This Isn't Exactly News But . . .

HITLER ORDERED PIUS XII TO BE KIDNAPPED.

Fortunately, the general ordered to do it didn’t carry out the order.

Pius XII was aware that he was likely to get kidnapped by Hitler, and (so I’ve read in books about him) left instructions that he was to be considered to have resigning the papacy as soon as he was abducted, so that he couldn’t be used (as well) as a political tool by Hitler and so that a new pope could be elected.

Fortunately, those contingency plans never had to be activated.

This isn’t exactly news, but I’m glad it’s getting attention in the press, as it puts the kibosh on the idea that Pius XII was sympathetic to or in league with Hitler. In fact, the two men despised each other.

I wonder if this story has anything to do with John Cornwell’s recent retraction of his charge that Pius XII was "Hitler’s Pope."

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

7 thoughts on “This Isn't Exactly News But . . .”

  1. “The newspaper said a plot that was codenamed Operation Rabat”

    “Rabat” apparently being a reference to an article of clerical garb covering the shirt front?

    This is “news” indeed, in a sense, and I’m glad that Reuters has picked up the story. Too bad that they’re still giving so much attention to the anti-Pius propaganda.

  2. “Too bad that they’re still giving so much attention to the anti-Pius propaganda.”

    No kidding. Besides, I don’t see very many Jews with “discontent” about Pius XII. I usually hear it from Evangelicals.

    Oh, and don’t mentioned he saved 800,000 Jews. That’s not noteworthy. It’s much more fair and balanced to say that “the Vatican maintains that … he worked behind the scenes to save Jews.” :\

  3. I’m surprised that Reuters didn’t mention his “conservative” and “inflexible” stances on contraception.

  4. Mr. Haas,

    What proof is there that Pius XII saved 800,000 Jewish lives? It’s my understanding that this number comes from a book by Pinchas Lapide which does not document the claim. (I will be the first to admit that I haven’t looked into this issue closely.)

  6. That’s an interesting article, but I’m not sure that, even if the allegations are accurate, it would have any bearing on whether or not Pope Pius XII would be canonized. From what I understand, the Church has long held that baptized children should be brought up in Christian homes, for the good of their souls.

    It’s one thing when no relationship with the Church exists to begin with — when one has never been baptized. But to have that relationship established through baptism and then break that relationship is to throw away something sacred and holy.

    As for Evangelicals, Jack Chick is sort of the extreme example of someone using misrepresentations of Pope Pius XII’s actions as fodder for anti-Catholicism. There other Fundamentalists who hold less extreme, but still negative and unfounded, views of the pontiff.

  7. “What proof is there that Pius XII saved 800,000 Jewish lives? It’s my understanding that this number comes from a book by Pinchas Lapide which does not document the claim. ”

    Well, it was good enough for Golda Meir…

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