Did the pope ignor the Holocaust because if...?

Question

...he did anything that would be admitting it was happening and may stop it? Damned clever those popes. Some folks on yahoo are not thinking are not thinking.

Answer 1

You have to remember that the vatican is in Rome, and Italy was Germany's ally in WW2. The Pope (at least then) is Italian. To speak out against Mussolini would have most likely meant a government takeover of the vatican, not like it would have made any difference anyway.

Answer 2

No serious scholar contests the evidence that Pius XII took direct and indirect measures to save Jews from the Nazi death machine.

At the start of World War II, Pope Pius XII’s first encyclical was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany. Here is a link to the Summi Pontificatus: Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Unity of Human Society, October 20, 1939: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html

Unfortunately the Soviet Union and others had been trying to convince the world that the Catholic Church was pro-Nazi since the death of Pope Pius in 1958. Here are some sources:
+ The KGB made corrupting the Church a priority: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI=
+ The KGB campaign against Pius XII: http://www.the-tidings.com/2007/021607/difference.htm
+ Pius XII and the Jews: http://web.archive.org/web/20010919100700/http://www.weeklystandard.com/magazine/mag_6_23_01/dalin_bkart_6_23_01.asp
+ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/ww2jews.html

See also "The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis" by Rabbi David G. Dalin which has compiled further overwhelming proof of Pope Pius XII"s friendship for the Jews beginning long before he became pope.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Perhaps you will doubt me, a Catholic. I understand that.

But would you be willing to listen to former Israeli premier Golda Meir, and to Dr. Albert Einstein?

Prime Minister Golda Meir, " When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of the Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope (Pius XI) was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace." [1]


Albert Einstein (1940): "Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I felt a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty." [2]


The story that Pope Pius collaborated with the Nazis is a slanderous fabrication of the most meretricious sort. People who take the trouble to research the primary sources will (thank God) quickly discover for themselves that this slander is baseless and without merit. Even those who come to the question already determined to find the Holy Father guilty as charged - that is, prejudiced - will be, if they have even a flicker of intellectual honesty remaining, dismayed to find that their prejudices are unsupported by the primary evidence.

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Footnotes:
1. Columbia University (New York) website http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/heroes.htm

[2] Wikiquote. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Answer 4

Which pope are you talking about? The current one or Pope Pius XII?

It was assumed that Pius ignored it because he did not want to break relations with Nazi Germany because the Vatican was allied with them.

However, Pius did his best to NOT ignore the Holocaust situation.

Answer 5

The European Pope - the Vatican has been as honest about the Vatican's role during WWII as Bill Clinton has been about Monica Lewinsky.

Both Bill Clinton and the European Pope spend their time rewriting history - leaving a track of fibs as their legacies.

Answer 6

Pope Clement ( the pope prior to the holocaust) died suddenly, right before he was going to issue a edict against the Nazi party. His predecessor may have been afraid of speaking out against it because it would result in another holocaust not of Jews but Catholics! He may have been wrong in not speaking out, but no matter what he said it would not have stopped Hitler or his supporters.

Answer 7

The pope ignored it because the pope wanted it to happen

Answer 8

The Pope didn't ignore the Holocaust, you idiot.

Do some research.

Pius XII helped save many, many Italian Jews from the Holocaust and the Nazi's by allowing them to hide in the Vatican and pose as Swiss Guards.

He didn't say anything against it because he knew he couldn't do anything about it. The Pope doesn't have an army, but Hitler did. He also knew that those Vatican walls built in the 13th century wouldn't save him from the Nazi's, especially when the Vatican was in the middle of the fascist capitol.

He had to use his wit to save the Catholic Church from Nazi corruption, and he did. I think he did a good job, and he doesn't receive nearly enough credit for it.

Answer 9

The pope is just a guy...lots of guys ignored the Holocaust...

Answer 10

I believe that you're mistaken. Pope Pius XII did a great deal to help the Jewish people. What he did was never spoken of because he didn't want to be in the spotlight and receive praise. Dig a little deeper my friend. There are two sides to every coin.