Do you like being lied to?
I thought not.
Next question: How much do you know about Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli? If you, like me, have trouble keeping Popes apart, I’ll make it easier.
He was the Pope during the later years of World War II. He’s been called Hitler’s Pope; branded as the man who let about twelve million people die in the holocaust.
And it’s all a lie.
Ralph McInerny, a Ph.D. in philosophy at Notre Dame University and creator of the “Father Dowling Mysteries,” tells a story with ease-especially the true story of “The Defamation of Pius XII.”
The entire book is crystal clear, footnoted beyond reproach, with his main question spelled out on page one: why are the lies about this pope so popular?
McInerny begins with a sketch of Pacelli’s life, emphasizing the years of the Third Reich.
In less than two hundred pages, McInerny covers the millions of Catholics killed in the concentration camps; the Catholic families sheltering Jewish refugees in their own homes; the false baptismal certificates and Vatican passports forged by priests to protect Jews; three thousand Jewish men and women hidden within the papal Castle Gandalfo.
Adolph Hitler himself called Pacelli an enemy of the Reich, “The Deputy of the Jew-God.” This is called friendship?
When Pius XII’s immediate predecessor condemned Communism and Fascism, Pacelli held the pen as Vatican Secretary of State. Is this silence?
Pius XII “was responsible for rescuing 860,00 Jews from certain death” according to McInerny-so many that the Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism and took the name Eugenio. This is an anti-Semitic monster?
Yes, the Vatican signed a treaty with Hitler, as did France, England and Russia; but the Vatican was the only one who from the first stated a dislike for the Reich and its policies. The list of evidence goes on for a very long time.
However, the book isn’t about Pius XII and the Holocaust, but why he has been defamed by thugs like John Carroll and Rolf Hochhuth (the first an ex-Priest, the latter a former member of the Hitler Youth). Eugenio Pacelli saved 860,000 Jews, but he’s still maligned. Why?
The answer is simple: Pope Pius XII stood for a principle called natural law, and by shooting at him, his enemies target it.
Natural law is why Pope John Paul II stands against contraception, abortion. To further the agenda, a whole generation has been brought up on slander.
Are you angry? Good, you should be. Being lied to is just another way of being controlled. If you’re angry because you believe McInerny to be wrong, read the book and argue with him yourself.
If you’re angry because you’ve been lied to, read the book-you haven’t even begun to realize the breadth and depth of the vilification campaign. Remember one important lesson: it’s what they don’t tell you that’s important.
