I don’t see how this holds any water. “I have information from a reliable source who must remain anonymous that the Germans are massacring Jews, and I condemn it” — how hard was that? This is just...
However, Coco noted that Koenig also urged the Holy See to not make public what he was revealing because he feared for his own life and those of the resistance sources who had provided the intelligence.
I don’t see how this holds any water. “I have information from a reliable source who must remain anonymous that the Germans are massacring Jews, and I condemn it” — how hard was that? This is just another case of the church’s innumerable moral failings.
Nicole Winfield Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed...
Nicole Winfield
Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland, undercutting the Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.
The documentation from the Vatican archives, published this weekend in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is likely to further fuel the debate about Pius’ legacy and his now-stalled beatification campaign.
Historians have long been divided about Pius’ record, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives while critics say he remained silent as the Holocaust raged.
Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist
Corriere is reproducing a letter dated Dec. 14, 1942 from the German Jesuit priest to Pius’ secretary which is contained in an upcoming book about the newly opened files of Pius’ pontificate by Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives.
Coco told Corriere that the letter was significant because it represented detailed correspondence about the Nazi extermination of Jews from an informed church source in Germany who was part of the Catholic anti-Hitler resistance that was able to get otherwise secret information to the Vatican.
From Koenig 1942
The letter from the priest, the Rev. Lothar Koenig, to Pius’ secretary, a fellow German Jesuit named the Rev. Robert Leiber, is dated Dec. 14, 1942. Written in German, the letter addresses Leiber as “Dear friend,” and goes on to report that the Nazis were killing up to 6,000 Jews and Poles daily from Rava Ruska, a town in pre-war Poland that is today located in Ukraine, and transporting them to the Belzec death camp.
The date of Koenig’s letter is significant because it suggests the correspondence from a trusted fellow Jesuit arrived in Pius’ office in the same three weeks before Christmas 1942 that Pius was receiving multiple diplomatic notes from the British and Polish envoys to the Vatican with reports that up to 1 million Jews had been killed so far in Poland.
No certainty that Pius saw it
While it can’t be certain that Pius saw the letter, Leiber was Pius’ top aide and had served the pope when he was the Vatican’s ambassador to Germany during the 1920s, suggesting a close working relationship especially concerning matters related to Germany.
Keep it private
However, Coco noted that Koenig also urged the Holy See to not make public what he was revealing because he feared for his own life and those of the resistance sources who had provided the intelligence.
Found in secretariat archives
Coco said Koenig’s letter actually was found in the Vatican’s secretariat of state archives and was turned over to the Vatican’s main Apostolic Archives only in 2019, because the secretariat of state’s papers were disorganized and scattered, with some of Pius’ documents kept in plastic containers in an attic storage space where heat and humidity were damaging them.
I think it should be said that the Church obviously had very complex long-term considerations and shouldn't be judged too harshly on this. (i.e. denouncing the Nazis would have very little...
I think it should be said that the Church obviously had very complex long-term considerations and shouldn't be judged too harshly on this. (i.e. denouncing the Nazis would have very little practical effect, but alienating them would have been bad for the ultimate mission of doing good if they succeeded in taking over Europe/the world)
It’s funny how complex issues always seem to be involved when the church faces what seem to be pretty straightforward moral issues. Covering up and enabling pedophile priests seems wrong, but it...
It’s funny how complex issues always seem to be involved when the church faces what seem to be pretty straightforward moral issues.
Covering up and enabling pedophile priests seems wrong, but it was a complex situation — it can’t be as simple as turning known active pedophiles over to the police, since they certainly didn’t do that.
In Nazi Germany where one third of the population was Catholic and the Nazis were slaughtering Jews, gays, etc, it sounds simple that their spiritual leader should offer clear, public condemnation and guidance to his flock to do whatever was in their power to resist this atrocity, but again, apparently, surprisingly complex.
I never claimed that abuse of children by the Church was complex, and I agree that it's a straightforward moral failing. It's too easy to say in hindsight what the right thing for a neutral actor...
I never claimed that abuse of children by the Church was complex, and I agree that it's a straightforward moral failing.
It's too easy to say in hindsight what the right thing for a neutral actor to do was--there's a fine line between bravery and foolishness. it's true that many Germans were Catholic, but there was an ongoing pagan revival and anti-religious sentiment being pushed by the Nazis and most of the their support came from Protestants not Catholics (this study shows that the strongest explanatory variable in predicting whether someone would vote for the NSDAP or not was whether they were Protestant or Catholic). Denouncing them may have still fallen on deaf ears and drawn the ire of the Nazi machine against Catholics. Would have things been marginally or even substantially better if the Church denounced the Nazis? Maybe. But, it's not a simple question, and certainly not a simple question for the Church at the time.
This right here is the root of the issue. One can't be a neutral actor with respect to the genocide that the Nazis were carrying out. The only possible defence is ignorance -- but we have strong...
a neutral actor
This right here is the root of the issue. One can't be a neutral actor with respect to the genocide that the Nazis were carrying out. The only possible defence is ignorance -- but we have strong evidence that Pius was not in fact ignorant.
it's true that many Germans were Catholic, but there was an ongoing pagan revival and anti-religious sentiment being pushed by the Nazis and most of the their support came from Protestants not Catholics (this study shows that the strongest explanatory variable in predicting whether someone would vote for the NSDAP or not was whether they were Protestant or Catholic).
This seems irrelevant? It would be the same moral obligation of a leader of a group of ten people to speak out about this atrocity. That he held influence over a third of the population makes it a greater historical tragedy, but the moral failing on the level of the individual is about the same.
Denouncing them may have still fallen on deaf ears and drawn the ire of the Nazi machine against Catholics. Would have things been marginally or even substantially better if the Church denounced the Nazis? Maybe. But, it's not a simple question, and certainly not a simple question for the Church at the time.
It was the moral duty of Catholics, and every other person, to stand up to the Nazi machine and their program of genocide.
I don’t see how this holds any water. “I have information from a reliable source who must remain anonymous that the Germans are massacring Jews, and I condemn it” — how hard was that? This is just another case of the church’s innumerable moral failings.
Nicole Winfield
Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland, undercutting the Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.
Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist
From Koenig 1942
No certainty that Pius saw it
Keep it private
Found in secretariat archives
I think it should be said that the Church obviously had very complex long-term considerations and shouldn't be judged too harshly on this. (i.e. denouncing the Nazis would have very little practical effect, but alienating them would have been bad for the ultimate mission of doing good if they succeeded in taking over Europe/the world)
It’s funny how complex issues always seem to be involved when the church faces what seem to be pretty straightforward moral issues.
Covering up and enabling pedophile priests seems wrong, but it was a complex situation — it can’t be as simple as turning known active pedophiles over to the police, since they certainly didn’t do that.
Murdering and abusing indigenous children at residential schools seems wrong, but again this is complex — it’s even too much for the pope to issue an apology.
In Nazi Germany where one third of the population was Catholic and the Nazis were slaughtering Jews, gays, etc, it sounds simple that their spiritual leader should offer clear, public condemnation and guidance to his flock to do whatever was in their power to resist this atrocity, but again, apparently, surprisingly complex.
Well, the pope did eventually applogize, so there’s at least that.
I never claimed that abuse of children by the Church was complex, and I agree that it's a straightforward moral failing.
It's too easy to say in hindsight what the right thing for a neutral actor to do was--there's a fine line between bravery and foolishness. it's true that many Germans were Catholic, but there was an ongoing pagan revival and anti-religious sentiment being pushed by the Nazis and most of the their support came from Protestants not Catholics (this study shows that the strongest explanatory variable in predicting whether someone would vote for the NSDAP or not was whether they were Protestant or Catholic). Denouncing them may have still fallen on deaf ears and drawn the ire of the Nazi machine against Catholics. Would have things been marginally or even substantially better if the Church denounced the Nazis? Maybe. But, it's not a simple question, and certainly not a simple question for the Church at the time.
This right here is the root of the issue. One can't be a neutral actor with respect to the genocide that the Nazis were carrying out. The only possible defence is ignorance -- but we have strong evidence that Pius was not in fact ignorant.
This seems irrelevant? It would be the same moral obligation of a leader of a group of ten people to speak out about this atrocity. That he held influence over a third of the population makes it a greater historical tragedy, but the moral failing on the level of the individual is about the same.
It was the moral duty of Catholics, and every other person, to stand up to the Nazi machine and their program of genocide.
I can't help but be reminded of this comic