Pope Pius XII
I recently spoke with my cooperating teacher about our class and he was telling me about how the Pope helped the Jews during the Holocaust. He said that Pope Pius XII was writing out forms that indicated Jews as Roman Catholic. I found this interesting so I looked it up. The website below is a synopsis of the work that the Pope did.
It does not say that he forged papers but it says that the Vatican offered to supply part of the money that the Nazis requested after invading Italy. They claimed to take 300 hostages if they money was not paid. The Vatican also hid 477 Jews and 4,238 Jews were protected in Roman minestries and covents.
Pope Pius XII did not publically denounce the Nazi party but did tell members of the church to take in the Jews.
Of course this is only briefly highlights the reading but I encourage everyone to read it. It really demonstrates the silent resistance and in some cases the lack of resistance of the Roman Catholic Church during the Holocaust.
Picture also taken from the above website.
2 comments:
Really interesting! This flies in the face of the contemporary prevailing ideology dictating that the Catholic church could care less about non-Christocentric groups.
I'd like to read more about this!
Yes, I agree ... and how much of history we still have to learn and what will be found and interpreted in the future ...
Pope Pius will continue to be controversial ...
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