Vatican’s WWII archives reveal complex picture, ‘flawed characters,’ says expert
Pope Pius XII, who led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, is pictured in this undated photo at the Vatican. The 2020 opening of Vatican Archives from the wartime pontificate will ultimately reveal a complex, nuanced picture of the Catholic Church’s response to Nazi persecution of Jews, according to scholar Suzanne Brown-Fleming. (CNS photo/Vatican Media).
By Gina Christian • PostedNovember 13, 2020
Recently unsealed Vatican archives on World War II and Pope Pius XII will ultimately provide “a very complex picture with a lot of flawed characters on all sides,” according to an acclaimed researcher.
Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, director of international academic programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), shared her insights during a Nov. 9 webinar hosted by the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations (IJCR) at St. Joseph’s University.
Founded in 1967, the IJCR is the oldest university center of its kind in the U.S. created in response to the Second Vatican Council’s call for increased interfaith dialogue.
The talk took place on the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht (German for “Crystal Night”), a Nazi-ordered attack on Jewish persons and property throughout Germany that resulted in the destruction of more than 1,000 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish businesses. At least 100 Jews were killed outright, with another 30,000 men aged 16 to 60 arrested and deported to concentration camps.
The 1938 pogrom — widely considered the opening of the Shoah, the preferred Hebrew term for the Holocaust – was marked by a moment of silence prior to Brown-Fleming’s presentation.
The webinar, which was moderated by IJCR directors Philip Cunningham and Adam Gregerman, served as a follow-up to the ICJR’s March 3 screening of “Holy Silence,” a 2020 documentary by Steven Pressman that examined key individuals who shaped Vatican response to the rise of Nazism.
Controversy has long marred the legacy of Pope Pius XII, whose 1939-1958 pontificate coincided with World War II, the Shoah and postwar reconstruction. Six million Jews were systematically killed by Nazi Germany during the Shoah, and Pope Francis has previously acknowledged his predecessor experienced “moments of tormented decisions … which to some could look like reticence.”
Brown-Fleming appeared in Pressman’s film, the release of which unintentionally coincided with the Vatican’s March 2 opening to scholars of a vast archival collection on Pope Pius XII.
Although access to the 16 million documents has been hampered by COVID restrictions, Brown-Fleming (who reviewed several items in October) said the collection will help redress what until now has been a “bifurcated picture” of the Catholic Church’s response to Nazi persecution of the Jewish people.
“Ever since the early 1960s … there hasn’t been one storyline, but two,” she said.
While both sets focus heavily on Pope Pius XII and, to a lesser extent, his predecessor Pope Pius XI, “one … tells a narrative that the Catholic Church was under duress itself,” said Brown-Fleming.
In the face of increased Nazi repression, concern for the ability to provide the sacraments and to preserve the institutional church and Catholic life motivated clerical leaders to adopt a “strict adherence to neutrality,” she said.
The Catholic Church was also “very fixated on what it perceived as the dangers of communism,” said Brown-Fleming, noting that while papal nuncio to Germany, then-Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli – the future Pope Pius XII – had himself witnessed a communist uprising in 1919.
At the same time, said Brown-Fleming, “there’s another narrative that is very, very critical of the lack of specificity about Nazism and about mentioning Jews … (by) one of the best-informed institutions in the world.”
MORE AT LINK:
https://catholicphilly.com/2020/11/news/local-news/vatican-archives-on-ww2-reveal-complex-picture-flawed-characters-says-expert/
OH THEY WERE SO SCARED OF COMMUNISM THAT CATHOLIC JESUITS TRAINED OBAMA, HILLARY AND FIDEL CASTRO.
WORKED CLOSELY WITH SAUL ALINKSY AND PUSHED "LIBERATION THEOLOGY" FOR DECADES.
DON'T BELIEVE ME? HOW ABOUT A VIDEO SHOWING A CUBAN IMMIGRANT AT A TRUMP ROUNDTABLE EVENT
TELLING THE CROWD, POTUS INCLUDED, THAT CASTRO WAS TRAINED BY CATHOLIC JESUITS?
THIS IMMIGRANT SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN BRAVE AMERICAN, MAXIMO ALVAREZ, WENT ON TO SPEAK AT THE RNC.
Cuban immigrant WARNS against socialism at Trump roundtable
< - - This video came to my attention after DJT jr posted it on fakebook.
He said that Castro was a Roman Catholic who took great offense to the suggestion by a reporter that he was a Communist yet a Communist he was! and that Castro was trained by the Roman Catholic Jesuits.