From the editor’s desk

Heroic virtues, deeds of shame

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to advance Pius XII to the next stage of the canonisation process has brought criticism from within the Jewish community in Britain and elsewhere. Elevation to the status of “venerable” follows recognition of Pius’ “heroic virtues”, an unfortunate expression in the circumstances because the wartime Pope’s heroism – or lack of it – in the face of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews is still a matter of controversy. It is interesting to reflect how differently things would have turned out had Pope Pius XII borrowed four words from the BBC broadcast by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Arthur Hinsley, in July 1942 in memory of the 700,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis up to that point in the war – the total was later to reach six million. The cardinal called the killings “black deeds of shame”. And in December of that year, preaching in Westminster Cathedral, Cardinal Hinsley condemned the “brutal persecution of the Jews” and accurately predicted that the Nazis’ “savage race hatred” was “fiendishly planned” to turn Poland into “one vast Jewish cemetery of the Jewish population of Europe”.

Catholic church leaders like Cardinal Hinsley clearly did not feel the need for the caution that so inhibited the Pope. Why Pius XII felt this way is still not resolved. The allegation that he was himself anti-Semitic, or indeed so callous that the fate of the Jews – even of Rome – did not bother him, does not stand up to close scrutiny. Noting that the occupying German forces were still respecting Vatican neutrality, he ordered that Jews should be sheltered from the round-ups in property belonging to the Holy See. All over Italy the Church did likewise. It is beyond dispute that tens of thousands of Jewish lives were saved. Pius XII was never Hitler’s Pope, although that does not mean his canonisation would be wise. 

These being the circumstances, how much Jewish indignation is justified? Some, perhaps. Popes carry a unique moral authority. When the Jews of Europe most needed a powerful friend, Pius’ voice wavered. He spoke ambiguously. It is also true that the dreadfulness of the Holocaust, a crime without parallel in human history, may excuse a degree of exaggeration when Jewish spokesmen discuss Pius’ role. It would be insulting to tell them to stay calm. Nevertheless, there is some truth in the rebuke by Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg of the Central Council of Jews in Germany for its repeated attacks on Pope Benedict. He accused the Council of “outbreaks of hatred beyond all reason”. Benedict’s lifting of the excommunication of the Lefebvrist Bishop Williamson, a convicted Holocaust-denier, was a mistake the Vatican has admitted. It did not signify a change of policy.

Jewish-Catholic relations should not be endlessly disturbed by allegations of bad faith, which is what Bishop Müller is complaining of. Thus Pope Benedict is to visit the Rome Synagogue next weekend to take part in an event which commemorates Lead Mo’ed, a sudden downpour of rain which saved Jewish lives and property from fires set by an anti-Semitic mob in 1793. The Jews of Rome regarded it as an act of divine intervention. The Pope’s participation speaks for itself.