I'd urge all to say a prayer to Blessed John XXIII for help in restoring his saintly predecessor Pope Pius XII's reputation.

When Pius XII defended Jewish rites
By Andrea Tornielli

In 1938, the future Pontiff criticized the Polish law that prevented the traditional slaughter [of cattle]. To the nunciature of Warsaw, he wrote of "true persecution" on the part of the government.

ROME. - From the archives, a new document resurfaces that contributes to the dismantling of the unfounded "black legend" of the presumed anti-Semitism of Pius XII. In 1938, less than a year before being elected Pope, the then Cardinal-Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli intervened with the nunciature of Warsaw in the attempt to block a law that prohibited the ritual slaughtering of heads of cattle according to Jewish custom, considering it persecutory. The intervention was prompted by the French Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, who learned of the new law from a newspaper.

The letter, in its original and unpublished form, accompanied by a copy of the report of the apostolic nuncio, is found in the archives of the Association of the Friends of Cardinal Tisserant, safeguarded by a niece of the prelate in a small village in the Pyrenees, a few kilometers from the border with Spain. It is the umpteenth wedge that, together with many other documents discovered in the last few years, demonstrates the absence in Pacelli not only of any trace of anti-Semitism, but also of the traditional Christian and Catholic anti-Judaism.

These are the facts: Cardinal Tisserant, a French scholar esteemed by Pius XI, Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, created Cardinal in 1936 and consecrated bishop a year after Pacelli himself, a great personality of the Roman Curia and future Dean of the College of Cardinals, writes the Secretary of State on 6 April 1938, to ask him for news on the discriminatory Polish law, urgently requesting an intervention from the Holy See. It is worth it to note that, in this specific case, we find beforehand an oppressive law, intended to impede the freedom of worship of the Jews (a similar law was introduced in Nazi Germany immediately after Hitler came to power in April 1933, preceded by the discriminatory laws that excluded Jews from public office and from the medical and legal professions), but certainly insignificant, if compared to the tragedy that was to befall the children of Israel.

Pacelli did not wait and began a series of recommendations, immediately assailing the apostolic nuncio of Warsaw, Archbishop Filippo Cortesi, with the problem, making him take note how he would (should?) condemn "every act of persecution or anti-Semitic violence", and asking him to intervene. The nuncio responded with a report (n. 89) dated 7 May, describing as "inaccurate" the news reported in the dailies, since the law exists, but was approved only by a branch of Parliament, and was then dropped. "Such a law was, rather, discussed and approved by the Chamber of Deputies," Cortesi wrote in his reply, "but was brought to the Senate and it seems will not be taken up again. Moreover, it had the aim of abolishing the virtual monopoly of the sale of meat that the Israelis exercise, slaughtering beyond the requirements of ritual observance." The nuncio continues: "As Your Eminence justly observes, it condemns (the translation of this phrase was a bit problematic for me, and I encourage those who have a knowledge of Italian to take a look at the original article) every act of persecution or of anti-Semitic violence."

But Cortesi added at the same time some of his observations on the Polish situation, somehow justifying the measure - that it aimed to "abolish the virtual monopoly of the sale of meat that the Israelis exercise, slaughtering beyond the requirements of ritual observance," - with the "opportunity provided to limit the excessive influence of the Jewish element … age-old nemesis of the Church and the Christian social order." In these lines resound traces of the ancient anti-Judaic Christianity, which we do not find in Cardinal Pacelli.

In this latest one, as soon as he receives the reply of the nuncio, he hastened to write Tisserant to inform him of the passage of this law which, forbidding the ritual (?) slaughter, "imposed on the Israelites for their religious precepts," "would constitute for the Jews a true persecution." He transmits copies of the report originating from Warsaw.

He goes on to recall that since his grammar school years, Eugenio Pacelli had established solid ties of friendship with a schoolmate, Guido Mendes, belonging to the Jewish community of Rome, whose family would emigrate from Italy to Switzerland the following day after the enforcement of the racial laws, thanks to the help of Cardinal Pacelli. The same Mendes would testify in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, after the death of Pius XII: "Pacelli was the first Pope who shared, in the years of his youth, a Sabbath dinner in a Jewish home, and who discussed Jewish theology informally with eminent scholars of the community of Rome." Mendes recalls that he visited the Pacelli home, and that Eugenio visited his home, and that "they would exchange between them those that were their interests and their ideals."

Despite these testimonies, which if added to the bulk of those already widely noted, comprise the many, many attestations of gratitude from the Jewish authorities for the work that the Vatican, and in more general terms, the Catholic Church put into action to save the Jews, the photograph of Pius XII continues to be exhibited in the renovated portion of the Yad Vashem Museum, in the sector dedicated to heads of anti-Semitic states. A decision against which the Holy See has officially protested, to this day, in vain.

Christian-Jewish forum defends Pope Pius XII

An interfaith symposium organised by US Catholics and Jews has backed the record of Pope Pius XII with documents showing that he intervened publicly and privately to save Jews during World War Two.

The symposium, organised by the Pave the Way Foundation, to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII, brought together Catholics and Jews in his defence.

The foundation claims the late Pope was the victim of a 'myth' which claimed he was insensitive to the fate of Jews terrorised by Germany's Nazi regime and the concentration camps.

The group has collected extensive documentation showing that Pius XII intervened publicly as well as in secret to save Jews and to encourage Catholic institutions to shelter them. The dossier includes diplomatic telegrams and testimony of people who survived the war, thanks to his intervention.

The foundation is asking the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, to withdraw from its permanent exhibition a text that the group considers defamatory towards Pius XII.

Pope Benedict says Pope Pius worked bravely, secretly to help Jews