And:
“The Pope could have and should have done more, up to and perhaps including risking his life to speak out.”
Pope Pius has recieved a lot of criticism for not doing more, but the defense of him rests on several issues. First, take into account that the Vatican exists within the country of Italy, which was controlled by Mussolini. Had Pious issued more forthright statements (he did, several times, in his Christmas radio addresses, speak against genocide-interestingly the NYT praised him as one of the few European leaders who was willing to do even that much– but some feel that he wasn’t direct enough in his criticism), would Mussolini have been likely to have allowed him to continue broadcasting at all? Plus, many people feel that he feared that any direct confrontation would have led to more slaughter, including Christians as well as Jews. He did allow Jews to seek refuge in the Vatican but his official position was to remain neutral in the same way that the Red Cross does, so that it can facilitate humanitarian aid whenever possible. I don’t completely agree with his stance in all cases but I agree with a summary I read recently which said that the desperate times called for a prophet but instead we had a timid and diplomatic man in the papacy. What is interesting is that Pious’ temperament seemed to have been similar to the current Pope Benedict’s (who is also an introverted scholar, who puts individual piety above political involvement) yet Benedict so far seems to show signs that he is not afraid to speak out, that he finds it necessary to do so. Time will tell whether or not he continues that trend, and whether or not he’ll be tested as Pious was.

In any case, I may have misunderstood you but thought your criticism was of Pope John, who didn’t hold the papal office until after the Holocaust but who acted heroically during that time.

He was in eighth grade in a parish on the south side of chicago. He was a typical south sider, and while he might have used rough, or obtuse language on the various ethnicities therein, his heart tended to be in the right place.

One day, during church service where he was an alterboy, a pair of black parishioners came in. Immediately after, he overheard two of the nuns making some disparging remarks about “Them” being in this church (the south side of chicago has always been rough in this regard). Upon hearing this, he shouted “What the Fuck?!?”

Needless to say, this is inappropriate behavior in church, and the nuns and priest were coming toward him. Naturally, as a Catholic school student of the time, he assumed the worst and took off. They chased each other around the altar for a bit, and accidentally, he knocked it over, breaking it.

He was obviously kicked out of school, but the priest put a letter to the bishop asking for excommunication, who put a letter to the cardinal, who sent it to the vatican. Apparently, the process is pretty automatic once it gets to the bishop level. He’s the excommunicated person I know, btw.

Heh, yeah, you’ve got me wondering too, Belli. I always thought that being bad in Catholic grade school earned you a knuckle rapping from the nuns, but excommunication?

Belli: no problem and… it must have been quite bad then?

Interesting side story: One of the guys I work with has an excommunication from him written the day before he died (He was a bad boy in grade school, apparently).