More Evidence Pius XII Was Not Hitler's Pope - German Files Point to a Russian Plot

Zenit News Agency ^ | April 2, 2007

[NYer]

ROME, APRIL 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Adolf Hitler's No. 1 enemy was the Vatican's secretary of state, Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, according to documents recently found in Europe.

In an article published last Thursday by La Repubblica, reporter Marco Ansaldo announced that he has a dossier on Pius XII that complements documentation found in the Vatican Archives.

According to the newly discovered documents, Pius XII was considered an enemy of the Third Reich. Memos and letters unearthed at a depot used by the Stasi, the East German secret police, show that Nazi spies within the Vatican were concerned at the Pope's efforts to help displaced Poles and Jews.

One document from the head of Berlin's police force tells Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Third Reich's foreign minister, that the Catholic Church was providing assistance to Jews "both in terms of people and financially."

Russia's motives

In a commentary on the new documents, Sister Margherita Marchione, author and expert on Pius XII, explains the campaign against the Pope was the work of the Soviets.

"Russia's plans were to control Europe after the war. The only outspoken obstacle to Russia's plan in Europe was the Catholic Church," Sister Marchione wrote.

"The first attacks claiming that the Church had endorsed silently the atrocities of the Nazis came from Communist Russia," she explained. "Soon to control Poland, and other vast areas in Eastern Europe, Russia saw the need to break the loyalty to the Pope of Catholic majorities in those countries.

"The plan was a simple one: convince everyone that the Pope supported the hated Nazis during the war and, therefore, neither he nor the Church could be trusted after the war. The destruction of the Church would leave the field wide open for Russian influence and control."

[NYer]

The evidence continues to mount.

[wildcatf4f3]

Roosha plotting Marxists—Surprise!!

[Uncle Chip]

According to the newly discovered documents,

Wow --- these will probably rival the infamously fraudulent Isidorian Decretals and the Donation of Constantine in credibility.

And those quotes from Sister Marchione --- like she's going to be some kind of objective credible source.

Pope Pius XII brought Hitler to power with the Concordat that he negotiated for the RCC and all your attempts to try to rewrite history are useless exercises in futility.

BTW Just what did he do to stop the massacre of 800,000 Serbs during the War by that Catholic Ustasha and their Vatican facilitators?

And those Rat Lines of Nazi war criminals after the war ran right through Pius XII's Vatican. He certainly wasn't an enemy of these Third Reich criminals, was he??? Get Real.

[Aquinasfan]

Pope Pius XII brought Hitler to power with the Concordat that he negotiated for the RCC and all your attempts to try to rewrite history are useless exercises in futility.

You're the one rewriting history.

Pope Pius XII enjoyed an excellent reputation for helping the Jews both during and after the war. It wasn't until the communist-inspired play, "The Deputy," was released in the early '60s that the smear campaign against him began.

"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)

[Uncle Chip]

Did Pope Pius XII ever place Hitler's Mein Kampf on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books?

[AnAmericanMother]

So you'd rather stand with the communists than be proved wrong? Look at the company you're keeping - why would any conservative side with Marxists?

You've bought into the slanders created out of whole cloth by the Soviets and by Hochhuth, son of an SS officer and a dedicated communist himself. This reminds me of the Sacco and Vanzetti supporters who continued to "believe" against all evidence, or those who just couldn't believe that Casement's "Black Diaries" were real and therefore took refuge in the claim that they were forgeries. More "true believers" from the anarchist and anti-capitalist crowds.

The truth is finally coming to light, despite the best efforts of the Marxists to slander the Catholic church.

[AnAmericanMother]

And your point is . . . ? The Index Librorum Prohibitorum overwhelmingly consists of theological works and those which corrupt personal morals. It doesn't include frankly atheistic authors because those are excluded by their nature from the reading of the faithful. Mein Kampf was considered for inclusion at one point but was still in discussion by the Congregation when the war broke out. The Communist Manifesto didn't make it either. The Pope, btw, had no power to place a book on the Index by decree - it had to go through the Congregation.

[Titanites]

Before jumping into condemnation of the failings of the Catholic Church, I would like to first hear about what other Christian Churches did about Hitler, his persecution of the Jews, and Mein Kampf. I’m particularly interested in the actions taken by your church and its leaders, Uncle Chip.

[Uncle Chip]

So you'd rather stand with the communists than be proved wrong? Look at the company you're keeping - why would any conservative side with Marxists?

So all of those who fought against the Third Reich that had been brought to power with the assistance of Pope Pius XII were all Marxists???

[AnAmericanMother]

No - you're standing with the Marxists now, though, in sticking to false beliefs that were planted by Marxists after the war in an attempt to slander the Church.

Contemporary accounts make it clear that Pope Pius and the Church fought harder against Naziism than any other organization in Europe. Perhaps they could have prevailed if more other churches had helped them, instead of hanging pictures of Schickelgruber in the place of honor in their sanctuaries.

[Uncle Chip]

No other church signed that Concordat that brought Hitler to power —— just the Vatican.

[Dominick]

Pope Pius XII brought Hitler to power with the Concordat

The Church did not crown Hitler. He was well established by that time. This Concordat was to secure the rights of Catholics to practice their faith. The text in German and english translations of the text abound.

History will always remember Mit Brennender Sorge as the document that dealt with the Reich, well before the start of hostilities and before the Kristallnacht. It was written by the future Pope Pius XII, and written in German and required to be read in every Church in Germany. It was kept secret until the release, so it could be read in every Church unhindered.

The collusion between Marxists and the media in the 1960 to tar the name of Pius XII is well established outside Church circles. The corruption after the war even extended to the Church, and allowed some Nazis to escape to South America where there, they did not escape justice. For what Pius XII really believed, read his Christmas Messages during the war.

Christmas 1942, Pius XII:
A great part of mankind, and, let Us not shirk from saying it, not a few who call themselves Christians, have to some extent their share in the collective responsibility for the growth of error and for the harm and the lack of moral fiber in the society of today.
...
Mankind owes that vow to those numberless exiles whom the hurricane of war has torn from their native land and scattered in the land of the stranger; who can make their own the lament of the Prophet: "Our inheritance is turned to aliens; our house to strangers." Mankind owes that vow to the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline.
...
Mankind owes that vow to the flood of tears and bitterness, to the accumulation of sorrow and suffering, emanating from the murderous ruin of the dreadful conflict and crying to Heaven to send down the Holy Spirit to liberate the world from the inundation of violence and terror.

A voice in the wilderness indeed.

[Uncle Chip]

No dear -— I stand with the truth and those who are willing to admit it -— painful as it may be. Are you saying that anyone who tells the truth about the Vatican is a Marxist??? Even Catholic historians admit that Pope John XXIII had Marxist leanings. You can’t hide behind that cloak forever.

[AnAmericanMother]

Just go ahead and bring up Alexander VI while you're at it, and get it out of the way. We're discussing Pope Pius and his valiant struggle against the Nazis despite having no (temporal) divisions, as Uncle Joe Stalin observed. Not John XXIII or the failings of the Church or its leaders at other times.

The facts are against your position, and more facts are coming out daily at this point. It's like the Venona papers turning a lot of parlor pinks' ideas on their heads. As East German Stasi materials continue to be examined, more of the covert operations against the Church can be expected to come out. It will make the manufactured fiction that Pope Pius collaborated with the Nazis harder and harder to believe, but I'm sure you'll stick to your guns to the bitter end.

[Aquinasfan]

Did Pope Pius XII ever place Hitler's Mein Kampf on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books?

Did he stop beating his wife?

Rather than address the testimony of the pope's contemporaries, like that of the NY Times, Einstein and the chief rabbi of Rome, you've decided to drop a non-sequitur. Nevertheless, I'll address it.

The Index wasn't meant to be an infallible list of every book containing anti-Christian ideologies. It's a fairly short list, and it wasn't even kept by the pope. The job of maintaining the list was the job of the office of the Inquisition, as far as I know. Regardless, the Index was pretty much defunct by WWII, as the last non-fiction entry is Satre in 1948, at least according to this site.

Marx isn't listed in the Index either, but that doesn't mean communism was approved by the Church. Marxism (and all forms of Socialism - like Nazism) was denounced many times in papal encyclicals, such as the Syllabus of Errors, On Atheistic Communism, and On the Doctrines of the Modernists.

[Antoninus]

And those quotes from Sister Marchione --- like she's going to be some kind of objective credible source.

There's always got to be one pro-communist, Catholic-hater on these threads, squealing like a stuck pig whenever the truth comes out.

Thanks for filling that niche so perfectly.

[Campion]

Pope Pius XII brought Hitler to power with the Concordat that he negotiated for the RCC

Wrong. Hitler was already in power.

The Concordat was the Holy See's attempt to get some sort of guarantee for the rights of Catholics in return for peacefully dismantling the Catholic political party, as required by the Nazis (peacefully, or otherwise).

Does your "Christianity" support slandering an innocent man? Because that's exactly what you're doing ...

[Campion]

No other church signed that Concordat that brought Hitler to power

Hitler became chancellor January 31, 1933.

The concordat was signed July 20, 1933.

Try to tell the truth, even if you can't get mileage against Rome from it.

[Titanites]

No other church signed that Concordat that brought Hitler to power —— just the Vatican

No, they didn't sign the Catholic condordat which protected the right of Catholics to practice their faith in Germany. The Protestants signed their own agreements.

Now, instead of dodging, please tell us what your church did to save the Jews?