Melville House Books

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Leaders in the Jewish community have expressed dismay over comments in Pope Benedict’s new book. According to a Reuters’ wire story:

Jewish leaders reacted with dismay Sunday to comments in Pope Benedict’s new book that his wartime predecessor Pius was a “great, righteous” man who “saved more Jews than anyone else.”

Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked behind the scenes because speaking out would have prompted Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.

The book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Sign of the Times, releasing today from Ignatius Press, is a series of interviews conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald over a period of a week.

Reuters quotes Benedict saying of Pius, “The decisive thing is what he did and what he tried to do, and on that score we really must acknowledge, I believe, that he was one of the great righteous men and that he saved more Jews than anyone else.”

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants told Reuters, “Pope Benedict’s comments fill us with pain and sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican-Jewish relations. The assertion that Pius saved more Jews than anyone else during the Holocaust is categorically contradicted by the known historical record. As survivors of the Holocaust we have a solemn obligation to the memory of those murdered to defend the truth of the tragedy till our last breath.”

Pope Pius, who is currently up for sainthood, is one of the main points of contention now between the Vatican and the Jewish community. According to Reuters, “When the pope visited Rome’s synagogue in January, the leader of the city’s Jewish community told him bluntly that Pius should have spoken out more forcefully against the Holocaust to show solidarity with Jews being led to the Auschwitz death camp.”

In the book, Benedict discusses his decision to advance Pius XII on the path toward sainthood, recognizing his “heroic virtues” after reviewing unpublished archival records in the Vatican. Though Benedict acknowledged that a rigorous inspection of all the materials has yet to be done.

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, told Reuters,”It is distressing that the pope has found it necessary to come to judgment on Pope Pius XII as he himself admits that the files and archives are not available to make a full judgment.”

Reuters went on to say, “Jews have asked that the process that could lead to making Pius a saint be frozen until after all the Vatican archives from the period are opened and studied.”

Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.