Peach
Gold Member
- Jan 10, 2009
- 20,864
- 2,729
- 245
Especially since the progressive history revisionists are working as hard as they can to pretend it didn't happen. It justifies their attacks on Christians.
NOT I, many Catholics sheltered Jews, aided them at the risk of their own lives. A bit on the Pope and his attempts to resist the deluge:
Appearing before 250,000 pilgrims at Lourdes in April 1935, Cardinal Pacelli said:
[The Nazis] are in reality only miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of the social revolution, whether they are guided by a false conception of the world and of life, or whether they are possessed by the superstition of a race and blood cult.[citation needed]
In 1936, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, Papal Nuncio to Germany, asked Cardinal Pacelli, then Vatican Secretary of State, for instructions regarding an invitation from Hitler to attend a Nazi Party meeting in Nuremberg, along with the entire diplomatic corps. Pacelli replied, The Holy Father thinks it is preferable that your Excellency abstain, taking a few days vacation.[citation needed]
In 1937, Orsenigo was invited along with the diplomatic corps to a reception for Hitlers birthday. Orsenigo again asked the Vatican if he should attend. Pacellis reply was, The Holy Father thinks not. Also because of the position of this Embassy, the Holy Father believes it is preferable in the present situation if your Excellency abstains from taking part in manifestations of homage toward the Lord Chancellor,[citation needed]
During Hitlers visit to Rome in 1938, Pius XI and Pacelli avoided meeting with him by leaving Rome a month early for the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.
The Vatican was closed, and the priests and religious brothers and sisters left in Rome were told not to participate in the festivities and celebrations surrounding Hitlers Visit. On the Feast of the Holy Cross, Pius XI said from Castel Gandolfo, It saddens me to think that today in Rome the cross that is worshipped is not the Cross of our Saviour.
[edit]Denouncing the "war of ideologies"
Peter Kent writes:
Once the Rome-Berlin Axis had been proclaimed, the Holy See sought to drive a wedge between Germany and Italy. In early January 1937, a series of articles in Osservatore Romano returned to the theme of denouncing the war of ideologies attendant on the Spanish Civil War, and as Mussolini sought to turn Italian opinion towards Germany, the Pope sought to turn it in the opposite direction. A public protest against the German treatment of the Church was called for so that there should be no doubt where the Pope stood and what attitude Catholics should take.[31]