Customer Reviews

Defamation Of Pius XII (Key Texts)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Defamation of Pius XII by Notre Dame university philosophy
professor Ralph McInerny is strong on evidence of Pius XII as a true
hero in speaking out for Jews and leading a church in saving hundreds
of thousands of Jewish lives during World War II - more than all
the other relief organizations combined. McInerny's 150 pages of
evidence is noticeably missing from books that allegedly defame Pius
XII as anti-Semitic, a "Hitler's Pope", and a man who supposedly
turned his back on the Jews. An epilogue in Hitler's Pope (1999) by
John Cornwell acknowledges that The Last Three Popes and the Jews
(1967) by Pinchas Lapide (Israeli consul in Milan Italy) is "a
formidable and scholarly riposte to those who would paint Pius XII and
the Holy See as villains." Cornwell adds that Lapide
"ransacked" various Jewish archives "for details of Vatican
assistance to Jews during the war" and that Lapide "calculated
that Pius XII, directly or indirectly, saved the lives of some 860,000
Jews." Yet Lapide's details of the extensive and heroic Vatican
assistance to Jews are nowhere to be found in the chapters of Hitler's
Pope. McInerny's book provides Lapide details and more. The
Defamation of Pius XII does not by itself demonstrate defamation found
in such works as Hitler's Pope. To sense a Cornwell genius of
spinning half-truths into defamation, one must read Hitler's Pope and
reread portions while referring to McInerny's book and several other
works ("McInerny et al."):

(1)"Cornwell's Pope: A Nasty
Caricature of a Noble and Saintly Man"(ZENIT News Service, 9/16/99)
by Father Peter Gumpel, arguably the world's leading expert on Pius
XII. Gumpel's twelve-page critique, posted online, concludes,
"Cornwell who is a rank amateur in the field of history, canon law,
etc., has produced a shoddy, superficial and totally untrustworthy
book which, to say the very least, is objectively biased, tendentious
and so unilateral and one-sided that one wonders what really prompted
this man to write this book." (2)HITLER THE WAR AND THE POPE (2000)
by Ronald Rychlak, a non-Catholic attorney. The 27-page epilogue
critiques Hitler's Pope. Cornwell's account of Rome's Jews is based
in large part on Katz's book Black Sabbath (1969) which per Cornwell
"remains the most authoritative account" and was the subject of
a defamation suit "lost" by the Pope's relatives who appealed
with judgment "inconclusive." Actually, per Rychlak, Katz was fined
and received a suspended prison sentence for defaming Pius XII.
(3)Pius XII and the Second World War According to the Vatican Archives
(1997) by Pierre Blet, S.J. Whenever Cornwell cites Blet, one should
read the few pages before and after the cite to see what Cornwell
failed to mention. (4)Before the Dawn (1954, reprinted as Why I Became
a Catholic), memoirs of Eugenio Zolli, Rome's chief rabbi in 1943 when
the Nazis took over Rome. Zolli extols Pius XII as a great hero for
the Jews. Portions are quoted by McInerny and Rychlak, but additional
passages aid in questioning Cornwell's choice of facts and his
conclusion. (5) The online interview (Oct. 2000) by ZENIT News Service
of Jewish Holocaust historian Tagliacozzo who in 1943 escaped the Nazi
roundup of Rome's Jews. He also hails Pius XII as a hero for the
Jews. (6) Pope Pius XII Architect for Peace (2000) by Margherita
Marchione, a book that adds additional evidence to the heroics of Pius
XII and his staff in aiding Jews, prisoners of war, and refugees
during WW II. The evidence found in McInerny et al. compels me to
believe Hitler's Pope defamed and denied a true hero of the Holocaust
putting Cornwell and publisher Penguin Books in bed with those who
deny the Holocaust ever happened. Ironically, Penguin admirably stood
with Professor Deborah Lipstadt in successfully winning a judgment
against Holocaust denier David Irving at the same time Penguin was
shamefully promoting Hitler's Pope. McInerny does not address the
role of Penguin and the media in the defamation of Pius XII.

IN response to the recent trash novels about the role of the pope in WWII, this excellent book is a welcome arrival.

The author shows with great accuracy how the pope saved directly or indirectly the lives of some 860,000 Jews.

But why has Pius XII been so defamed? What has motivated the untruths? It has been the result, the author argues, of the Church's stance on sexuality. In fact, it can be easily argued and defended that as soon as the Church changes its teaching on sex and abortion, the "faith" would be welcomed with open arms by the left.

Defamation of Pius XII is an excellent source and rebuke to all the historically flawed and biased sources.
For all the Anti-Catholics and fanatics out there who word verbatim take anything that is written bad of the one true faith and Church. Whether Catholic,Agnostic,Jewish,Protestant or Deist you need to read the book to clear the misconceptions.

Ralph McInerny's book titled THE DEFAMATION OF PIUS XII is yet another refutation of the attempts to smear Pope Pius XII as an agent of Hitler and the German National Socialists. McInerny's book gives a surprisingly detailed account of Pope Pius XII's valient efforts to help refugees and those who were persecuted by the Germans prior to and during W.W. II. For the uniniated the controversy started that erupted when those hostile to the Catholic Church tired to smear Pope Pius XII.

The book begins with a brief summary of Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958) who was to become Pope Pius XII in 1939. Pacelli had close Jewish friends during his childhood. He was an excellent student and mastered Classical studies as well as the sciences and mathematics. His intense studies revealed a brilliant man, and anecdotes of his friends stated he was a kind, compassionate individual which was exhibited early in life.

McInerny's next section dealt with Pacelli's rapid rise in the Catholic Church. He helped with the publication of THE 1917 PIO-BENEDICTINE CODE OF CANON LAW edited by Dr. Edward Peters. Pacelli showed intellectual and diplomatic promise early in his career and was confirmed as a papal representative to Germany just after W.W. I. During this time, as McInerny detailed, Pacelli showed rare courage. Pacelli attempted to deliver aid to defeated Germans when the Communists temporarily got control of Munich. Pacelli stood firm when threatened by a communist thug who threatened to shot Pacelli. One can imagine that the gunman made have had pangs of conscience in threatening an unarmed man of peace and compassion whose only mission was to relieve hardship and suffering. One should also note that Hitler and the National Socialists were making their political rise to power, and as early as 1926, Pacelli wrote an ominous warning about the inherent dangers of National Socialism and their "pagan" ideology.

Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope in 1939 after a distingushed career as diplomat, cardinal, etc. Just before his election the German Kristalnacht occured in October, 1938. Prior to this horrendous event, Pacelli and other Catholic dignataries vigorously condemned German race hallucinations and offiically stated that "We Catholic Christians have no race religion." Pinchas Lapide the eminent Jewish historian confirmed Catholic opposition to Hitler's Germany, and he was clear that only the Catholic Church officially stood against the inhumanity of National Socialist Germany. Before W.W. II erupted, Catholic Church diplomats were the only offical authorities who diplomatically opposed the brutality of the National Socialists. No one else lodged official protests except the Catholic Church-no one except the Catholic Church as Lapide made very clear.

The next sections of the book dealt with Pope Pius XII's efforts to mitigate suffering and rescue efforts throughout Europe (Eastern and Western Europe). When the Germans took control of Rome in 1943, Pope Pius XII was threatened with arrest. His response was that he was not afraid of concentration camps and was not afraid of death. Pope Pius XII knew of a German plot to invade the Vatican, massacre the Curia, and move the Papacy to Lichenstein. In spite of this ominous possibility, Pope Pius XII refused to stop his efforts in rescue efforts and relief to the suffering throughout Europe. During and after the war promient Jewish scholars and leaders highly praised Pope Pius XII's brave efforts. Pope Pius XII obviously could not leave the Vatican due to the presense of German troops just beyond Vatican City. Yet, Pope Pius XII gave instructions and orders to his bishops, monks, nuns, priests, etc. to do all they could to resue unfortunate victims of German occupation. These efforts infuriated Hitler and German authorties because they were a reminder that someone cared and was not fearful of German might.

Pope Pius XII lost his personal fortune in assisting W.W. II refugees. Many Jewish refugees gave numerous accounts of Catholic officials who risked their lives saving refugees including many Jewish refugees. Historians credit Pope Pius XII and the Catholics of saving 860,000 Italian Jews which was 80 % of Italy's Jewish population. Pope Pius knew that public denouncements of German persection would only invited further retaliation in German occupied Europe. As one historian wrote, Pope Pius XII acted with deeds and not empty words.

After Pope Pius XII's death (1958), attempts to smear him exploded. Hochhuth's play titled THE DEPUTY got considerably attention in spite of historical evidence contrary to the play's content. What Hochhuth tried to hide was the fact that he was an active member of Hitler's Youth Corps. Then he tried to explain that this simply was a bunch of young men "playing cowboys and Indians." Anyone familiar with National Socialist Germany or the Soviet Union, knows very well that the German Youth Corps and the Communist Young Pioneers were serious political organizations and not a groups of young men "playing cowboys and Indians."

Other attempts to smear Pope Pius XII included Cornwell's book titled HITLER'S POPE. Cornwell has been sxposed for the fraud he is. Father Blet dimantled this book. Sister marchione confronted Cornwell who was reduced to argueing that Sister Marchione hurt his feelings and made him angry when she undermined his nonsenese. Cornwell had to finally admit he was wrong. Other attempts to smear Pope Pius XII resulted in law suits filed by writers when exposed for lying and sloppy scholarship. When these foolish men and women filed their law suits, they lost in court due to the fact that the defendants' criticisms of smears of Pope Pius XII were true.

The undersigned has some criticisms of this book. It is well written but could have been organized better. McInerny should have arranged his book by geographic area rather by strict chronology. However, the notes and books suggested at the end of the book fill gaps. Father Blet's book titled Pius XII AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR plus Sister Marchione's books are effective anecdotes to Catholic bashers. Ralph McInerny's book is a vigorous defense of an authenic hero-Pope Pius XII.

James E. Egolf
December 5, 2009

This book is a thorough examination of the Pope's actions during the war. Prof. McInerny simply puts forward the most compelling evidence to demonstrate that the Pope was anything but silent or indifferent to the plight of the Jewish people during the Second World War.

Don't fall prey to reading garbage like "Hitler's Pope" where cowards like John Cornwell indulge in speculation based on sloppy research and pre-formed anti-Catholic prejudice. It's fun to wonder what these ivory tower heros would have done themselves had they been confronted with the spectre of arrest and torture by the Gestapo if they were caught helping Jews.

This book, while a little dry at times, evaluates the Pope on the only two criteria that matter; his actions and what other people had to say about him at the time. I highly recommend it.

When Ralph McInerny takes off the gloves and pounds away at Garry Wills and other apostates and dissidents; calumniators of Pius XII; haters and enemies of the Papacy and of the Church and of the absolute moral law and immutable truths she represents...when he does this, he's unbeatable. Unfortunately, only a few pages are devoted to this bulldog attack. The rest of the book reads like the first draft of a college freshman's essay -- very badly written and the editing is pretty much non-existent. McInerny is right, of course -- Pope Pius XII has been outrageously defamed by Wills and others of his ilk. The mystery is why such an intelligent, informed and able writer (do read his work on Vatican II) has written such a terribly clumsy book -- and on such an important topic. Ah, well.

Dr. McInerny starts out slow, but builds to a nice rollicking finish. As an ex-Catholic I have little sympathy for his support of dogma, but I don't appreciate seeing th Church get bashed for things it didn't do either.

It is nothing short of astonishing that the man who wrote the excellent "What Went Wrong with Vatican II" has also written "The Defamation of Pius XII" -- one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune to read. Amateurishly written -- e.g., "Pius's intervention at this crucial juncture was crucial." (page 129) -- edited, and presented, Ralph McInerny has rendered a disservice to Pope Pius. McInerny is correct: The former Holy Father was NOT Hitler's handmaiden -- quite the contrary. But saying so in a book that appears to have taken less than a week to complete doesn't exactly help the cause.

Congratulations are due Professor McInerny for a masterful rebuttal of all those vile, horrid, nasty, depraved, vicious, disgusting, cruel, evil, false, base, and not-nice rumors about the Church during the Second World War. He has undertaken a Herculean bout of cut-and-paste research, presenting the results with a winning literary style compounded of querulousness and bile. The good professor wisely avoided consulting unreliable works by secular academic historians such as Saul Friedlander, Guenter Lewy, and Walter Lacquer; (What should those names tell you?) not to mention libels from turncoats such as John Morley, Michael Phayer, and Susan Zuccotti. (It would have been the stake for them in the good old days!) This current campaign of defamation is, of course, a vast secret conspiracy masterminded by dissident Catholics, adherents of a certain non-Christian religion, Freemasons, liberals, and--worst of all--sodomites! The ranks of the Nazis, of course, were pervaded with sodomites so it should come as no surprise that there should be an attempt to shift the onus for their atrocities onto the One True Church.

Why, only last night I saw perverts prancing about in Nazi-style garb at the local leather bar where I often repair to once my wife, six children, and grandchildren are all safely asleep. (I am studying sexual immorality in order to denounce it, I'll have you know!) There I sat, nursing my usual Shirley Temple while filthy and obscene acts unfolded before my fascinated gaze. Finally, overcome with longing--er, loathing--I abandoned my emission--uh, my mission--and fled the sordid scene for home. (Must remember: Aquinas says self-pollution more heinous than rape!) But I digress.

Professor McInerny would surely agree that anyone raising the least question about any of our church's actions--past, present, or to come--is a dangerous degenerate who should be horsewhipped. But not just with any whip, mind you. No. It must be a new, freshly oiled leather whip, one of the sort with bits of metal woven into it; well laid on in clean, even strokes across their backs until they shriek for mercy, and the blood streams down their glistening bodies and (...)

ADDENDUM: Any correspondence sent to Professor Hatteras pertaining to this review will be returned to the sender until he is again permitted to deal with his mail.--Madelyn Murray O'Harelip, Secretary to Professor Hatteras, Tomas de Torquemada Center, 714 Radcliffe Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5629.

This book is very weak. What is wanted is a book of historical scholarship to make the case that Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) was not what his detractors have said about him, but there is no such scholarship here. (The dust jacket says McInerny is the author of 100 books of philosophy and fiction; I don't know which of those genres this book purports to be, but it is NOT historical scholarship.) The author cites either to secondary sources, or more frequently to no sources at all, in making his defense of Pius XII. Here are a few examples of the shortcomings of the book: First, relying on Catholic bishops' actions in speaking out against Nazi atrocities as evidence of Pius's actions on behalf of the Jews, McInerny weakens his own case. Is this the best defense he has? Why not more direct evidence of the Pope's actions? Are they so few and subtle that he must rely on the heroic or courageous actions of others (not least, the actions of his predecessor, Pius XI, and those of his successor, John XXIII) which McInerny seeks to attribute to Pius XII? Second, McInerny's failure to understand the most damning indictments of Pius XII made by John Cornwall (author of Hitler's Pope) make the book particularly weak. Cornwall shows how Pius ignored the warnings of the German bishops when he negotiated the Reich Concordat with Hitler (1933) that forced Catholics to abdicate political activity in Germany. The Catholic Central Party polled 14% of the vote consistently in Germany before this time. Removing this opposition to Hitler undoubtedly (although surely unintentionally) assisted the Nazis' hold on power. And for what? So Germany could promise to support Catholic schools (a promise that Hitler soon repudiated anyway) and could acknowledge the primacy in Church affairs of the Code of Canon Law (prepared by Pacelli before he became Pope) that was a key building block of the hierarchical papacy? Was Pacelli the kind of man so taken with his own abilities, work product, and world vision that he would take the actions he did in the face of warnings from those much closer to the actual events than he? To what extent did the "top-down" world view held by Pacelli (based, not incidentally on the hierarchical papacy) lead him to ignore these warnings? What lessons (if any) are there in the resulting history? Where is McInerny's discussion of any of these points? Third, his argument that all the anti-Pius literature is motivated by animus against the strong papacy of which Pacelli was a major architect is not only unpersuasive but it is also extremely disjointed. For example, McInerny launches a broadside attack on Gary Wills who, I gather from McInerny's book, has disputed Vatican II's position on contraception. (I didn't see the relevance but gave McInerny the benefit of the doubt as I read on.) How does he introduce Wills? By citing to his "fawning" introduction to Lillian Hellman's Scoundrel Time. His not very subtle references to the "pro-Stalinist" Hellman are intended to make us think the worse of Hellman (and therefore, presumably, of Wills, by association). Still unsatisfied with this obiter dictum, in a further effort to discredit Hellman, he diverts us into a brief discussion of the libel lawsuit between Hellman and Mary McCarthy over Hellman's book Pentimento. None of this is even remotely related to Pius XII! Rather, all of this is to get us to think poorly of Wills who is the secondary subject of McInerny's attack--the primary subject being those, like Wills, who dislike the strong papacy and seek to bring it down through attacks on the actions of Pius XII. (Are you following McInerny's line of thought here?) Needless to say, like the rest of the book, this argument is unpersuasive. Do not misunderstand. I do not believe Pius was anti-Semitic. I do not believe he is guilty of taking no action to help the Jews. I understand the Hobson's choice with which he was presented: by speaking out more forcefully, he risked even harsher treatment of those within Hitler's grasp. But this book is not the treatment of those topics that you want to read. And on top of that, the book is repetitious and poorly edited.