Tied up in the [Vatican's] Rat Lines

Haaretz, Israel ^ | 2006-01-15 | Yossi Melman

[DTA]

It is possible that within a short time a court in the United States will prohibit the publication of the account before us.

In the meantime, Haaretz has obtained the testimony given last month by William Gowen, a former intelligence officer in the United States Army, at a federal court in San Francisco.
The testimony contains historical and political explosives. It links Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI, to the theft of property of Jewish, Serb, Russian, Ukrainian and Roma victims during World War II in Yugoslavia.

Many studies and stories have already been written about the thundering silence of Pope Pius XII, who reigned in the Vatican during World War II. Now the former intelligence officer's testimony has revealed that after the war, Montini, who during the war served as the Vatican's deputy secretary of state under the pope, helped hide and launder property that had been stolen from, among others, Jews and was involved in the sheltering and smuggling of Croatian war criminals, such as the leader of the Ustashe movement, Ante Pavelic.

[DTA]

ping

[Restorer]

Now the former intelligence officer's testimony has revealed that after the war, Montini, who during the war served as the Vatican's deputy secretary of state under the pope, helped hide and launder property that had been stolen from, among others, Jews and was involved in the sheltering and smuggling of Croatian war criminals, such as the leader of the Ustashe movement, Ante Pavelic.

This sentence has everything you need to know about this article.

An unbiased account would have said that Montini makes these claims.

The way it is worded, it says that Montini "revealed" facts.

[big'ol_freeper]

"Many studies and stories have already been written about the thundering silence of Pope Pius XII."

Once I saw this total fabrication mentioned I knew there was no reason to read the article, as it surely is full of falsehoods, innuendo and bigotry. Take this crap to some other forum where bigots congregate.

[CondorFlight]

I don't think there's much new here. The Vatican aided many so-called "nationalist" leaders from east europe to escape after the war. That some of these leaders had also been involved in atrocities may or may not have been known to all those who were helping these"refugees".

It is too bad that Pius XI did not live long enough to be pope during the war; he was not a man to have kept silent
(as his last, unissued pastoral letter, proved); and Pius XII was a man of different temperment.

But the origins of the holocaust were in Berlin (and in occultic societies which flourised in Europe even before the first world war), and not Rome.

[agere_contra]

Pius saved 860,000 Jews, dwarfing any other effort, including the Red Cross.

Golda Meir (I think it was) said at his funeral that the Jewish people would not forget what he did for them, until the sun grew cold.

[VOA]

bump

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

I think you typed "Montini" when you meant "McGowan"???

[big'ol_freeper]

It is an incorrect statement to say Pius XII was silent, as he certainly was not. He was a man of action and confronted the Nazis by word and deed.

[DTA]

>>>>>This sentence has everything you need to know about this article.<<<<

The only thing I need to know is the extent of criminal activity that took place in the Nazi Independent State of Croatia, the role of some RC clergy in those acts and the role of Vatican to cover it up.

During the war, Rev. Draganovich took the office in Nazi State as a head of an agency that redistributed plundered assets from murdered Serbs and Jews. According to The Canon Law of RC Church, he could not perform this duty without the tacit approval of The Church.

Perhaps you claim that mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma did not take place in Nazi state of Croatia 1941-45? There are some who claim that there was no Holocaust.

[agere_contra]

Further to my last: on February 28, 1945, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Isaac Herzog, sent a letter of gratitude to the Apostolic Nuncio in Romania (a Msgr. Andrea Cassulo) stating that:

The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of civilization, are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living prove of divine Providence in this world.

Also, Israeli senior diplomat and scholar Pinchas Lapide, with access to the Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance authority) archives proved that:

The Catholic Church relief and rescue program under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving the lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi’s hands. That was more than all other Churches, religious institutions and international rescue organizations put together.

The State of Israel - I am told - apparently recognized the lives saved by Pius by planting a forest, in commemoration, of as many trees in the Negeb, SE of Jerusalem. 860,000 trees, one per person saved.

Basically, this whole "Hitler's Pope" nonsense is and was just another left-wing smear.

[big'ol_freeper]

Ping

[fabrizio]

What a bunch of stupid lies. With all the things I disagree about with the late Paul VI, this anti-catholic mud-slinging has to finish. Pius XII saved more Jew people(estimated 800.000-1 million, ascertained 500.000) than any other institution, personality or organization on earth ever) and properties on earth, and Montini was with him on that.

That was acknowledged by a number of scholars and also Jew intellectuals and rabbis. Pius XII was a celebrated hero among the grateful founders of the State of Israel and only later the anti-Catholic defamation begun, due to the anti-apal strategies of liberals within and without the Church. Some of the gigazillion possible sources here and here , but especially interesting two (of many) articles by Rabbi David Dalin - one of the best conservative Jewish voices on the subject - here and here

[razorback-bert]

I will wait for Dan Brown's book about it.

[CondorFlight]

"Perhaps you claim that mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma did not take place in Nazi state of Croatia 1941-45?"

Unfortunately, this is true. A lot of it concerned massacres by the Croats of ethnic Serbs (who have since become the bad guys, since we have chosen to love the Muslim Bosnians). One of the Croat (Catholic) bishops even went up and down the lines of the Serbs about to be executed and "baptized" them, so they wouldn't have to die as Eastern Orthodox Christians (although he did nothing to protest the executions and, as a Croat, quite possibly approved of them).

Likewise,the Croatian indepedence leaders looked to Hitler for support for their nationalist aspirations, and followed his line when it came to the Jews. (Croatia might have opposed this, as Finland and Spain did, but did not.)

The RCC should also have been more vocal and visible in its protests; but it was "allied" to the Croats. (The USA should have been more vocal in its protests of the atrocities perpetrated upon ethnic Serbs by the Bosnians; but we are 'allied' to the Bosnians.)

So humans act like humans and do not live up to the best that is required of them.
But none of that invalidates
that "best" towards which they should have aspired (i.e., the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the teachings of the RCC--if you are RCC--are not any less true or valid because some fallible men failed to do their duty.)

[Tribune7]

More revisionism by Catholic haters. Do this mental exercise: if the church wanted to rip off Nazi victims why did it oppose the Nazis? Why did allied institutions praise Church statements and declarations during the war, while the Nazis mocked them?

These criticisms in the mid-1960's were short-lived and quickly dismissed since both Jewish and non-Jewish witnesses to Pius's efforts during the war were still alive and attested to his remarkable pro-active efforts to help save would-be victims of fascist aggression. Books such as Dr. Joseph Lichten's, A Question of Judgment (1963) were written in response to The Deputy to serve as an unambiguous historical defense of Pius' actions during the war. Dr. Lichten, a Polish Jew who served as a diplomat and later an official of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in Rome, wrote that any criticism of Pius XII's actions during WWII was "a stupefying paradox", because "no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation."

Mit Brennender Sorge

Nazi policy and the Catholic Church

Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."
Albert Einstein (1946)

[DTA]

>>>>Take this crap to some other forum where bigots congregate.<<<<<

Perhaps the appropriate language should be used when addressing the historical facts of genocide and The Holocaust.

Calling it 'crap' is disrespectful to the memory of several hundred thousand murdered in the Nazi Independent State of Croatia.

[DTA]

You are pulling the straw man here. The position of RC Church in Germany and occupied Europe and position of RC Church in Nazi Croatia were completely different.

In Germany, Hitler wanted to ABOLISH RC faith and replace it with his pagan cult of Neremberg (with the help of his occult backers). For that reason, Pius XII was doing what he could not to anger Hitler, hoping the Allies will crush the evil in the meantime. The same was throughout the Nazi occupyed Europe. Many of the RC clergy and faithful were incarcerated in Dachau and other concentration camps.

Croatia was Hitler's ally, albeit causing much of trouble to Hitler. Mass genocidal onslaught on Serbs and Jews in the spring and summer of 1941 (several hundred thousand murdered, according to the German sources)has caused the emergence of Serb guerilla resistance requiring German response.

In Croatia, RC Church was state religion, not earmarked for extinction like in Germany. Croatia's fuehrer was a problem to Hitler, criticizing him bore no risk of angering Hitler. Therefore, while the actions of Pius XII towards Hitler can be understood, the actions of Pius XII towards the Croatian Nazis and Pavelic can not.

The fact that Pius XII has elevated Archbishop Stepinac AFTER the fall of Hitler prove this.

Pius XII has supported Ustasha government out of his own will, not out of fear from Hitler to save the Church.

[Tribune7]

You are pulling the straw man here. The position of RC Church in Germany and occupied Europe and position of RC Church in Nazi Croatia were completely different.

No I'm not. What this post does is blame the Vatican on Croatian atrocities. There were atrocities in the Balkans and I am not going to argue that practicing Catholics were involved in them. OTOH, no way was the Vatican responsible for them.

The Catholic Church is not a perfect organization but in WWII it was heroic. If flaws are going to be pointed out -- and there is nothing wrong with pointing out flaws -- it is appropriate to qualify them with the far great acts of moral heroism, especially since the heroism is being attacked by dishonest people.

[Pio]

That the chief Rabbi of Rome during WWII later converted to Roman Catholicism explains everything. Game. Set. Match.

My question: Where were the Lutherans?

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, ora pro nobis.