By DONALD DeMARCO
Each Sunday night a radio station operating out of Hamilton, Ontario, brings to its listeners an hour-long show hosted by a man whose calumny of the Catholic Church remains unabated from week to week. On a recent broadcast, after stating that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is to make money, he took a swipe at Pope Pius XII, accusing him of doing “absolutely nothing” to help the Jews.
The fact that the Catholic diocese and the radio station itself allow this host to continue his reckless bashing of the Church is an indication that Catholics may have become inured to what should galvanize them into effective protest.
The host does not offer references to his claims and rests them solely on his alleged authority as a person who has gained much knowledge through extensive reading. He challenges his listeners who may question the legitimacy of anything he states to “look it up.” I have taken up his challenge and offer my readers the fruit of my research. I do not expect to be a guest on his program and I do not suppose that he is willing to set pen to paper for The Wanderer.
Concerning his condemnation of Pius XII, allow me to cite Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide’s 1967 book, The Last Three Popes and the Jews:
“When armed force ruled well-nigh omnipotent, and when morality was at its lowest ebb, Pius XII commanded none of the former and could only appeal to the latter. . . . Unable to cure the sickness of an entire civilization, and unwilling to bear the brunt of Hitler’s fury, the Pope, unlike many far mightier than him, alleviated, relieved, retrieved, appealed, petitioned, and saved as best he could by his own lights. Who, but a prophet or a martyr could have done much more?
“Pius XII, the Holy See, the Nuncios, and the whole Catholic Church saved between 700,000 and 850,000 Jews from certain death.”
As Cardinal Pacelli, before his elevation to the papacy, he helped Pope Pius XI in drafting the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge (with Burning Anxiety) which condemned anti-Semitism, racism, and genocide. The Nazis knew the two were their sworn enemies. In response to the publication of the encyclical, the Nazi press claimed that “Pius XI was half Jewish and Cardinal Pacelli [later Pius XII] was all Jewish.”
Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first foreign minister, had this to say about Pope Pius XII:
“I told the Pope that my first duty was to thank him, and through him, the Catholic Church on behalf of the Jewish people for all they had done in various countries to save Jews, to save children, and Jews in general. We are deeply grateful to the Catholic Church.”
Rabbi Herzog, chief rabbi of Jerusalem, added his praise: “The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of true civilization are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world.”
None other than Albert Einstein, himself a Jew, commented that in opposing the Holocaust, “Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. . . . The Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom” (Time magazine, December 23, 1940). Winston Churchill referred to Pius XII as “the greatest man of our time.”
Perhaps the most impressive tribute to Pius XII came from Rabbi Israel Zolli, the chief rabbi of Rome. Inspired by the courageous efforts of Pius XII, he became a Catholic and took the Pope’s first name, Eugenio, as his baptismal name. His wife came into the Church along with him.
In his book, Why I Became a Catholic, he declared that he did not enter the Church simply out of gratitude to Pius XII. “Nevertheless,” he explained, “I do feel the duty of rendering homage and of affirming that the charity of the Gospel was the light that showed the way to my old and weary heart. It is the charity that so often shines in the history of the Church and which radiated fully in the actions of the reigning Pontiff.”
How is it possible that Pius XII, given the glowing testimonies he has received from the Jewish community and from careful researchers, continues to be maligned?
Media propaganda is an important part of the answer. In 1963, 32-year-old Rolf Hochhuth, who had been a junior member of the Hitler Youth, staged a play, The Deputy, in which he portrayed Pius XII as a cold-hearted cynic who was more interested in the Vatican’s investment portfolio than in the slaughter of the Jews. The play was translated into more than 20 languages, all by translators who were enemies of the Pope.
The propaganda machine was successful in misleading people to think that the play accurately captured the character of the Pontiff. This systematic distortion of the truth, which was the combined efforts of Nazis and Communists, used the media effectively to vilify an innocent man who was, in fact, a hero.
As documentation of the heroic work of Pius XII mounts, it becomes less and less excusable for people in the media to conform to decades-old Nazi and Communist propaganda. People may be reluctant to “look things up” and allow their opinions to be formed by what is readily available to them.
But availability does not mean reliability. The media are not a reliable school of education. Education requires not only reading, but testing what one reads against the truth. The truth may at times be camouflaged by lies, but it remains accessible, undeniable, and victorious.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, Conn., and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest works, How to Remain Sane in a World That is Going Mad; Poetry That Enters the Mind and Warms the Heart; and How to Flourish in a Fallen World are available through Amazon.com. Some of his recent writings may be found at Human Life International’s Truth and Charity Forum. He is the 2015 Catholic Civil Rights League recipient of the prestigious Exner Award.)
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