Pope Benedict Stalls Canonisation Of Pius XII? By Fr. Desmond de Sousa CSsR, SAR NEWS
PANAJI, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- The Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints last year voted in favour of a decree that Pope Pius XII (1939-58) had "heroic virtues," thus moving him a step closer to beatification. But Pope Benedict XVI has not signed the decree proposed in May this year and called for a "period of reflection", thus appearing to put the beatification process on hold. Both Jewish and Christian scholars expressed concern about the imminent beatification because his pontificate stirred considerable controversy. While some argue that he did all he could for the Jews during a very difficult time, others argue that he knew much but did not do enough to save the Jewish people from persecution by Hitler. As Pope, he condemned the effects of war on its innocent victims, but did not single out the persecution of Jews either during or after the Holocaust. Although he made some diplomatic interventions regarding Jewish safety, he lived at a time when anti-Jewish prejudice was common in Christianity. So the Vatican will not achieve credibility on his wartime record, on the basis solely of the defenders of Pius XII. The Vatican has yet to release much archival material to public scrutiny before a wider scholarly consensus is achieved regarding his response to the Holocaust. Until then, it will remain uncertain whether the Pope did all he could and whether he did it soon enough. The evidence released so far does not satisfactorily respond to whether Pius XII acted soon enough and decisively. Calling for more documents from the Vatican archives to be released, the scholars call for the canonization process to be put on hold until a wider consensus is reached on Pius XII's response to the holocaust. The scholars feel it does not seem appropriate to proceed with his beatification/canonisation because of the impact it would have on the remaining survivors of the Holocaust. Pope Benedict is likely to wait for six years before considering beatification, in what is seen as a concession to Jewish groups, who accuse wartime Pope Pius XII of remaining silent during the Holocaust and passive towards the persecution of Jews. Many Catholics around the world regard Pius XII as a saintly upholder of tradition and the Gospel and defend him on grounds of his great personal piety. But many scholars believe that had he done more, the murder of six million Jewish people could have been significantly mitigated because such was the influence of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict made his own personal conviction on Pius XII known. During a Mass on the 50th anniversary of his death, Pope Benedict narrated how his predecessor, who was dubbed Hitler's Pope by author John Cornwall, had saved the "largest possible number of Jews" and had acted silently to avert the worst. Earlier in October, Jesuit Father Peter Grumpel, in charge of the cause for canonisation of Pius XII, opined that Pope Benedict would never visit Israel until the panel depicting Pope Pius XII as one of the "unjust" was removed from the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. The panel condemns his failure "to leave his palace, with crucifix high, to witness one day of pogrom." It says that when reports of the massacre of the Jews reached the Vatican, he did not protest either verbally or in writing. The panel continues, "In 1942, he did not associate himself with the condemnation of the killing of Jews issued by the Allies. When they were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, Pius XII did not intervene." The Vatican, which has repeatedly criticized the panel, contradicted Grumpel's statement acknowledging that the display would not be "a determining factor" in any visit. It is interesting to note, in this context, the opinion of Robert Kaiser in his book 'Inside the Council: the story of Vatican II' (1963). "Both Pope Pius XII and the General of the Jesuits, Vladimir Ledochowski accepted the Rome-Berlin axis of Benito Mussolini and Adlof Hitler, seeing in it the providential bulwark against the Soviet colossus and the ultimate answer to communism. When the Jesuits Pierre Charles in Belgium and Friedrich Muckermann in Germany wrote against the axis, they were told by Ledochowski to stop attempting to undo the work of God, who was introducing, through Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler, a new order." (p.24)