Posted on 05/26/2010 11:47:17 AM PDT by markomalley
It is impossible to underestimate the significance of the address made by Cardinal Walter Kasper at Liverpool Hope University on Monday night, in which he promised that the Vatican archives on the wartime record of Pius XII will be opened within six years. This is a hugely welcome piece of news, as the 260th Pope has been the focus of junk historians for decades. “It is our belief that we have nothing to hide and that we do not need to fear the truth,” said Kasper, and he may well be right.
Long excoriated as “Hitler’s Pope”, a more nuanced and subtle portrait of Pius XII may finally emerge thanks to this frankly belated initiative. The man will always remain a contradictory figure, who both saved Jews and yet embraced fascists such as Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator of Croatia. There will no doubt be plenty of ammunition both to apologist and attacker alike, but my hunch is that the defenders of Pius will have the better day of it.
Cynics will no doubt carp that the records will be filleted of anything compromising, but – at the risk of appearing naive – I am willing to give the Vatican the benefit of the doubt. My experiences researching the activities of Bishop Alois Hudal at the archives of the German college at the Santa Maria dell’Anima were entirely positive, and I found many pieces of evidence which confirmed that Hudal did help Nazis such as Franz Stangl and Erich Priebke escape.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Isn’t this the Pope who helped Nazi’s escape from Europe after the war?
Availability of wartime archives in 6 years.... well, I guess Vatican historians will view it first to be sure there’s nothing TOO ugly in there.
This article isn’t without missatements of fact. Pius was only briefly friendly towards Pavelic, until he saw what he was. And the opening of these archives, far from being “belated” is entire consistent with the decades-long embargoes observed by other state archives, including those with vastly more resources for cataloging and indexing.
I’m sure there are some genuine historical researchers who will learn something useful. However, bigots will never be satisfied.
True enough.
Just put the words Catholic, Pope or Vatican in any thread title and the anti-Catholic bigots will show up just like flies to warm poop.....and for the same reasons.
Well, do you think I should ping them in case they miss this one?
LOL!
Nope. I've found that if we just ignore then they eventually turn on each other.
Pius XII will be vindicated by history. The “Hitler’s Pope” myth is just that.
Just trying to be helpful here, you know!
Long excoriated. Yeah, since 1959, when "The Deputy" was published, a piece of fiction exposed by Soviet agent Ivan Agayants as having been produced by the propaganda arm of the KGB Link to story at National Review ...
Or perhaps they mean since 1999, when the book "Hitler's Pope" was published, omitting the fact that it has been so thoroughly debunked (Google that) that even the author, John Cornwell, has substantially repudiated its principle thesis n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler's_Pope#Cornwell.27s_current_views..
(Rolls eyes)
http://tinyurl.com/not-hitlers-pope
Meant to ping you to the above
Scribes have had 65 years to work.
“...and for the same reasons. “
Do you agree with the Pope?
Is the Vatican a foreign nation?
Yes
"Is the Vatican a foreign nation?"
Yes.
The reasons are as stated by the founders of this nation.
Catholics need a US Church.
Sure, just like Germany needed a German Protestant Church. No thank you.
We serve Caesar best by serving God first. We honor our nation best by living our Catholic faith honestly and vigorously, and bringing it without apology into the public square and its debates. We’re citizens of heaven first. But just as God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so the glory and the irony of the Christian life is this: The more faithfully we love God, the more truly we serve our fellow Americans, our country, and the world.
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