"The Pope's signing of the decree 'on the heroic virtues' of Pius XII has elicited a certain number of reactions in the Jewish world; perhaps because the meaning of such a signature is clear in the area of the Catholic Church and of specialists in the field, but may merit certain explanation for the larger public, in particular the Jewish public who are understandably very sensitive to all things concerning the historical period of World War II and the Holocaust.
"When the Pope signs a decree 'on the heroic virtues' of a Servant of God - i.e., of a person for whom a cause for beatification has been introduced - he confirms the positive evaluation already voted by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. ... Naturally, such evaluation takes account of the circumstances in which the person lived, and hence it is necessary to examine the question from a historical standpoint, but the evaluation essentially concerns the witness of Christian life that the person showed (his intense relationship with God and continuous search for evangelical perfection) ... and not the historical impact of all his operative decisions".
"At the beatification of Pope John XXIII and of Pope Pius IX, John Paul II said: 'holiness lives in history and no saint has escaped the limits and conditioning which are part of our human nature. In beatifying one of her sons, the Church does not celebrate the specific historical decisions he may have made, but rather points to him as someone to be imitated and venerated because of his virtues, in praise of the divine grace which shines resplendently in them'.
"There is, then, no intention in any way to limit discussion concerning the concrete choices made by Pius XII in the situation in which he lived. For her part, the Church affirms that these choices were made with the pure intention of carrying out the Pontiff's service of exalted and dramatic responsibility to the best of his abilities. In any case, Pius XII's attention to and concern for the fate of the Jews - something which is certainly relevant in the evaluation of his virtues - are widely testified and recognised, also by many Jews.
"The field for research and evaluation by historians, working in their specific area, thus remains open, also for the future. In this specific case it is comprehensible that there should be a request to have open access to all possibilities of research on the documents. ... Yet for the complete opening of the archives - as has been said on a number of occasions in the past - it is necessary to organise and catalogue an enormous mass of documentation, something which still requires a number of years' work.
"As for the fact that the decree on the heroic virtues of Pope John Paul II and Pope Pius XII were promulgated on the same day, this does not mean that from now on the two causes will be 'paired'. They are completely independent of one another and each will follow its own course. There is, then, no reason to imagine that any future beatification will take place together".
"It is, then, clear that the recent signing of the decree is in no way to be read as a hostile act towards the Jewish people, and it is to be hoped that it will not be considered as an obstacle on the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church. Rather we trust that the Pope's forthcoming visit to the Synagogue of Rome will be an opportunity for the cordial reiteration and reinforcement of ties of friendship and respect".
33 comments:
Merry Christmas to all at the Rorate Caeli!
Really, I wish that we Catholics could care less about what some (not even all) Jews say about us.
All in all, that was actually fairly decent. No goings-on about how Jews have just as much a chance of being saved as Christians or Catholics, no slinging mud at the Venerable Pius to placate the Jews, etc.
One tiny gripe, though: periods belong INSIDE the quotation marks, not outside.
I leave it in the hands of God. Venerable (soon to be Blessed) Pius XII, pray for us.
Mr Palad:I,sure as hell don't.
Merry Christmas to all!
The Catholic Church does not have to justify Her decisions to Jews or anybody from any other religion.
I would love to see Alphonsus Ratisbonne canonized.
"At the beatification of Pope John XXIII and of Pope Pius IX, John Paul II said: 'holiness lives in history and no saint has escaped the limits and conditioning which are part of our human nature. In beatifying one of her sons, the Church does not celebrate the specific historical decisions he may have made, but rather points to him as someone to be imitated and venerated because of his virtues, in praise of the divine grace which shines resplendently in them"
Isn't this a little problematic? Doesn't it represent a shift in mentality away from the focus on heroic virtue and to a more modern conception of canonization?
When we look at King St. Louis IX, for example, we can say that due to his canonization, the Church is saying that he is in Heaven, and that he exemplified heroic virtues for his state in life, in St. Louis' case, that of a monarch. What happens to our conception of canonization and the veneration of saints when we pretend that its possible for someone to contain virtues worthy of exemplifying, and that to a heroic degree, while maintaining that their historical actions, particularly those relating to their state in life, are problematic.
I certainly have no problem with the idea that we could say a particular pope was worthy of canonization while saying that prudentially he made the wrong decision in practical matters.
But when a pope is under such attack, as Pope Ven. Pius XII is currently, then isn't it due in justice to avoid things like this Note which will still give fuel to the fires of angry Jews?
This clarification is an embarassment, and an affront to the holy life of Pius XII.
The decision of Bendict XVI to declare Pius XII "Venerable Pope Pius XII" was a righteous and just action...two years late. Pius was and is a saint.
And there is no need to appologize or make explaination or excuses for this decree.
"the historical impact of all his operative decisions"
-is this not another way to say that even Saints are capable of error in matters of prudence, ie employing actions to a particular end. It seems that by saying their "operative decisions" may not have fulfilled the "historical impact" they intended, the point was simply that even those who possess virtue will not necessarily know the future and know which actions will result in which ends.
So Venerable Pius XII may or may not have been imprudent in His decesions (this note does, indeed, leave that open to "research"), but he was certianly virtuous in the midst of a terrible situation.
I don't see how this is a problem. Otherwise, you would have to say something strange like "Saints don't get into car accidents when they attempt to swerve to miss hitting a deer in the middle of the road on a fall night in Kansas" or something silly like this.
I feel like this was ok, but should have been much more forceful in laying out and defending Pope Pius' stellar record of saving Jews during the war. It seems that the Press Office is hesitant to do so. If they're not going to defend him, then who will?!
This Note is an extremely bad idea. It suggests that the Vicar of God Himself needs to explain his decisions not only to those who deny his jurisdiction but to the very worst enemies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have already had an incident in which the Pope apparently felt it necessary to alter the Divine and Holy Liturgy of the Latin Good Friday Office in order to placate the two chief rabbis of Palestine, who had the temerity to release a copy of their letter to the secular press, adding insult to injury. For those boys, nothing can be enough.
The best attitude of the Holy See towards infidels in her internal acts is to behave as if they did not even exist. Soon, they will be demanding a right to 'consult' with the Pope before he acts. In the end, they'll want veto power over his decisions. That is where this leads.
Benedict XVI has been a vast improvment over the last three popes. Ven. Pius XII, the Pope of the Jews, was better still. Let's not sully his memory by suggesting that his wise and prudent decisons need to be defended to anyone, least of all the Jews.
P.K.T.P.
"Benedict XVI has been a vast improvment over the last three popes."
Agreed, but he unfortunatly still quotes his predecessor too much, and also immitates his agenda and actions too much.
Granted, it may be the remnant JP II aged army of hangers-on in the Curia pressuring the Pope to do so, but still...he should be Pope enough to distance himself from much of went before him.....including the apparent need to still defend in glorious and ringing terms the "reforms" of vatican II.
Garrett wrote:
"One tiny gripe, though: periods belong INSIDE the quotation marks, not outside."
That is only true in U.S. usage. Here in Canada, I enjoin my students to do it the correct way, by which I mean the other way. Periods go inside closing inverted commas only if the entire last sentence is in quotation. If even one word is out of the inverted commas (e.g. 'he said'), the stop falls last.
In the case of commas, the comma is tucked inside the closing inverted commas if it would have been there were there no closing quotation; otherwise, put it outside.
P.K.T.P.
This really is infuriating. Pius XII saved 860,000 Jews from the Holocaust and the Vatican doesn't even mention it. Can you imagine how much he suffered, how much he struggled? How much he wept for the Jews he could not save? And then, the Holy See itself refuses to stand up and defend him! The only reason the Jews are frothing at the mouth is blind hatred and willful ignorance of the facts! My God, let's start treating them like adults and demand that they either provide facts to back their claims or shut the hell up. His Holiness deserves better than this, and the fact that the Vatican itself stabbed him in the back just...irritates me to no end.
Pius XII,
Ora pro nobis.
Melchior Canor writes quite perceptively:
"Isn't this a little problematic? Doesn't it represent a shift in mentality away from the focus on heroic virtue and to a more modern conception of canonization?"
I agree entirely. Look, if the purpose of canonisation is to propose models for behaviour, this must mean models for us and for those in future generations. That implies that the saint (e.g.) was heroic in terms of universally-true concepts of virtue. Canonisation is, as I have written here before, not primarily a 'search and identify' mission to find saints. Were that the case, the Vatican would be working night and day to sort the endless candidates.
The Note makes the correct point, nevertheless, that virtue means doing what one honestly believes to be best. We can make honest mistakes and still be virtuous. In the case of Ven. Pius XII, we can say that he did do what was best. With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that, were World War II to repeat itself, the current Pope should do exactly what he did to save Jews.
P.K.T.P.
Dear Mr. Domer:
It is not the business of the Church to "defend" the record of Ven. Pius XII. We celebrate his stellar record; we don't defend it. It needs no defence.
P.K.T.P.
Garret said "One tiny gripe, though: periods belong INSIDE the quotation marks, not outside".
Only in American; not in ENglish. :-)
One tiny gripe, though: periods belong INSIDE the quotation marks, not outside.
What now, were you baiting Mr. Perkins or something? ;-)
Let's all leave aside the quotation marks dispute please.
No need to explain. The Holy Father can act without explanation to his critics. One only hopes he would grant status and faculties to the SSPX and independents professing loyalty to him as the Supreme Pastor of the Universal Church and Vicar of Christ on earth.
This has Stato written all over it. But, brick by brick, things will continue to improve.
The Decree is published. Now let's help Ven. Pius XII accumulate a few miracles for the glory of God!
And Empress Zita, Fulton Sheen, Cdl. Merry Del Val, and Cdl. Cajetan while we're at it.
In the fullness of time, even those who were so wronged first by the Naziism explicitly and unprecedentedly condemned in "Mit brenndender sorge" will come to appreciate his great friendship, which eminated from a church caught betwixt a world war without and a nascent civil war within.
Merry Christmas to all at Rorate Caeli! What a wonderful Christmas gift to the church is this new Venerabile. May he soon be raised to the altars above the clamor of the world. Venerable Pope Pius XII, pray for us this Christmas and always.
Venerable PiusXII pray for us!
Merry Christmas!
nice blog. Thanks a lot for this post. I have no doubts Pius XII was a saint.
"This has Stato written all over it. But, brick by brick, things will continue to improve"
When will Benedict XVI clean house and get rid of Sec. of State Bertone, and all the other old garbage in that office from the previous 2 Papal reigns?
Believe it or not, there are stimm some very aged hangers-on from Paul VI still in the Curia....these are the real radical "Vatican II" people....along with the JP II aging crowd.
Out with the old, and in with the new. New traditionalists...I hope.
Note to GandhianCatholic- I concur with your analysis (post#16) 100 percent. I could not have said it better myself. I live for the day of his canonization. I already wear a silver medal with an image of the Sacred Heart on one side and Ven. Pius XII on the reverse.
Cor Jesu sacratissimum, Miserere nobis
Ven. Pius XII, ora pro nobis
Does anyone else see this note as an attempt to set a precedent for the Venerable John Paul II?
Regardless of how strong or weak this statement may be, the people who hate Pius XII and fight against his canonization are not going to be swayed by a mere note when they've ignored the clear evidence for fifty years.
I see this statement as being geared toward Catholics who may find John Paul II's personal virtue to be beyond reproach, but who would take exception to his rapid march to canonization due to his less than stellar approach in certain areas (1962 Missal, Assisi and all the other events, etc.) and so on.
"In the fullness of time..."
Not to take you task here John, this being Christmas and all, but thats a rather imprecise and (I'm sure unwitting) theological problem: We've already had the fulness of time, as the announcement at prime tells us: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Flesh.
We now only need a Note from the same office explaining why on earth the Pope would declare John Paul II venerable after he kissed the Qu'ran and asked St. John the Baptist to protect Islam. Don't worry, the Note could say, these decisions may have been huge errors but the Pope did not intend malice by them; he only made honest mistakes. We apologise to all the real Catholics out there for forwarding his case.
You won't see that.
Anyway, let's forget this for now. Merry Christmas to all!
P.K.T.P.
During the era when Jews could not be admitted to Country Clubs, both FDR and Churchill refused to increase immigration for desperate Jews. In addition, Jewish scholars know well that Pius XII was assisting Jews to shuttle across Europe towards Spain and Portugal and onto ships to the Carribean for 'illegal' entry via Cuba, Mexico and Canada. The betrayal of the most righteous of Gentiles to make him the scapegoat and a wedge on other matters is beyond the pale and not to be forgoten.
Michael F Brennan
St Petersburg, FL
Will some one name for me one heroic virtue practiced by JP2?
I'd really like to know...I read almost everything on his papacy and followed it for years, and never remember one act of heroic virtue...everything was done for the cameras...
The consistent attacks on John Paul II speaks to an ignorance among some 'obsessed with agenda' driven 'traditionalists' who appear incapable of charity, but don't read very well. This Note from the Holy See points out that Papal decisions outside Faith and Morals are not criteria to determine virtues. The suffering Pope was betrayed and disobeyed continually by bishops, but his faith in Jesus Christ's ultimate victory was made evident world wide to the common folk. John Paul II had a rare relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is the root of his heroic virtues.
Michael F Brennan
St Petersburg FL
Post a Comment