Vatican wants Pius caption changed

Disputed Yad Vashem text won't prevent possible visit to Israel by pope, Vatican official says.

By MARK WEISS
Pope Benedict 248.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Pope Benedict 248.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The Vatican on Saturday reiterated its objections to a caption in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum which alleges that Pope Pius XII didn't do enough to save Jews during World War II. The Vatican urged Yad Vashem to make "a new, objective and in-depth review" of the caption, which says Pius did not protest the Nazi genocide of Jews and maintained a largely "neutral" position. Benedict recently reiterated the Vatican contention that Pius, who became pontiff in 1939, shortly before the war started, quietly worked behind the scenes to save as many Jews as possible. As an Italian prelate, Pius worked as a diplomat at the Vatican in the years leading up to the war. A Vatican official said the dispute would not stop Pope Benedict XVI from possibly visiting Israel. "Nevertheless, this fact cannot be considered a determining factor for a decision on any visit by the Holy Father to the Holy Land, a trip, which, as it is known, is among the pope's desires, but for now hasn't seen concrete planning," said Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, in a statement. Radically opposed views of Pius XII's wartime policies periodically kindle passions anew as his beatification process - the third of the four steps on the way to being declared a saint - moves forward. "Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the pope did not protest either verbally or in writing," the disputed Yad Vashem caption reads. "In December 1942, he abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews. When Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, the pope did not intervene. "The pope maintained his neutral position throughout the war, with the exception of appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia toward its end. His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react." There was no official response from Jerusalem to the latest comments from the Vatican. An official said that Israel is following developments closely, but he doubted that there will be any request from the government for Yad Vashem to change the contentious caption. "Israel is not involved in the rewriting of history," the official said, expressing doubt that Yad Vashem would consider rewording the caption. Yad Vashem had no response to the latest Vatican objections. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy stressed that the pope would be welcome in Israel but said as long as Vatican archives on Pius's papacy remain closed to researchers, "the debate over Pope Pius XII's actions or inaction in that horrendous period remains an open and painful one." Rabbi David Rosen, the director of Interfaith Relations at the American Jewish Committee, noted that the Yad Vashem caption has been an "ongoing irritant" in Israel-Vatican relations but is probably not the most significant obstacle to a papal visit. He cited the lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as a more important factor. Rosen, who has been at the forefront of the dialogue between Jerusalem and the Holy See in recent years, also has problems with the Yad Vashem caption. "There is something inherently contradictory in the caption," Rosen notes. "You can't say someone is controversial and then make a judgment." According to Rosen the caption should stress "that Pope Pius did not take a vigorous enough stand against the Nazis but at the same time should also note that he did take supportive measures to save Jews." Church leaders have been pressing Israel for years to either remove the caption or change it to what they consider would be fairer wording. But Rosen says that from the Jewish perspective the lack of action by Pius to directly confront the Nazis remains a "source of deep distress." Lombardi commented Saturday night after a Catholic official promoting Pius's beatification gave interviews Saturday in which he said the caption was the main reason the pope cannot go to Israel. The Rev. Peter Gumpel called the caption flap "the most burning" reason why a pilgrimage by Benedict to Israel hasn't taken shape. "How can he go there knowing these captions are absolutely historically untrue?" Gumpel asked rhetorically in a telephone interview with AP. "Catholics would be mortally offended." Benedict paid tribute to Pius earlier this month at a mass to mark the 50th anniversary of Pius's death. In 1941, the pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, joined the Hitler Youth, as was required of all German boys at the time. Lombardi in his statement reiterated that Benedict is reflecting on a vast dossier of documentation on Pius before declaring that his predecessor exhibited heroic virtues, a necessary finding for the beatification process to go forward. Considering the pope's study and reflection on Pius, "in this situation, it is not opportune to exercise pressure on him [Benedict] one way or the other," Lombardi said. Benedict has an open invitation from Israel to visit. Late last year, however, the Vatican ruled out a trip in the near term, saying the two sides must settle long-standing differences over property, tax exemptions and visas for clergy traveling in the West Bank. The Holy See and Israel established diplomatic relations in the early 1990s. A top French Jewish organization, meanwhile, warned the Vatican on Friday against beatifying Pius XII. The Representative Council of French-Jewish Institutions (CRIF) said in a statement, that the beatification, if completed, would be a "severe blow' to Jewish-Catholic relations. "..the Vatican refuses to open its archives to historians over the period of the Second World War," said the organization on its Web site. "...the majority of independent historians do not support the thesis of the pope's tireless activities in favor of the Jews; such a beatification would be perceived negatively by all Jewish institutions around the world. "This is not to deny that the pope helped to hide a number of Jews in Rome during the German occupation....[But] Pope Pius XII, anxious not to break bridges with Germany, never made a speech denouncing the clear monstrosity of the extermination of millions of Jews." Pius also did not deliver such speech even after the end of the war, something the CRIF considers "deeply shocking." AP contributed to this report