5-January-2005 -- Vatican Update
CATHOLICS JOIN LATEST POLEMICS ON POPE PIUS XIIRome, Jan. 05 (CWNews.com) - Controversy is once again swirling around the memory of Pope Pius XII, with the publication of a Vatican document dating from 1946, regarding the treatment of Jewish children who were baptized during World War II. On December 28, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera published a story based on the newly revealed document, in which a Vatican official said that children who were baptized during the Nazi occupation of France "may not be entrusted to institutions that are not in a position to guarantee them a Christian upbringing." The story provoked outrage among Jewish leaders, who saw it as evidence that the Vatican, under the leadership of Pope Pius XII, refused to return Jewish children to their parents. Pius XII has frequently been charged with indifference or hostility toward the Jewish victims of the Holocaust-- a charge that Catholic officials have heatedly denied. In the latest round of polemics, Catholic historians again defended the reputation of the late Pontiff, who is now a candidate for beatification. The Vatican document, unearthed by the Italian historian Alberto Melloni, is a letter offering instructions to the apostolic nuncio in France, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, who would later be Pope John XXIII. This letter, which was discovered in Church archives in France, was written by an official of the Holy Office (now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith); the author claims that his instructions have the approval of Pope Pius XII. The Vatican instructions involve the treatment of Jewish children who
were placed in the care of Catholic institutions during World War II, in
order to protect them from the Holocaust. In many cases these children
were now orphans, in many other cases their families were still missing,
and the chaos of post-war France, Church-run institutions were trying to
formulate policies on how they should provide for the future of these
children. Alberto Melloni, the historian who discovered the archival document, claims that Archbishop Roncalli did his best to return Jewish children to their families, in spite of the instructions contained in the letter. Melloni points out that in a letter to the grand rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Herzog (the father of future Israeli President Chaim Herzog), the future Pope said that that the Jewish leader should "invoke [Roncalli's] authority with the institutions concerned, whenever it is useful" to ensure that Catholic orphanages would "return the children to their original places." But Father Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit priest who is preparing the case
for beatification of Pius XII, charges that Melloni showed "remarkable
negligence" in publishing the document, adding that the latest complaints
against the wartime Pope lack "all historical rigor." The letter published by Melloni is written in French, and was found in
French archives rather than among the papers of the apostolic nunciature
in France. Those factors lead Father Gumpel to question whether the
document was indeed intended for Archbishop Roncalli. The Jesuit historian
points out that the Holy Office, which was staffed predominantly by
Italian clerics, would ordinarily write to an Italian prelate in his own
language. "This is not a question of anti-Semitism," Father Blet observes; "it is a very complex question involving the sacrament of Baptism." During World War II, the French bishops had given instructions that Jewish children being sheltered in Church institutions should not ordinarily be baptized, since canon law required an assurance that a baptized child would receive adequate instruction in the faith. When a child was baptized-- presumably because of a sincere conversion-- the Church's policy was to retain the child in Catholic institutions, and provide for his education. This Church policy was well understood in the years during and after
World War II, notes Professor Philippe Chenaux, the author of a biography
of Pope Pius XII. While he recognizes that the policy seems shocking to
contemporary sensibilities, Chenaux believes that the publication of the
1946 document was "not entirely innocent," hinting that critics of Pius
XII hoped to revive opposition to the cause of his beatification. He
observes that the story published in Corriere della Sera also followed a
familiar pattern for critics of the wartime Pope, by accentuating the
disagreements (real or imagined) between Pius XII and his successor,
Blessed John XXIII. |