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To: AnAmericanMother

“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.”

WIKI - Israel Zolli - “While Christians often mention Zolli as an example of an observant Jew who found Christ, some Jewish scholars contend that Zolli’s conversion was a result of having been ostracized by the Jewish community following the Holocaust, rather than a spiritual awakening.”[2]

ps We know now that Pius himself was directly engaged in ratline activity.


15 posted on 02/13/2012 1:58:09 PM PST by anglian
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To: anglian
I've heard that from certain quarters, most recently the failed joint Catholic/Jewish committee on Pius XII. But really, what Zolli's motivations were and what was in his heart is rather difficult to discern, especially at this distance. And it's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem, anyhow. Back when I was an Episcopalian, one of our priests was a convert from Judaism. His parents never spoke to him again, and actually set up a gravestone and made the yahrzeit. Expecting 'some Jewish scholars' to say nice things about Zolli is a bit silly.

Another line you hear is that Golda Meir and Albert Einstein and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and all the other prominent Jewish leaders who praised Pius XII after the war for his heroic efforts on behalf of the Jews of Rome, Italy and Europe 'were only doing that because they wanted Pius XII to support the creation of the State of Israel'. Never mind that Pius XII supported the creation of a Jewish state well before WWII. . . . all these people were just lying because they wanted a quid pro quo from the Pope?

Unfortunately, many liberals (and many liberal Jews) are very heavily invested in the idea of blaming the Catholic Church for the Holocaust. Some of it is just because they've heard it all their lives (at least since the 1960s), some of it is because they are socialists and thus can't blame socialism (even the German nationalist kind), and some of it is because the Church is still around to blame, while the Germans who were alive during the runup to WWII are mostly dead.

I've looked into this in some detail, because the controversy over Cornwell's book in 1999 began my conversion to Catholicism. He doubled down on the slander of a holy man (quite possibly a saint) that started with the KGB.

17 posted on 02/13/2012 3:37:45 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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