[Ha'aretz] Martin Gilbert - The proposed canonization of Pope Pius XII is an internal Roman Catholic theological issue. Yet if the Vatican feels today that the Pope's behavior during the Holocaust merits particular recognition, I have suggested that it send the notarized evidence in the Vatican archives to the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem and apply for him to be made a Righteous Gentile. To date more than 21,000 Righteous Gentiles, almost all of them Christians, many of them Roman Catholics, have been recognized by Yad Vashem, which makes extraordinary efforts to give honor where honor is due. At the moment only archival material up to 1939 is accessible to scholars; for later material, they will have to wait until 2013. There are many historical episodes in which the evidence of the Pope's positive involvement will be confirmed or negated by the documents in the Vatican archives. One is the refuge given to 477 Jews in Vatican City and its enclaves on the eve of the German roundup of Jews in Rome in 1943. A further 4,238 Jews were saved when they were given sanctuary in monasteries and convents throughout the city. Among those in Rome at that time already recognized by Yad Vashem was Father Pietro Palazzini, later a cardinal. Only the Vatican archives can reveal what part the Pope himself played in these two acts of rescue, which saved four-fifths of the Jews of Rome.
2008-12-05 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive