Posted on 12/06/2006 5:02:29 AM PST by Milltownmalbay
“Be proud to be a Jew!” Those were the reassuring words of Pope Pius XII as he offered consolation to a distressed Jew in 1941 according to a new report issued by Zenit News.
Historically, Pope Pius XII has been vilified in modern times as the pope who did nothing to stop the Germans from persecuting the Jews, in turn allowing the genocide of the Jews in Germany during World War II.
In point of fact, Pope Pius XII is estimated to have saved anywhere from 400,000 to 700,000 Jews from Nazi Germany. He was awarded a medal by the Israeli government following the war and legendary Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir spoke of the pontiff in glowing terms. He even inspired the conversion of the Chief Rabbi of Rome during the war, who took Pius’s Christian name Eugenio.
The distorted perception of the Holy Father as a Nazi sympathizer grew out of a play called The Deputy: a Christian Tragedy by German socialist playwright Rolf Hochhuth in 1963. The play smeared the Pope as a Nazi collaborator. Subsequent Hochhuth works portray Allied bombings as war crimes and Winston Churchill as a war criminal.
Although the play has been widely discredited, Pius XII’s reputation continues to suffer.
Pope Pius XII had a strong emotional tie to the suffering Jews in Europe. In fact, in 1944 a German Jew noted the pontiff’s appreciation for the Chosen People and related a story contradicting the general misconception of the Holy Father’s feelings toward the Jews. The author, in fact, was the distressed Jew in 1941.
As the Jew approached the pope, he related to the pope the terrible physical condition of the Jewish POW’s who had been recently shipwrecked. Pius told him to write a report to the secretary of state who could further deal with the problem. Finally, he offered comfort telling the man that even as a Jew, he has the same right as all others to live a free life.
Pope Pius XII finally said, “Be proud to be a Jew.” He uttered these words of reaffirmation in front of a large group of people, including a group of German soldiers, indicating his rejection of Nazi racial theories that indicated the Jews were an inferior minority.
Is seamax related to newsmax?
Pius XII enjoyed a good reputation until a propaganda campaign against him began in the early '60s with the play, "The Deputy.""Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks...
Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.
Albert Einstein
Time Magazine, 12/23/40**************************************
The charity and work of Pope Pius XII during World War II so impressed the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, that in 1944 he was open to the grace of God which led him into the Catholic faith. As his baptismal name, he took the same one Pius had, Eugenio, as his own. Later Israel Eugenio Zolli wrote a book entitled, Why I Became a Catholic.
**************************************
"The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas... he is about the only ruler left on the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all... the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism... he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace."
The New York Times editorial
12/25/41 (Late Day edition, p. 24)**************************************
"This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent... Pope Pius expresses as passionately as any leader on our side the war aims of the struggle for freedom when he says that those who aim at building a new world must fight for free choice of government and religious order. They must refuse that the state should make of individuals a herd of whom the state disposes as if they were lifeless things."
The New York Times editorial
12/25/42 (Late Day edition, p. 16)
I thought pride was the worst sin. He's urging them to commit sin?
bump
Pride in being a part of the family of God is not a sin. The sin of pride is that frame of mind where man so excessively loves his own excellence that he withdraws himself from subjection to Almighty God. Pride in this way could be termed "contempt of God" and is cardinal because it is the source of all other sins. It is turning your back on God for your self-exaltation.
There is a big difference.
Glad to see the distorted record being corrected.
Just doing my part for God and country.
<< I thought pride was the worst sin. >>
Nope. Envy's the worst.
Leads to hatred and rage and eventually to hesperophobia and to islamanazism.
And carries millions into and through the very gates of the "Democratic" party.
This thread deserves another bump.
Salvation, did you see this one?
ping for your consideration.
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