[markomalley]

Gee, I didn't realize that the Pope had to seek the support of the US government (via the museum) for his declaration. Wow.

[ClearCase_guy]

the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was created to inspire leaders and citizens to confront hatred

And yet the Catholic bashing goes on.

[Jewbacca]

This forum has seen some amazingly hostile threads on the issue of that pope’s role/non-role in the Shoa, largely possible due to lack of solid information.

If there is nothing of concern (and I suspect there is not; given the pope’s situation in Mussolini’s Italy he was effectively impotent) there is no harm in opening the archives.

The openess will put the damper on the rumors that thrive when information is lacking.

[ArrogantBustard]

860,000

Actions speak louder than words.

I never cease to be amazed by the liberal fascination with "stepping forward" and "speaking out" as if blabbering was all that mattered.

Real men know that sometimes the time comes to shut up and do ... effete pansies just endlessly blather and drivel.

[fatnotlazy]

The museum was “created to inspire leaders and citizens to confront hatred,...”

***

If all that is true, why dredge up something that happened more than 60 years ago? This is like slavery...we are being chronically reminded of it, and it's used as an excuse for every adversity in a person's life.

Not to trivialize slavery or the holocaust — terrible chapters in mankind's history — but geez, GET OVER IT.

[Petronski]

860,000

[marshmallow]

The response of Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) to the policies of the National Socialist regime - notably his failure to condemn publicly the genocide of the European Jews - has long been the topic of debate and controversy. At the time of the Holocaust, questions about Pius XII’s public silence were raised by Myron Taylor, the U.S. representative to the Vatican, and Taylor’s assistant Harold Tittman, who requested that the Holy See speak out on the issue.

It's become almost impossible to have a sensible discussion about this topic. The clear implication here, is that Pius XII's silence was the result of moral cowardice. Was it? Or could there just possibly have been other reasons?

The ultimate objective was to save the lives of as many Jews as possible. Would more or less Jews have been saved by the Church had Pius XII spoken out against Hitler? It's a given that public condemnation of Hitler would have had zero effect on plans for the "Final Solution" but would it have helped or hindered the Church's efforts to take more Jews out of harms way? There's a school of thought which says that it allowed the Church to fly under the radar and carry out its rescue efforts with greater freedom.

As for the comments of Taylor and Tittman, the less said the better. Where was the US in the dark days of 1939, 1940 and 1941 when the "Final Solution" was really starting to hit top gear? If the Japanese had not bombed American soil, when, if ever, would the US have entered the war?

As for "holocausts", there's one happening right now in this country, sadly, in which many Jews and other Americans are complicit and which the Catholic Church is fighting. And what is our reward for that?

Abuse, just as it is for rescuing Jews from the first Holocaust.

[Kells]

The debate about Pius XII concerns both historical facts and larger moral questions. An understanding of his response to the murder of Europe’s Jews and the moral evaluation of his actions depend upon solid historical research. Such research will be possible only when all Vatican archival material from 1933 - 1945 is completely open and available to scholars of all disciplines.

During WWII, the Church organized an extensive underground network for sheltering Jews from NAZI persecution. In the postwar chaos, the same network was used to shelter families targeted for revenge killing by Communist partisans. Mussolini and his mistress were famously lynched by Communists along with many others who did not escape. Even if revenge seems justified, the Church cannot condone lawless killing.

The Holocaust Museum-proposed fishing expedition through Vatican archives could fuel monetary lawsuits against the Church if her records contain evidence of sheltering officials who cooperated with NAZI occupation. The United States brought over NAZIs in Operation Paperclip and Israel never turned away Warsaw Ghetto Jewish police or similar NAZI collaborators. The Holocaust Museum should request US and Israeli postwar secret archives to establish proper context before demanding the Vatican provide the same.

[Antoninus]

File this under “No good deed goes unpunished.”