Pope Pius XII

While rightfully praising Pope Pius XI for trying to confront the evils of Nazi Germany (“Hidden Encyclical Could Have Changed World,” Commentary, March 8), Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center perpetuates what Newsweek religion writer Kenneth Woodward termed “monstrous calumnies” against Pope Pius XII.

Rabbi Hier asserts that “only Pius XI was willing to confront Adolph Hitler, no matter what the consequences.” This ignores the multitude of prominent Jewish voices--including the World Jewish Congress, the Hebrew Commission, Golda Meir, Albert Einstein and Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli of Rome--who heaped praise and gratitude upon Pope Pius XII.

It ignores the testimony of Israeli diplomat and scholar Pinchas Lapide, who credited the words and actions of Pope Pius XII with “saving the lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.” It ignores the attacks on Pius XII by the Nazi Gestapo, who labeled the Pope’s 1942 Christmas message “one long attack against everything we stand for. He is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews.”

It ignores, in short, the facts. Those who insist that the church could have done more to oppose the Holocaust should consider that had others done as much, many more lives could have been saved.

RICK HINSHAW

Director of Communications

Catholic League, New York