Language:
English
Year of publication:
2010
Titel der Quelle:
Commentary
Angaben zur Quelle:
130,5 (2010) 27-32
Keywords:
Pius
;
Catholic Church.
;
Christianity and antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Contends that, rather than canonize the controversial Pius XII, the Church should honor his more courageous predecessor, Pius XI. In terms of his attitude toward Jews and Judaism, Pius XI was, at the start of his service to the Vatican, certainly no saint. His attitude in the controversy over the Catholic Friends of Israel society in the late 1920s was ambivalent. He refused to purge Catholic rites of elements that were flagrantly antisemitic, as the society proposed, and eventually dissolved the Friends of Israel, but at the same time publicly condemned antisemitism. Resolute on protecting Catholics only, he initiated signing the concordat with the Nazi regime. It was only after the "Kristallnacht" pogrom that the Pope raised his voice for the persecuted Jews and began to act more like a Christian saint. On the other hand, his secretary, Pacelli, was more than cold toward Pius XI's encyclical condemning Nazi antisemitism, which was in preparation in 1938. Elected Pope Pius XII in 1939, Pacelli improved the Vatican's relations with Germany and maintained silence on the Nazi anti-Jewish policies during the war. There is no sign that the Roman curia has any intention of promoting Pius XI to sainthood. Perhaps the reason is that it would weaken Pacelli's wobbly case.
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