December 5, 2005
An Important Book
Rarely do I recommend books on this website for a variety of reasons. However, this week, I want to recommend one that I believe any thinking Catholic should read. The book is called The Myth of Hitler’s Pope by Rabbi David G. Dalin, a professor at Ave Maria University. It was published this year by Regnery. It’s an absolutely fascinating defense of Pope Pius XII against the frequently made charges that he did little and nothing to assist the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. As you know, vicious calumnies have been spread by various critics against Pope Pius XII. Some of these critics are Jewish like Daniel Goldhagen and others are Catholics like James Carol, a former priest, and Gary Wills, a former seminarian. The calumnies against Pope Pius of course are aimed at the Church and at discrediting the papacy. They have persisted for years despite the fact that at the end of the war and at the time of Pope Pius’ death, he was praised by every major Jewish organization in the world for what he had done to save the Jewish people.
Rabbi Dalin gives the whole vicious history of these calumnies along with the solid scholarship of several writers who have defended the Pope and who would be familiar to many reading this column.
This book brings out many new facts and many very important statements beginning with the Chief Rabbi of Rome and Albert Einstein who wrote about what the Pope and the Church did to stop Hitler. We Catholics are very poor at defending ourselves. We often shrug our shoulders and just take the abuse, sometimes suspecting that part of it is true. The worst and most vicious calumny of the 20 th Century is this one against Pope Pius XII. Rabbi Dalin suggested that he be declared by the State of Israel one of the “righteous gentiles” who worked to save the Jews. This book is very worthwhile reading, underlining, and sharing with both your Catholic and Jewish friends.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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