You may be an American mother, but you're not my mother or my priest. And you're a poor imitation of Sister Mary Ethelgene! In other words, neither will I explain or retract my statements.
I must say, this is by far the rudest I have ever been treated at FR, and by fellow Catholics no less! I am shocked and dismayed by the rigidity, rudeness and venom with which my comments have been met.
I have a point of view which differs from yours. I have not called into question anyone else's faith. I have merely stated my opinion, based on my research. And no, I'm not going to dig out my collge paper from 1992 which supports my opinion. I do, however, still have the reference list, should anyone care to re-do the research.
I would like to say this will be my last post on this subject, but it probably isn't.
What I will explain is this: What little part of God that is in each of us are you choosing to ignore? If you haven't had the pleasure of a Catholic school education, nuns included, you may have to think about this. But, I can see that you're smart, you'll get it (and I am not saying that sarcastically, I am saying it most sincerely).
The fact that you haven't done any research since 1992 explains a lot. Your research has been overtaken by more recent scholarship.
Cornwell's book was published in 1999, seven years after you tossed your paper in a drawer.
In the resulting controversy, a lot of information came to light, particularly the Kremlin files and the STASI dossier regarding the engineering and funding of these stories about Pius XII by the Kremlin and E. Germany. A great deal of material regarding Pius XII and the war years was made public for the first time since then. And at least three books compiling much of the documentary evidence have also been published since 1999.
So if you won't cite any facts, won't consider other people's facts, and refuse to support your position because you don't want to dig out an 18-year-old college paper . . . well gee whiz, that position can't be taken seriously.
Interestingly enough, Cornwell has publicly retracted the thesis of his book in light of all this new evidence. If he has revised his opinion, you might want to consider doing the same.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with your faith, my faith, or anything other than proper historical method. Whatever part of God you are toting around is irrelevant to your refusal to consider the facts. So don't change the subject.
Although you might want to consider whether retailing out of date slander about somebody is really a good idea.
Sister Mary Attila (who trumps Sister Mary Ethelgene any day) would be very, very disappointed in you.