The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to move World War II-era Pope Pius XII a step closer to sainthood is a step in the wrong direction (“Friend to the Jews,” Gary L. Krupp, Post- Opinion, Dec. 28).
Benedict’s decision approved decrees of heroic virtue for Pius XII. With that decree, the Church declares that the candidate has lived a saintly life. Pius XII has now earned the appellation “venerable” and is on his way to beatification and sainthood.
Historical facts do not justify this designation.
Whom the Church chooses as a candidate for sainthood is the Church’s department. Holocaust history, however, is mine. Pius XII was no friend of the Jews, and Gary Krupp is no historian.
Benedict’s decree on behalf of Pius XII may serve the Church, but it does not serve history. Indeed, it is a denial of history and, moreover, an act of aggression against the Jewish people.
Debórah Dwork
Director
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
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Krupp’s Pave the Way Foundation has been going down the wrong road by engaging in a campaign of misinformation about what the “evidence” says concerning Pius XII.
Its use of highly selective, out-of-context documents to make overblown claims about the actions of the World War II pope on behalf of the Jewish people violates basic historical research practices.
It is crucial for the Vatican to open its secret archives for the Holocaust period so that qualified, independent scholars can study them and make a reasoned analysis of the wartime pope’s record.
Benedict should do this in 2010. Until then, no final determinations about Pius XII should be made, either way.
Rabbi E. Greenberg
Director, Interfaith Policy
Anti-Defamation League
Manhattan