Delegation of the Jewish International Committee Received at the Vatican
On October 30, 2008, for the second time, Benedict XVI received a delegation of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, with which the Holy See has been in contact for some 30 years. These regular contacts, called “fruitful” by the Pope, “contributed to a greater understanding between Catholics and Jews.” The Pope declared:
I gladly take this occasion to reaffirm the Church’s commitment to implementing the principles set forth in the historic Declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council. That Declaration, which firmly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism, represented both a significant milestone in the long history of Catholic-Jewish relations and a summons to a renewed theological understanding of the relations between the Church and the Jewish People.
are increasingly conscious of the spiritual patrimony they share with the people of the Torah, the people chosen by God in his inexpressible mercy, a patrimony that calls for greater mutual appreciation, respect, and love. Jews too are challenged to discover what they have in common with all who believe in the Lord, the God of Israel.
Dialogue between cultures and religions must more and more be seen as a sacred duty incumbent upon all those who are committed to building a world worthy of man. The ability to accept and respect one another, and to speak the truth in love is essential for overcoming differences, preventing misunderstandings, and avoiding needless confrontations....A sincere dialogue needs both openness and a firm sense of identity on both sides, in order for each to be enriched by the gifts of the other.
Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, quoted the address of John Paul II, in 1990, for the 25th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and thanked the Holy See for his commitment against all forms of anti-Semitism. After having evoked the various meetings of the pope with the Jewish community of France and of the US, he recalled the words of Benedict XVI in Paris: “The eternal Covenant of the Almighty with the Jewish People,” which the Church considers as “her beloved brethren in the faith,” underlying that this “emphasis upon the eternal validity of the Sinai Covenant would stimulate” the research, to which John Paul II issued the call, “to reflect more and express more completely” the signification of the relationship of the Church with the Jewish People.
He said he was himself reassured by the words of Cardinal Walter Kasper and the letter of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the rabbis of Israel concerning the absence of any proselytism in the prayer for the Jews in the Good Friday liturgy. He stressed the “remarkable landmark” of the fact that for the first time a rabbi was given the right to speak during the recent Bishops’ synod. He reiterated the request for experts to have access to the archives of the Vatican concerning the time of Pius XII’s pontificate.
The Jews and the Beatification of Pope Pius XII
Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council for Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) and president of the French Committee for Yad Vashem, was present with the delegation of the Jewish Committee. In a press release of this past October 17, the CRIF made a pronouncement concerning the project of beatifying Pope Pius XII, declaring that,
if it were carried out, it would deal a severe blow to the relationships between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world. As long as the Vatican refuses to open its archives for the time of the Second World War to historians, and the majority of independent historians do not support the thesis of an untiring activity of the pope in favor of the Jews, such a beatification would be felt negatively by all of the Jewish institutions over the world.
Unless new documents, up to now not provided, unquestionably modify the historical vision of that time, the Jews who have survived the Holocaust would feel like a deep wound that the silence of the Magisterium concerning the genocide of the Jews be proposed as a model behavior.
On this subject, the delegation was able to meet with Msgr. Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Secret Archives of the Vatican who described “in detail” the “technical challenges” to be met in order to list everything before the documents could be consulted by researchers: “the description of the various positions (protocols, booklets, envelopes, etc.); the numbering of each loose sheet; a stamping of the papers for safety reasons; the binding of the sheaves of papers which are more deteriorated or more fragile.” Msgr. Pagano expressed his regret for the delays imposed by this cataloguing work, which will require a minimum of five or six years “with the present labor forces.”
That same October 30, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, announced through the documentation service of Vatican Radio (SeDoc) that the secret archives of the Vatican concerning the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-58), will not be opened to researchers for the next six or seven years because of the important archiving work still necessary. Indeed, he explained, the archives of the pontificate of Pius XII being made up of the archives of the pontifical representatives (nunciatures), those of the Secretary of State, as well as those of all the Roman Congregations and other Vatican offices, amounts to 16 millions sheets, among them 15,430 files and 2,500 booklets. The minute work of cataloging and preparing the documentation requires a specialized staff which is hard to find, and accounts for the delay.
“Before that is achieved, it is unrealistic to think of opening the archives to researchers” whose request is quite “understandable and justified.” Lastly, Fr. Lombardi specified that when the work of setting the documents in order is completed, “the final decision to open the secret archives of the Vatican concerning the pontificate of Pius XII is up to the pope himself.”
The opening of the secret archives of the Vatican to researchers was inaugurated by Leo XIII in 1881 and has been continued by his successors. The established principle has been to open to research the documents of “pontificate after pontificate” and not after a number of specific years (50, 70 or 90 years, as is the case for other archives) because the secret archives of the Vatican are not classified in chronological order but by “pontificate.” To this day, the Vatican archives are available to researchers up to the date of February 10, 1939, the last day of the pontificate of Pope Pius XI (1922-39).
Commentary
It has become somewhat standard practice in academia to accuse Pope Pius XII of at least implicitly aiding and abetting the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II. This is in direct contrast to the historical evidence, especially much prominent testimony from contemporary Jews. Even withstanding the fact that the Vatican archives have not yet been opened for Pius XII’s pontificate, we quote here some of these Jews who recognized publicly what Pope Pius XII did during those years. Let their words speak for themselves.–JV
“The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pope Pius XII was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000, Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.” (Three Popes and the Jews by Pinchas E. Lapide, New York: Hawthorn, 1967)
“No Pope in history has been thanked more heartily by Jews. Upon his death in 1958, several suggested in open letters that a Pope Pius XII forest of 860,000 trees be planted on the hills of Judea in order to fittingly honor the memory of the late Pontiff because the Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving the lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.” (Pinchas E. Lapide, ibid.)
“I told [Pope Pius XII] that my first duty was to thank him, and through him the Catholic Church, on behalf of the Jewish public for all they had done in the various countries to rescue Jews....We are deeply grateful to the Catholic Church.” (Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first foreign minister)
“Only the Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught....Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church.” (Albert Einstein, Time Magazine, 1940, quoted in Three Popes and the Jews by Pinchas E. Lapide, New York: Hawthorn, 1967, p.251)
“The repeated interventions of the Holy Father on behalf of Jewish communities in Europe has evoked the profoundest sentiments of appreciation and gratitude from Jews throughout the world.” (Rabbi Maurice Perlzweig, Political director of the World Jewish Congress in a letter written February 18, 1944, to Msgr. Amleto Cicognani, the apostolic delegate in Washington, D.C.)
“In the most difficult hours of which we Jews of Romania have passed through, the generous assistance of the Holy See…was decisive and salutary. It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the supreme pontiff, who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews….The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance.” (Rabbi Alexander Safran, chief rabbi of Romania, letter to Msgr. Andrea Cassulo, Papal Nuncio to Romania, April 7, 1944)
“The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion, which form the very foundation of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world.” (Rabbi Isaac Herzog, chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine, March 1945)
“What the Vatican did will be indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts. Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism.” (Eugenio Zolli, former chief rabbi of Rome and convert to the Faith, 1948)
“More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity, that the Pope displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror when it seemed that for us there was no longer an escape.” (Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, 1951)
“We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness Pope Pius XII. In a generation affected by wars and discords, he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace.” (Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, message of condolence to the Vatican, sent 1958)
“The papal nuncio and the bishops intervened again and again on the instructions of the pope, and that as a result of these labors in the autumn and winter of 1944, there was practically no Catholic Church institution in Budapest where persecuted Jews did not find refuge.” (Jewish historian Jeno Levai, Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy: Pius XII Did Not Remain Silent, 1965)
“Pius XI had good reason to make Pacelli (the future Pius XII) the architect of his anti-Nazi policy. Of the 44 speeches which the Nuncio Pacelli had made on German soil between 1917 and 1929, at least 40 contained attacks on Nazism or condemnations of Hitler’s doctrines. Pacelli, who never met the Führer, called it ‘neo-Paganism.’” (Pinchas E. Lapide, Three Popes and the Jews, New York: Hawthorn, 1967, p.118)
“Never, in those tragic days, could I have foreseen, even in my wildest imaginings, that the man who, more than any other, had tried to alleviate human suffering, had spent himself day by day in his unceasing efforts for peace, would–20 years later–be made the scapegoat for men trying to free themselves from their own responsibilities and from the collective guilt that obviously weighs so heavily upon them.” (Msgr. John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, But for the Grace of God, pp.48)
“During the Nazi occupation of Rome, 3,000 Jews found refuge at one time at the pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. Amazingly, Castel Gandolfo is never mentioned or discussed in the anti-papal writings of many of the pope’s critics. Yet at no other site in Nazi-occupied Europe were as many Jews saved and sheltered for as long a period as at Castel Gandolfo during the Nazi occupation of Rome. Kosher food was provided for the Jews hidden there, where, as George Weigel has noted, Jewish children were born in the private apartments of Pius XII, which became a temporary obstetrical ward.” (Rabbi David Dalin, Ph.D., July 29, 2005 interview with Dr. Thomas E. Woods)
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