Pius XII blijft omstreden. Mijn eigen kennis reikt weinig verder dan de speelfilm over de priester en de SS-er die een beroep om hem gingen doen om de Jodenvervolging en concentratiekampen in een kerstrede aan de kaak te stellen. Zij waren zwaar teleurgesteld toen hij zweeg en zich alleen in zeer algemene bewoordingen over het leed van de oorlog en haar onschuldige slachtoffers uitsprak. Of het historisch is weet ik niet, maar in de film gaf hij als motivatie dat hij niet met twee maten kon meten: als hij expliciet de Nazi-misdaden noemde, moest hij evenzo de Sovjet-misdaden noemen, en dat zou de samenwerking tussen de geallieerden schaden.
Na de beroemde brief van de Nederlandse bisschoppen die zich tegen de Jodenvervolging uitsprak begin augustus 1942, werden prompt alle katholieke Joden opgepakt en de meesten gedeporteerd en vermoord. Waarmee ik maar het dilemma wil aanstippen van het prediken van moraal tegenover een regime dat geen moraal kent.
Willekeurig het thema opgegoogled, kom ik in een boekrecensie (waarvoor ik verder niet borg kan staan, ik ken de site en recensent niet, maar is schijnbaar verbonden aan de Vlaamse VLD) de volgende vragen tegen:
Waarom sloot men zo vroeg een Concordaat met Hitler waardoor nazi-Duitsland voor de rest van de wereld een respectabele staat werd? Waarom zweeg kardinaal-staatssecretaris Pacelli en de latere paus Pius XII over de Neurenbergse rassenwetten die de joden tot Untermenschen degradeerde en die het begin vormde van de Endlösung? Waarom keerde de kerk zich niet tegen de pogroms die gebeurden tijdens de beruchte Kristallnacht in november 1938? Waarom gaven de kerken hun archieven vrij waardoor de nazi's konden vaststellen welke personen behoorden tot het christendom en wie in een ver verleden joodse voorouders had, wat leidde tot een zekere dood? Waarom steunden de pausen fascisten zoals Mussolini, Hitler, Salazar, Franco, Pavelic, Tiso, Pétain vanaf het begin en bleven ze hen steunen tot het einde van de oorlog en zelfs nog daarna? Waarom verzette de kerk zich zo tegen de 'denazificatie' na de oorlog? Waarom hielpen katholieke bisschoppen nazimisdadigers ontsnappen naar Zuid-Amerika zoals Eichmann, Mengele, Bormann, Barbie en Rauff? Waarom werd geen enkele hooggeplaatste nazi geëxcommuniceerd? Waarom werd Mijn Kampf nooit opgenomen op de lijst van verboden boeken? De rode draad is duidelijk. De kerk probeerde haar posities veilig te stellen en voerde een opportunistische koers, waarbij ze miljoenen mensen in nood in de steek liet. Een dergelijke houding heeft een naam: 'schuldig verzuim'. En in andere gevallen, zoals in Slowakije en Kroatië was er zelfs sprake van actieve betrokkenheid en medeplichtigheid.
http://www.liberales.be/cgi-bin/show.pl?boek&bur&print
Voor de oorlog zweeg de kerk dus blijkbaar ook over de Jodenvervolging, terwijl men geen moeite had het communisme te verguizen.
Wouter
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Pope Benedict: Pius XII 'spared no effort' to help Jews during WWII
By Reuters
Last update - 00:23 19/09/2008
Pope Benedict on Thursday forcefully defended his wartime predecessor Pius XII against accusations that he did not do enough to help the Jews, saying Pius "spared no effort" on their behalf during World War II.
The pope spoke to members of the U.S.-based Pave the Way Foundation, a mixed Jewish-Catholic group which held a symposium in Rome on the papacy of Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958.
The symposium prepared a 200-page compilation of documents, diplomatic cables and newspaper clippings from the period -- some of them previously unpublished -- showing Pius did much to help Jews during the war and was thanked by Jewish leaders.
"Thanks to the vast quantity of documented material which you have gathered, supported by many authoritative testimonies, your symposium offers to the public forum the possibility of knowing more fully what Pius XII achieved for the Jews persecuted by the Nazi and fascist regimes," Benedict said.
"One understands, then, that wherever possible he spared no effort in intervening in their favor either directly or through instructions given to other individuals or to institutions of the Catholic Church," Benedict told the group at his summer residence south of Rome.
Some Jews have maintained that Pius did not do enough to save Jews, while the Vatican and those Jews who support him say he worked behind the scenes to help because more direct intervention would have worsened the situation.
But Benedict praised the symposium for drawing attention "to his many interventions, made secretly and silently, precisely because, given the concrete situation of that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews."
Gary Krupp, an American Jew who is president and founder of Pave the Way, told the pope the group's investigation "directly contradicts the negative perception of the pope's war time activities."
Camp survivors thanked the pope
Pope Benedict noted that in November 1945, some six months after the end of the war, 80 delegates of German concentration camps came to the Vatican to thank Pius.
The symposium's documents included numerous newspaper clippings of Jewish leaders thanking Pius during and after the conflict and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir saying: "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims."
The issue of Pius' papacy is one of the most difficult in Catholic-Jewish relations and the pope said that nearly five decades after his death "not all of the genuine facets of his diverse pastoral activity have been examined in a just light."
The Vatican will on Oct. 9 mark the 50th anniversary of Pius' death with a conference and photo exhibition.
Historians have been calling on the Vatican to open up all its archives on the period.
The Vatican says while some of the archives of the period are still closed for organizational reasons, most of the significant documentation regarding Pius is already open to scholars.
Last year, the Vatican's saint-making department voted in favor of a decree recognizing Pius's "heroic virtues," a major hurdle in a long process toward possible sainthood that began in 1967. But Pope Benedict has so far not approved the decree.
Some Jewish groups have said the Vatican should freeze the beatification process but others say it is an internal Church matter.
The pope spoke to members of the U.S.-based Pave the Way Foundation, a mixed Jewish-Catholic group which held a symposium in Rome on the papacy of Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958.
The symposium prepared a 200-page compilation of documents, diplomatic cables and newspaper clippings from the period -- some of them previously unpublished -- showing Pius did much to help Jews during the war and was thanked by Jewish leaders.
"Thanks to the vast quantity of documented material which you have gathered, supported by many authoritative testimonies, your symposium offers to the public forum the possibility of knowing more fully what Pius XII achieved for the Jews persecuted by the Nazi and fascist regimes," Benedict said.
"One understands, then, that wherever possible he spared no effort in intervening in their favor either directly or through instructions given to other individuals or to institutions of the Catholic Church," Benedict told the group at his summer residence south of Rome.
Some Jews have maintained that Pius did not do enough to save Jews, while the Vatican and those Jews who support him say he worked behind the scenes to help because more direct intervention would have worsened the situation.
But Benedict praised the symposium for drawing attention "to his many interventions, made secretly and silently, precisely because, given the concrete situation of that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews."
Gary Krupp, an American Jew who is president and founder of Pave the Way, told the pope the group's investigation "directly contradicts the negative perception of the pope's war time activities."
Camp survivors thanked the pope
Pope Benedict noted that in November 1945, some six months after the end of the war, 80 delegates of German concentration camps came to the Vatican to thank Pius.
The symposium's documents included numerous newspaper clippings of Jewish leaders thanking Pius during and after the conflict and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir saying: "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims."
The issue of Pius' papacy is one of the most difficult in Catholic-Jewish relations and the pope said that nearly five decades after his death "not all of the genuine facets of his diverse pastoral activity have been examined in a just light."
The Vatican will on Oct. 9 mark the 50th anniversary of Pius' death with a conference and photo exhibition.
Historians have been calling on the Vatican to open up all its archives on the period.
The Vatican says while some of the archives of the period are still closed for organizational reasons, most of the significant documentation regarding Pius is already open to scholars.
Last year, the Vatican's saint-making department voted in favor of a decree recognizing Pius's "heroic virtues," a major hurdle in a long process toward possible sainthood that began in 1967. But Pope Benedict has so far not approved the decree.
Some Jewish groups have said the Vatican should freeze the beatification process but others say it is an internal Church matter.
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PS: wel was - ik geloof voor de oorlog - lidmaatschap van de NSB voor katholieken verboden, met als sanctie dat men de heilige communie geweigerd werd. Ik vermoed trouwens dat dit ook voor CPN leden gold. De SDAP mocht misschien nog net, maar was zeker 'not done' voor een goede katholiek...
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