Sir, The letter of the Jewish and Christian scholars and your leading article of Oct 21 address the question of Pius XII and the Jews during the Second World War. They point out the need for further archival research.

They both, however, leave untouched other points also in need of research and clarification: among them the reasons for the change in perception about Pius XII’s words and actions in favour of the persecuted Jewish people during the Second World War. The Pope was praised and thanked by Jewish leaders during and after the war, among them the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and when Pius XII died in 1958, Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, again praised him for raising his voice for the victims of the persecution.

Nowadays, however, there seems to be a perception that Pius XII did not speak clearly and loudly enough against the horrors of the Holocaust: a more vigorous denunciation of the Nazi crimes, they say, would have saved many more Jewish lives. Others suggest, however, that provocative statements would have jeopardised the work being done by Catholic individuals and institutions, with the encouragement of the Pope, to save as many Jews as possible: the outspoken denunciation by the Archbishop of Utrecht of the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands had the opposite effect to that intended. Both arguments are hypothetical, but it could be argued that the former is the more hypothetical of the two. It could also be argued, on the other hand, that a negative Nazi reaction would have made little difference: what could be worse than what was already happening? Perhaps those whom Pius’s initiatives and encouragement did help to survive might beg to differ.

The Rev Dr James Pereiro

Oxford

Sir, Jews are not the only people who were horribly wronged by Pope Pius XII during the Second World War. Serbian Orthodox Christians also suffered a horrible genocide at the hands of the Croatian Ustashe, who were bent on slaughtering one third of Serbs living in the “independent” state of Croatia (NDH), “ethnically cleansing” one third, and forcibly converting the remainder to Catholicism. Some half a million to a million Serbians perished and more than 200,000 were forcibly converted.

Pope Pius met Ante Pavelic, the Fascist leader of Croatia, numerous times. The Croatian Archbishop, Alojzije Stepinac, condoned Croatia’s pogrom and numerous Catholic priests actively participated in the mass slaughter. There is no way that he didn’t know of the slaughters of Serbians, Jews and Gypsies in Croatia. Speaking out against the slaughter of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the NDH would have done nothing to harm Catholics anywhere as even the Nazis were shocked by the brutality of the Croatian Ustashe and often had to take control of areas from them to prevent mass flight of the Serbian population into the hands of Tito’s partisans.

The Roman Catholic Church’s role in this must be exposed, acknowledged and compensated for. Granting Pope Pius XII sainthood will for ever prevent any true reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Dr Michael Pravica

Henderson, Nevada

Sir, The letter by Mark Seddon (Oct 21) on the issue of whether Pope Pius XII should be canonised invites an obvious riposte. On the assumption (admittedly uncertain) that Heaven, Hell and the Devil really exist, no mortal can know for certain whether Pope Pius XII is now in Heaven or Hell (or in Purgatory for that matter). Hence there is at least a logical possibility that he is in Hell alongside Adolf Hitler and that the Devil is encouraging his beatification in order to discredit the Catholic Church even more thoroughly than he did through the Spanish Inquisition some centuries ago.

Timothy Barnes

Edinburgh

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