" And even though the "Nazi actions became increasingly brutal, anti-Semitic, and anti-Christian," Pius XII "failed to raise his voice against the German invasion of Poland" (Coppa, p. 9). Pius expressed "no public outrage against [Nazi acts of] mass extermination" nor did he speak out publicly to "elimination of the Jews" even after the horror of the Holocaust had been known for some time.
Coppa wondered on page 9 if Pius XII had actually issued Pius XI's encyclical "stressing the unity of the human race and the incompatibility of racism and Christianity, might more of the millions exterminated have been spared?" The question has no answer, of course. And as Coppa concludes, "We shall never know."
Benjamin Frankel edited the book History in Dispute, Vol. 11: The Holocaust, 1933-1945, and edited the essay in that book ("The Role of Pope Pius in the Holocaust"). Adding to that essay is Newman University's Robert McCormick, who claims that Pius XII "…chose to ignore reports of Jews being slaughtered rather than even run the risk of alienating any German Catholics" who may have been "sympathetic" to the agenda of the Nazis. "On many occasions" Pius XII had the chance to "avoid moral ambiguity and condemn the genocide being perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its satellites" (McCormick).
[Benjamin Frankel is a regular contributor to the journal Foreign Affairs, and has published numerous books, including: Realism: Restatement and Renewal; Worlds on Fire; Roots of Realism; and Opaque Nuclear Proliferation.]
Moreover, Pius XII could have been far more vocal in condemning "German persecution" and in fact could have used his power of "excommunication" in order to pressure Catholics into refraining from anti-Semitic behavior and murder," McCormick contributes in Frankel's essay. He chose to "vacillate" instead of denouncing the holocausts; and "most telling of all," McCormick goes on, was the position Pius XII took "during the arrest and deportation of Roman Jews" in October 1943. About 40,000...
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