New documentation on Pius XII.

Rome -- When pressed to open its World War II archives, the Vatican replied that it had already published 11 volumes including the most important information. In 2002, however, John Paul II gave orders for the release of new archives.

Two remarkable collections of material are becoming available. One deals with the Holy See's relations with Germany between 1922 and 1939. Most of the letters are from the papal Pope Pius XII nuncio to Germany, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, to Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, then secretary of state, and later (1939) Pope Plus XII. In 1930, the nuncio thought that the real peril facing Germany was Bolshevism. Three years later, he wrote that Hitler represented a threat to the Church and was not to be trusted. In late 1938, however, he prepared a flowery speech saying that the "angel of peace had brushed Europe with its wings"--a reference to the Munich Accord. Plus XI (1923-1939) looked at the text and curtly suggested he tone it down--"Keep to the substance, and stay away from poetry." Less than a year later, Hitler invaded Poland.

Some of the documents are already out, in a book by Jesuit Father Giovanni Sale entitled Hitler, The Holy See, and the Jews. Those looking for evidence to incriminate Plus XII will not find it; John Thavis of Catholic News Service writes that the Pope comes off hesitant for good reasons, afraid that his actions would only bring harsh Nazi reprisals.

The other collection of correspondence reveals that the Vatican set up one of the largest and most hidden operations in its history: its efforts to discover information about missing prisoners. By 1943, a thousand letters seeking help were arriving daily, and 600 people were involved in the project, many of them from seminaries and other religious houses.

Thavis writes that the new documents will not settle the debate about whether Pius XII's wartime pronouncements were too cautious. "They do show that behind the Vatican facade the Church mobilized on a diplomatic and humanitarian level to an extent never imagined by most people." "From all the correspondence of the nuncios," historian Fr. Gumpel says, "it is obvious that the work of assistance was determined, directed, and organized directly by Pope Plus XII." In fact, there were people who criticized the Pontiff for doing too much for the Jews. His 60 protests on behalf of the Jews, his wartime radio speeches, and his messages in the Vatican newspaper, provoked the Nazis to call him "a mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals."

Comment:

Jewish detractors of the Catholic Church seemingly never give up. Pope Pius XII has been their scapegoat for forty years. As the evidence has piled up against the accusation that Pius stood by and did nothing, his accusers fall back on the strange idea that words, not deeds, are what count. So Toronto lawyer Murray Teitel in his article, "Pius XII's apologists miss the point" (National Post, June 16, 2004) states that "Papal condemnation of the genocide would have saved many lives."

What kind of a dreamer is he?

In a 1930's worm of God-hating Marxists and Nazis, anti-clerical socialists and fascists, nihilistic academics and artists, the proclamations and teachings of the Popes counted for just as little as they do today for our own sex-crazed hedonistic mass cultures of media, politicians, businessmen, and academics, that is to say, nothing at all, except for church-going faithful Catholics.

In Europe Pope John Paul cannot even get an acknowledgement in the constitution that Christianity has played a role in its history. Here in Canada so-called Catholic Prime Ministers will not even acknowledge that abortion and homogamy (same-sex "marriage") are deadly sins with deadly consequences, both here and in the hereafter.

Rome -- Pope John Paul II declared on Thursday, June 10 (the real day for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi when not transferred to Sunday) that there will be a Holy Year dedicated to the Most Holy Eucharist. It will begin with a Eucharistic Congress in Mexico in October 2004 and conclude with the International Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2005. The theme of the Synod will, again, be the Eucharist.

At his public audience the following Sunday, June 13, the Holy Father explained that this Holy Year is part of his overall project for the new millennium, to "start out anew with Christ." In the Eucharist, he said, the Church celebrates "the central event in the history of mankind." We are to use, he said, an image (employed in his 2001 Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte (At the beginning of the new millennium, January 6, 2001)--namely "to contemplate the face of Christ."

   "Contemplating more assiduously the
   countenance of the Incarnate Word,
   really present in the Sacrament, [the
   faithful) will be able to exercise themselves
   in the art of prayer and commit
   themselves in that high degree of the
   Christian life, which is the indispensable
   condition to develop the new
   evangelization in an effective manner

Readers will be aware that the Holy Father published an Encyclical Letter entitled The Church and the Eucharist (Ecclesia de Eucharistia) on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments published a Letter concerning abuses in the Eucharist (Redemptionis sacramentum, March 25, 2004). English editions are published by Mediaspaul, 250 rue St. Frangois Nord, Sherbrooke, QC, JIE 2B9 (www.mediaspaul.qc.ca), or ask your Catholic bookstore (see advertisements).