winfield (whose previous articles on things Catholic have been quite inaccurate and often purposefully false), with my emphases and comments:

VATICAN CITY -- Israel's ambassador to the Vatican on Sunday backed off his praise of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope blamed by some Jews and historians for having failed to speak out enough against the Holocaust.


Ambassador Mordechai Lewy said in a statement that his personal judgment about the role of Pius, the Vatican and Catholic Church during the war had been "premature" since the issue is still being researched.

Lewy made headlines last week when he praised Pius and the Catholic Church in general for having given refuge to Roman Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital. The Vatican newspaper ran his speech on the front page, giving the brief but significant remarks high visibility.

But some Jewish groups balked, saying Lewy's comments were morally wrong, historically inaccurate and hurtful to Holocaust survivors [If you study the actual history involved - not the accusations leveled in a play that many (even historians) have come to accept as fact - you will the claims of these groups to be wrong, inaccurate and hurtful].

Pope Benedict XVI is keen to see Pius beatified, the first step to sainthood, and a concerted campaign is under way among Pius' supporters to correct what they say has been an unfair and incorrect judgment passed on Pius [If Winfield would look into the actual history she would find the judgments passed to indeed be unfair and incorrect].

As a result, Lewy's remarks in praise of Pius - unusual for a Jew much less an Israeli official - were significant in that they indicated a slight shift in the historic judgment of a man the Vatican considers worthy of one of the church's greatest honors but who many Jews consider a moral coward.

Pius was pope from 1939-1958. Before his election he served as the Vatican's No. 2 and before that papal nuncio to Germany. Given his deep involvement in the Vatican's diplomatic affairs with the Nazis, what Pius did or didn't do during the war has become the single most divisive issue in Vatican-Jewish relations.

The Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy and that speaking out more publicly and critically against the Nazis would have resulted in more Jewish deaths [and documents clearly demonstrate this]. Critics argue he could have and should have said and done more [it should not be forgotten that Pope Pius XII was urged to be silent by the Allied forces].

And so eyebrows were raised when Lewy told a ceremony awarding a "Righteous of the Nations" medal in honor of Gaetano Piccini, an Italian priest who sheltered Jews, that Piccini wasn't alone in saving Jewish lives in Rome [he wasn't].

"It would be an error to declare that the Catholic Church, the Vatican or the pope himself opposed actions aimed at saving Jews," Lewy said June 23. "The contrary is actually true: they helped wherever they could."

He said the fact that the Vatican couldn't stop the deportation of Jews from Rome's ghetto on Oct. 16-18, 1943 "only increased the will, on the part of the Vatican, to offer its own sites as refuges for the Jews."

He said Jews were traumatized by the deportation and expected much more from the pope.

"Fine, we all know what happened, but we also must recognize that the train that left on Oct. 18, 1943 was the only one that the Nazis managed to organize from Rome to Auschwitz," he said.

On Sunday, Lewy said he wanted to make a clarification to his remarks, noting that his praise of Piccini's good deeds were embedded in a broader historical context [they were embedded in an accurate broader historical context which many today are content and happy to ignore].

"Given the fact that this context is still under the subject of ongoing and future research, passing my personal historical judgment on it was premature," the statement said [if this is the case, then it would be wrong to likewise pass judgment against the Church or the Pope Pius XII, but why pay attention to logic?].

Elan ( ELN - news - people ) Steinberg, vice president of the group American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said he appreciated Lewy's clarification.

"It takes courage to admit a mistake," said Steinberg, who had initially criticized Lewy for his comments.

Jewish leaders have asked that the Vatican not beatify Pius until the complete set of Vatican archives is opened to scholars, which is not expected for several more years. Pius' supporters argue that a good chunk of the documents are already available and that few scholars ever consult them [both are true, but why mention that?].

(This version corrects last name to Lewy instead of Levy [If the name was repeatedly inccorect, what else is incorrect?].)

Israeli ambassador: "One who denies that the Vatican, the Pope and Catholic institutions acted to save Jews is mistaken"

The Ambassador of Israel to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy, recently spoke on the relation of the Church and of the Servant of God Pope Pius XII with the Jewish people during World War II.  His words are well-worth reading, given so many falsehoods being bantered about.

From Zenit, with my emphases:

ROME, JUNE 23, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Claims that the Church and Pope Pius XII failed to help Jews during World War II are simply false, says the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy.


The envoy declared this today when he conferred the posthumous honor of Righteous Among the Nations on Father Gaetano Piccinini, a priest of the Sons of Divine Providence.

"It would be an error to say that the Catholic Church, the Vatican or the Pope himself were opposed to activities to save Jews," Lewy said. "It is quite certain that it was the contrary: They always gave the help that they could."

The ambassador recalled that the Vatican was unable to prevent a train from taking Jews to the extermination camps after the Oct. 16-18 Nazi raid. This "can only have contributed to reinforcing the desire, on the part of the Vatican, to offer its own premises as a refuge for Jews," Lewy said.

"We must recognize that the train that left on 18 October 1943 was the only convoy that the Nazis managed to organize in Rome for Auschwitz," he added.

The ambassador noted how after the 1943 raid, "monasteries and orphanages run by religious orders opened their doors to Jews and we have reason to believe that this happened under the supervision of the highest authorities of the Vatican who, therefore, were informed about these gestures."

Father Piccinini, in fact, was a protagonist in that effort. Using the network of houses run by his order, he was able to save many Jews, including members of the family who requested his recognition as Righteous Among the Nations.

Lewy said the Jews of Rome "saw in the person of the Pope a kind of protector and hoped that he would save them and avoid the worst."

Asked if this casts a different light on the figure of Pope Pius XII, often criticized for what is called his silence in the face of Nazi atrocities, Lewy said that "Judaism is not monolithic and there are different opinions at the historical level."

"What we know does not allow us to say that it was all white and black," he said, "but one who denies that the Vatican, the Pope and Catholic institutions acted to save Jews is mistaken."

Lewy spoke of the much-anticipated opening of the Vatican Archives for the years of Pius XII's pontificate. "But we cannot expect the complete truth," he opined, "because in such harsh times many things could not even be committed to writing. It is my personal opinion, that, in its totality, the truth of that tragic time is hidden and will remain so."

Why was Pope Pius XII silent?

For years now, many have blamed the supposed silence of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust for the death of millions of Jews.  Those who have studied the actual history of the actions of the Bishop of Rome during this time know these claims to be false.

New evidence indicates the Allies urged His Holiness to be silent for fear of upsetting Russia.

The Catholic Herald's Simon Caldwell has the story, with my emphases:

US and British diplomats discussed exerting pressure on Pope Pius XII to be silent about the Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews, according to newly discovered documentation.


The British feared that the wartime pope might make a “radio appeal on behalf of the Jews in Hungary” and that in the course of his broadcast would “also criticise what the Russians are doing in occupied territory”.

Sir Francis D’Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador to the Vatican, told an American diplomat that “something should be done to prevail upon the pope not to do this as it will have very serious political repercussions”.

Osborne’s comments were made to Franklin Gowen, an assistant to Myron Taylor, the US special representative to the Vatican.

Gowen recorded the conversation in a letter to Taylor, saying he had promised Osborne that he would bring his concerns to the “immediate attention” of the US ambassador.

“It was understood that, pending your reaction, he would not take any steps vis-a-vis the Holy See,” Gowen told Taylor.

In the letter, Gowen also said that Mgr Domenico Tardini, the Vatican assistant secretary of state, had told him 10 days earlier that Pope Pius would not “make any radio appeal because if he did so he would, in fairness, to all have to criticise the Russians”, a member of the Allies.

He said he withheld this information from Osborne in the belief that it would be best for Taylor to impart it himself following a meeting with Pope Pius scheduled the day after the letter was written.

The letter was dated November 7, 1944, as the Nazis were organising mass deportations of Jews from Budapest, the Hungarian capital, to death camps in Poland, Austria and Germany.

Rome had been liberated by the US Fifth Army the previous June and, with the Vatican behind Allied lines, the pope had more freedom to speak out.

But as the head of a neutral state, he understood that he could not condemn the war crimes of one side without condemning those of the other.

However, on November 19 – less than two weeks after Gowen wrote his letter – the Vatican joined the neutral states of Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden to appeal to the Hungarian government to end the deportations.

The British Jewish historian Sir Martin Gilbert, an internationally recognised expert on the Holocaust, said in his 2002 book, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, that at that time the Catholic Church in Budapest was hiding 25,000 Jews in homes and religious institutions.

Simultaneously, the Red Army of the Soviet Union was advancing westward across Europe and killing and raping many innocent people as it was driving Adolf Hitler’s armies into retreat.

Gowen’s letter was made public for the first time by the New York-based Pave the Way Foundation, which is conducting research into the actions of Pope Pius, assisted by a US Catholic lawyer, Ronald Rychlak; German historian Michael Hesemann; and a journalist, Dimitri Cavalli.

Gary Krupp, president of the foundation, told the American Catholic News Service that the Allies feared any condemnation of Josef Stalin’s armies “would work against the unified war effort of the Allies”.

He said the letter was significant because it showed the pressures that confronted Pope Pius, who has been criticised for his alleged silence in the face of the Holocaust.

“The simple reality, which seems to be ignored by many critics, is that the Vatican was a neutral government that used its neutrality to save thousands of lives,” said Mr Krupp.

Gowen’s letter was found by Rychlak among Taylor’s documents and has been posted on the Pave the Way Foundation website.

Another letter made public by the foundation discusses help for Jewish fugitives, with Osborne telling Harold Tittman, another of Taylor’s aides, that it must be destroyed because it might endanger the life an Italian priest who was rescuing Jews if it fell into enemy hands.

It was dated May 20, 1944, barely three weeks before Rome fell to the Allies and, according to the Pave the Way Foundation, shows how the work of rescuing Jews was conducted in secrecy, with most documentary evidence of such activities destroyed almost instantly.