The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius
XII
Edited by Joseph Bottum and David G. Dalin
(Lexington Books, 282 pages, $29.95)
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, a leftist,
sparked considerable outrage in Europe when he praised the work of
David Irving, Great Britain’s notorious Holocaust denier. In 1963,
Hochhuth got his start with The Deputy, a play that
demonized Pope Pius XII as a cold-blooded Nazi sympathizer who
refused to condemn the Holocaust. During his pontificate
(1939-1958), however, the pope earned substantial praise for
opposing the Nazis and saving many Jews during World War II.
The Deputy, which was performed around the world,
succeeded in permanently transforming the pope’s image.
Following The Deputy, authors such as Guenther Lewy,
Saul Friedlander, and Carlo Falconi published books that, to
varying degrees, backed up Hochhuth’s portrait. The pope’s
defenders such as Jacques Nobecourt, Pinchas Lapide, and Jeno Levai
responded with books of their own, but were unable to restore his
reputation. Upset that the Roman Catholic hierarchy wasn’t changing
with the times on such issues as artificial contraception and
abortion, anti-Catholics and Catholic dissidents found the
allegations against the Vatican politically useful and often
repeated them.
In the last ten years, the debate over Pius XII’s conduct during
the Holocaust has intensified. Many new books have been published.
Among Pius XII’s critics are Catholics such as John Cornwell
(Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, 1999), J.
Michael Phayer (The Catholic Church and the Holocaust:
1930-1965, 2000), Garry Wills (Papal Sin: Structures of
Deceit, 2001), and James Carroll (Constantine’s Sword: The
Church and the Jews, 2001). Recent Jewish authors who are
critical of the Vatican include Susan Zuccotti (Under His Very
Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy, 2001), David
I. Kertzer (The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in
the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, 2001), and Daniel Goldhagen
(A Moral Reckoning: The Catholic Church’s Role in the Holocaust
and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair, 2002). Another critical
book, The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI (1997), was
co-written by two Belgians, Georges Passelecq, a Catholic monk, and
Bernard Suchecky, a Jewish historian.
In The Pius War, an impressive collection of previously
published reviews, a team of scholars, journalists, and lawyers
reveal the shortcomings of these books, which often escape the
attention of gullible reviewers in the liberal press.
THE TWO CO-EDITORS OF this book, Rabbi David G. Dalin and Joseph
Bottum, both published comprehensive reviews of many of the new
books. “The technique for recent attacks on Pius XII is simple,”
Rabbi Dalin observes. “It requires only that favorable evidence be
read in the worst possible light and treated to the strictest test,
while unfavorable evidence is read in the best light and treated to
no test.”
In her book, Susan Zuccotti seeks to discredit the many tributes
Pius XII received from Jews by insisting that most, if not all of
them, were all motivated by ignorance and dishonesty in praising
him. Zuccotti’s tactics alarm Rabbi Dalin, who warns, “To deny the
legitimacy of their gratitude to Pius XII is tantamount to denying
the credibility of their personal testimony and judgment about the
Holocaust itself.” Based on his reading of the evidence, Rabbi
Dalin concludes that Pope Pius XII should be honored as a
“Righteous Gentile.”
A German scholar, Rainer Decker, looks at John Cornwell’s
over-hyped Hitler’s Pope. Despite Cornwell’s claim that he
conducted extensive research in the Vatican’s archives, a check of
the book’s endnotes shows that the author relied mostly on
secondary sources. In addition to Cornwell’s highly selective use
of sources, Decker identifies many omissions, errors, and
distortions of fact in the book. It wouldn’t be cruel to ask
Cornwell, “Who do you think you’re fooling?”
Robert Louis Wilken is unimpressed by James Carroll’s
Constantine’s Sword. Wilken points out that Carroll does
not really tell us anything new because he extensively relies on
the work of others, including Cornwell. “Constantine’s Sword is a
six-hundred-page indictment of the Church for its attitudes toward
and treatment of the Jews, deploying historical information to
support its accusations,” the reviewer writes. “It is an effort not
to understand but to use history to advance a tendentious
agenda.”
The publicity that Cornwell’s book received overshadowed J.
Michael Phayer’s The Catholic Church and the Holocaust,
which appeared about a year later. In his review, the Rev. John Jay
Hughes finds that Phayer’s book, which rejects the extremism of
Cornwell and Hochhuth, is deficient in numerous areas. In his 1942
Christmas message, the pope made a brief, but direct reference to
the Holocaust. “In reality, no one, certainly not the Germans, took
it as a protest against their slaughter of the Jews,” Phayer
writes. According to Father Hughes, Phayer conveniently neglects to
mention a report by the Reich Central Security Office (RHSA), which
described the pope’s address as “one long attack on everything we
stand for. Here is he clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews.”
Although this report appears in several secondary sources, none of
the aforementioned critics bother to mention it.
IN HIS REVIEW, NEW YORK super-attorney Kevin M. Doyle examines
Passelceq and Suchecky’s The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI.
In June 1938, the ailing Pope Pius XI commissioned three Jesuits to
draw up an encyclical that would condemn racism and anti-Semitism.
The authors assert that the final draft of the encyclical was
delivered to the pope a short time before his death on February 10,
1939. The encyclical was never published, which the authors believe
prevented the Church from adequately opposing the Nazis’
anti-Semitism. Doyle faults the authors for engaging in constant
speculation and raising unproven suspicions against Pius XII and
other Vatican officials in trying to determine why the encyclical
was never published.
As Doyle points out, this encyclical was not perfect.
“[C]riticism, not only of the Church but also of the Allies and
Jewish leaders, has too often ignored the moral complexities faced
by people of good will who lived and struggled in Hitler’s shadow,”
Doyle writes. “The Nazi juggernaut displayed a diabolical genius
for retaliation, recrimination, and retribution. While devoid of
conscience, it discerned ethical pressure points cleverly enough to
ensnare potential resisters in unconscionable dilemmas. To ignore
this not only subverts truth but keeps us from today learning from
the Holocaust.”
The two co-editors commissioned William Doino, a veteran
Catholic journalist, to draw up an annotated bibliography for
The Pius War. Doino’s contribution, which takes up more
than half of the book, is an extraordinary achievement. He lists
and discusses numerous primary and secondary sources. Few books,
articles, and even noteworthy letters to the editor escape Doino’s
attention. Scholars and journalists will find Doino’s annotated
bibliography an important tool for research.
Many of the anti-Vatican books discussed here and others are
quickly becoming obsolete. In February 2003, the Vatican began the
process of opening its archives from 1933-1945. Many of the
documents that have been gradually emerging from the archives
confirm the Vatican’s opposition to Nazism and anti-Semitism.
(Doino mentions some of the new documents.) The Pius War will stand the test of time
because its contributors have the facts on their side and Pope Pius
XII’s tendentious critics don’t.
