Pope's High Praise Of Holocaust-Era Predecessor In Book Sparks Jewish Ire

politicsdaily.com:

Coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's new book-length interview has focused almost exclusively on his remarks about using condoms to prevents AIDS, but Jewish leaders are voicing objections to his unqualified praised for his war-time predecessor, Pius XII, whose record during the Holocaust is a perennial source of frictions between the Vatican and the Jewish community.

Read the whole story: politicsdaily.com

Comments

[HDR]

08:36 AM on 11/27/2010

With each passing year the ground upon which this Church was built seems to get shakier. In many ways, the choice of Ratzinger appears to have been the best since he comes across as the unvarnished and prickly truth of at least the hierarchy of the CC.

It wasn't so massive it would be closer to a sick joke.

[InfinteShibumi]

12:44 AM on 11/27/2010

You'd think the Pope would have figured it out by now. Pope Pius was antisemtic and the entire College of Cardinals knows it.

[RubenNYC]

12:16 AM on 11/26/2010

They claim that the Pope "saved" some Jews by converting them to Catholicism.

The inquisition did not ask more than this from the Jews. Those who converted to Catholicism were spared.

Of course, unlike Inquisition, Nazism and Fascism were defeated early and these Jews had the chance to go back to the faith of their forefathers. It did not work for the pope this time around.

[ESerafina42]

10:05 AM on 11/26/2010

For the most part, the Inquisition didn't target Jews as such. As well as so-called heretics, it targeted people who (or whose parents or grandparents) had converted from Judaism or Islam and were perceived as backsliding to their or their families' former ways. Pretty sad, since at times when large numbers of non-Christians were "converted" at swordpoint they were essentially just baptized en masse and were never even given any kind of instruction, so even if they had wanted to, they would not have known how to practice Christianity properly.

[subdolphin]

10:08 PM on 11/25/2010

Does this really surprise anybody? Prolly got Jimmy Carter on his speed dial.

[WSS61]

02:53 AM on 11/25/2010

To quote from the article: "Pius XII stood idly by while the lives of Jews and others were imperiled." not only did Pius XII never directly challenge the Nazi regime regarding the extermination of the Jews; perhaps even more dramatically, he never publicly expressed any condemnation, let alone express of regret, subsequent to World War II." My dear friend who was raised in a strict Roman Catholic home, and attended private Catholic schools, has pronounced these statements to be facts, and calls Benedict, the "Nazi Pope" as well; for his alliances and protection of Nazi sympathizers within the Church.

[David Christensen]

06:37 PM on 11/24/2010

Ah Yes. That's the guy Eddie Izzard said was renamed Pope Gutless Bastard the first.

[WSS61]

02:54 AM on 11/25/2010

F&F

[addisonsteele]

02:17 PM on 11/24/2010

Leaving aside Pius XII's silence about the Holocaust, one finds a pope who could, and should, have been prosecuted as a war criminal for refusing to stop the Roman Catholic clergy of Croatia from actively participating in the extermination of 600,000 Jews, Muslims, and Orthodox Christians (one Catholic monk slit the throats of 2000 people in a single night). Most were slaughtered individually and by hand, using knives, axes, cudgels, and so on. The violence was so horrific that Italian and German soldiers complained. Not only has Pope Benedict beatified Pius XII, but he has also done so for the Croatian Catholic Bishop who directed the slaughter.

[gulopartisan]

04:26 PM on 11/24/2010

Pius' complicity in the killing of Venetian Jews is also well documented.

[WSS61]

02:53 AM on 11/25/2010

F&F

[WSS61]

02:53 AM on 11/25/2010

F&F

[Mike169]

01:05 PM on 11/24/2010

I wonder if this is enough to piss off the pope?

[naschkatze]

01:17 AM on 11/24/2010

Well, we've all heard of the Peter Principle when you've reached the highest level of your incompetence. There must be a St. Peter's Principle for the Catholic hierarchy.

[LisaCACO]

10:45 PM on 11/23/2010

oooh, and he was doing so well with the condom statements. sometimes you should stop when you're ahead.

[Mike169]

01:06 PM on 11/24/2010

He'll only stop when he's a pinhead.

[marignymitch]

05:57 PM on 11/23/2010

Once a Hitler Jugend always a Hitler Jugend apparently. Surely no one is shocked by this revelation. It's totally in character.

[SF TKF]

05:49 PM on 11/23/2010

Nazi Pope. What else is there to say?

[Plissken]

04:42 PM on 11/23/2010

Well he was a Nazi... And everyone knows the Hitler Youth Nazis were the truest of the true believers. No one believes anything quite as fervently as a kid. Apparently there is a little of that ardour remaing in the man.