Don’t know about the film, but it is true that Pius XII gets a bad rap. His reputation suffers mostly because of retaliation for traditional RC Jew-hate, not because Pius XII’s conduct was reprehensible.
Many leaders, including Jewish ones, faced similar dilemmas when their public words could be used to justify the murder of thousands held hostage by Nazi occupation.
Many Nazis were helped by the catholic church to escape to Argentina. Google Vatican rat lines.
Exactly. Pope Pius XII gets a bum rap in history. He did in fact help save hundreds of thousands of Jews during WWII. The best book on this topic that I have read:
The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis. By Rabbi David G. Dalin.
Highly recommend it!
Actually, I always think it’s “traditional” dislike of homosexual behavior. All of this Pius nonsense came to a head in the 1960s with the play The Deputy. This play is catnip to crazy Catholic-hating gay men.
The bad rap has nothing to do with whether or not he helped the Jews escape from Hitler. He gets a bad rap because he was a Conservative who did all he could to put down the “progressives” in the Catholic Church.
His body was not yet in the ground before Roncali called a Council to “open the doors”, letting in the heresies that followed. Bugnini, Kung, Greeley, liberation theology, etc. all had their part in the new church. Montini continued the assault on orthodox Catholism; his elevation to sainthood a mockery. Wojtyla did little to stem the tide.
One can see what the progressives in the Catholic Church and what it has become and see parallels to today’s political Acimera.