Ever since the 1960’s, the enemies of God have been going after Pope Pius XII. After WWII many Jews thought of Pius XII as a hero. Even Israeli foreign minister Gold Meir upon the death of Pius XII said: “When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict.”
When the Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism in 1945, he took the name Eugenio in honor of Pope Pius XII. Pius XII was named Eugenio Pacelli. Many other examples can be cited of Jews who praised Pope Pius XII for his defense of the Jewish people in their darkest hours.
Everything changed in the 1960’s when communists in East Germany released a play called The Deputy, which essentially engaged in pseudo-history and smeared the character of Pius XII. This movement culminated in the most famous hit piece on the character of Pius and that was the book Hitler’s Pope by John Cornwell. After all, if you can link anyone to Hitler, they’re finished. Many people think the book is a work of pseudo-scholarship including Rabbi David G. Dalin who wrote a rebuttal of the book called The Myth of Hitler’s Pope.
Enemies of God such as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who is a huge critic of Catholicism have clung to this book for comfort. It seems that every year, Boteach has to take a shot at Pius XII in one of his speeches or columns.
Recently a great documentary was done on Pope Pius XII by National Geographic called Pope vs. Hitler. Essentially, the defaming of Pius XII is at an end. He fought against Hitler tooth and nail and was the greatest enemy of National Socialism in Germany. Rabbi Boteach appears in this documentary but his emotion is essentially beaten down by facts and argument.
Robert Ventresca published a book called Soldier of Christ: The Life of Pope Pius XII, which also helps to dismantle myths about the Pope during the war, even though the book is about his entire life. One never hears Rabbi Boteach quoting these books. I wonder why? The simply reason is that Rabbi Boteach is extremely anti-Catholic. In 2005 he did his annual hit piece on Pius XII that can be found here:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley/item/a_fallible_pope_an_imperfect_church_20100411
In this article he also wrote: “For most of its two thousand years the Catholic Church has been anti-Semitic, responsible for horrific atrocities against Jews and others who branded heretics.” This is an absolute lie and I have exposed this line of thinking on my blog before. If Boteach were honest, he would have accused the Church of two thousand years of anti-Judaism but that just doesn’t have the same zing, now does it? The issues that the Catholic Church has with Jews are not ethnic but theological. Many Jews have come to embrace Christ and his Church such as Rabbi Israeli Zolli mentioned earlier in this post.
In 2014, Boteach wrote a column which included another shot at Pius XII. It can be found here:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley/item/pope_francis_and_the_need_to_confront_evil
In this column he says: “Pope Francis just canonized John XXIII and John Paul II, both courageous friends of world Jewry. He pointedly, and to his credit, did not canonize Pope Pius XII, the man universally derided as “Hitler’s Pope.”
Universally derided? Do you want to defend that Rabbi Boteach? Remember, universally means everyone and that simply isn’t true. In fact, that position is not only a minority but a quickly shrinking minority.
I would encourage Rabbi Boteach to denounce his lies about the Catholic Church and Pius XII and to embrace Christ and the Church. Until then, he won’t get the help that he needs. The pendulum has swung back on Pius XII. The smear of Hitler’s Pope is dead. In fact, it’s as dead as the spiritual and moral state of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.