Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Plus XII

Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: Although Sister Margherita Marchione first won scholarly recognition in the United States by publishing studies on Philip Mazzei (1730-1816), the Florentine friend of Thomas Jefferson, she has been devoting these last five years to the laudable work of defending the reputation of Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli). Since 1997, for example, this member of the Sisters Filippini and professor emerita in Italian Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University has published a half-dozen works on the pope in order to counterbalance the criticism of such recent opponents as James Carroll, Richard Chesnoff, John Cornwell, Michael Phayer, Gary Wills, Robert Wistrich, and Susan Zuccotti with the arguments of testimonies from Christian as well as Jewish eyewitnesses. "My books," she writes (p. 14), "will help enlighten all who seek the truth."

In her attempt to provide the general reader with the basic sources which refute the arguments of the pope's critics, Sister Margherita shows that there is a basic consensus on the pope in this controversy which she presents by dividing her study into eight parts. Having introduced her readers to the problem and the life of the pope in the first part of her study, she proceeds to expose the truth about Pius XII and the Holocaust in the second part, falling back on the sources which underscore the evidence in his career on how he helped the Jews during the Holocaust. The third part focuses on how the media, including The New York Times, in addition to Vatican Radio and L'Osservatore Romano, provide documentary evidence in favor of the record of Pius and the Catholic Church during those dark days of World War II. In part four, the author introduces her readers to the arguments of recent authors who have been responsible for refueling the controversy which Rolf Hochhuth ignited back in 1963. While part five brings the book to its conclusion in defending the pope, the last three parts are concerned with the appendices, notes, and the index of her study.

Certainly, Sister Margherita leaves no stone unturned in marshaling her evidence. While her study reminds one of Pius XII and the Holocaust (2002) by José Sánchez, it is a more passionate exposition which might leave even a reader who is sympathetic with her position wondering if, objectively, she has not overplayed her hand. Although those interested in the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments set forth by the pope's critics can find a more detailed analysis of them in the work by Sánchez, they will find superior documentation for the refutation of those same arguments in this work by Sister Margherita. Thus, these studies complement one another in trying to have their readers understand the controversy.

Lastly, to her credit, Sister Margherita is not unlike Hilaire Belloc, who, if this reviewer is not mistaken, when faced with the twisted history of Catholicism in England, as narrated by Protestant historians, saw how necessary it was to bend the warped board of history back in the opposite direction so that the truth might emerge. Sister Margherita's analysis of the controversy does reminds one of Belloc's approach since the history of the Catholic Church during the time of Pius XII and the Holocaust has been grossly distorted by the warped allegations of his critics. Understandably, this has led her to underscore the truth of what really happened by providing solid documentation to counteract the twisting of the objective evidence so characteristic of those recent studies which have disguised themselves as historical scholarship but which are really a form of ideological polemics.
Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: Even the most benign schoraly attempts of young American authors to understand and evaluate the implications of Hitler's Third Reich seem to unite in blaming 1.) the "German people", 2.) the Catholic Church, and 3.) Pope Pius XII for not having prevented the holocaust by protesting, resisting, and denouncing the government in groups or even mass rallies. I finally rediscovered two pieces of evidence which clearly demonstrate how humanly impossible these idealistic demands are unless one assumes mankind to consist of great numbes of heroes and saints ready to be martyred. [It may be of interest that none of the few authors I personally asked if they were willing to lose their jobs, or even life and limb for their persecuted neighbors, (Jews, negroes, or Muslems, as the case may be) sat up and shook their heads.]
1.) Archbishop von Galen protested against the killing of the "mentally and physically ill" who were burdens to the state. One Protestant and three Catholic ministers in the diaspora city of Luebeck distributed the bishops sermons, discussed them in groups and spoke up against the German war effort. They were arrested in June 1942 and executed in November. Nothing happened to the bishop--"Divide and conquer"
2.)The famous philosopher-nun Edith Stein was sent to a convent in Holland to protect her from Nazi persecution. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands the Dutch bishops protested "the deportation of Jews...Edith was taken on 2 August 1942. . . She died at Auschwitz on 9 August 1942" Nothing happend to the bishops.
I wonder if the authors in question still want to condemn Pope Pius XII for protesting in a minor key while saving like Schindler many Jews in real life.
[check www.luebeck.de/tourismus and www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm]

Rating:
Summary: Divide and Conquer as Nazi technique
Review: Even the most benign schoraly attempts of young American authors to understand and evaluate the implications of Hitler's Third Reich seem to unite in blaming 1.) the "German people", 2.) the Catholic Church, and 3.) Pope Pius XII for not having prevented the holocaust by protesting, resisting, and denouncing the government in groups or even mass rallies. I finally rediscovered two pieces of evidence which clearly demonstrate how humanly impossible these idealistic demands are unless one assumes mankind to consist of great numbes of heroes and saints ready to be martyred. [It may be of interest that none of the few authors I personally asked if they were willing to lose their jobs, or even life and limb for their persecuted neighbors, (Jews, negroes, or Muslems, as the case may be) sat up and shook their heads.]
1.) Archbishop von Galen protested against the killing of the "mentally and physically ill" who were burdens to the state. One Protestant and three Catholic ministers in the diaspora city of Luebeck distributed the bishops sermons, discussed them in groups and spoke up against the German war effort. They were arrested in June 1942 and executed in November. Nothing happened to the bishop--"Divide and conquer"
2.)The famous philosopher-nun Edith Stein was sent to a convent in Holland to protect her from Nazi persecution. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands the Dutch bishops protested "the deportation of Jews...Edith was taken on 2 August 1942. . . She died at Auschwitz on 9 August 1942" Nothing happend to the bishops.
I wonder if the authors in question still want to condemn Pope Pius XII for protesting in a minor key while saving like Schindler many Jews in real life.
[check www.luebeck.de/tourismus and www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm]

Rating:
Summary: Historical Truth and Experience
Review: Pius XII was the Pope of the Catholic Youth Movement in Germany during the thirties, especially during the Third Reich when it had to go "underground." This fact may explain why the recent publications condemning the Pope are deeply disturbing to the surviving members of "Neues Deutschland," "Katholische Pfadfinder," "Kolping," and other groups of the movement which flourished before Hitler came to power.

By diligently collecting and analysing the newspaper articles, books, and Vatican documents of the time in question Margherita Marchione's "Consensus & Controversy" reestablishes the facts the generation of the Second World War knew by experience: Pius XII did his best to help the victims of the Nazi regime. He saved more of them than all other national leaders, including the Zionist activists of the time, together.

From personal experience I can corroborate two facts the author elaborates:
1.) As a student teacher in the industrial district of Germany in 1955 I rented a room from a Communist family. The husband had been a miner. When the couple found out that I was a Catholic, they started to run down Pius XII as "an enemy of the People" who had supported Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. When their attempt to "convert" me to their ideology failed, they found an excuse to end the rental agreement and I had to start again looking for living quarters in the bombed-out city of Essen.
2.) The very same year I visited Rome where I stayed as a guest of the Trappist monastery Tre Fontane on the outskirts of the city. In the center of one of the courtyards I noticed an obilisk with many obviously Jewish names carved into the pedestal and all the way to the top of the structure. The monk in charge of the guests explained to me that these people were the Jews who at the request of the Pope had found shelter in the monastary during the war. Most of them had later immigrated to the USA. They had sent the monument as a token of their appreciation . With a twinkle in his eye the monk added: "Would've been nice if they had also sent some money."

This "archeological" piece of evidence confirms the facts related in "Consensus & Controversy." The immediate experience of witnesses will add a basis of validity to the understanding of a period which should never be neglected by later historians. Sister Marchione quotes Golda Meir and many other Jews whose testimonies fulfill this requirement....P> that condemn Pius XII are deeply disturbing"

Rating:
Summary: A Thorough and Meticulous Defense of Pope Pius XII
Review: Sister Margherita, a member of the Filippini Sisters as well as a noted professor at Fairleigh Dickinson, presents a meticulously researched and highly effective rebuttal to the current condemnation of Pope Pius XII's actions (or supposed inactions) with respect to the Holocaust during World War II. In recent years, several books castigated the wartime Pontiff for his failure to protect the lives of European Jews during a time of great atrocity. Some have even gone to the extent of painting a portrait of Pope Pius XII as an ineffectual bureaucrat at best, or a Nazi collaborator at worst. As the author demonstrates through a compendium of letter, newspaper articles, documents and other direct sources, the Vatican in general, and Pope Pius XII in particular, acted within the constraints of an isolated nonmilitary power, to save countless lives through a variety of diplomatic and political channels.

Those who would accuse the pope of Nazi complicity often do so from a fundamental lack of understanding of the Vatican's Power in the first half of the 20th century. In part, this is due to the Catholic Church's outreach in today's era of media saturation as well as the worldwide visibility of John Paul II, the first Pope to recognize the power of global communication. The Vatican in the 1920's - 1940's was one of relative isolation. Its days of any military power were long past and it was surrounded by numerous hostile political powers. Initial attempts to condemn the Nazi war machine directly were met with swift and escalating retaliation by that government. Given the overwhelming military might of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the Pope was unable to prevail by military might and was forced to save lives within the limitations of its diplomatic and spiritual offices.

This effort was recognized by many of the world's governments, other Christian denominations, and most significantly, by the Jewish people and the State of Israel itself. Only in more recent decades were the realities of the Vatican lacquered with the brush of contemporary expectations. The book provides a factual and accurate basis for refuting these allegations, casting a bright light on the truth of activities during what was one of the darkest periods of human history.