Pius Wars, Continued.

Reuters reports:

Jewish leaders reacted with dismay Sunday to comments in Pope Benedict’s new book that his wartime predecessor Pius was a “great, righteous” man who “saved more Jews than anyone else.”


Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have prompted Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.

In his book to be published Tuesday, called “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Sign of the Times,” the German pope says Pius did what he could and did not protest more clearly because he feared the consequences.

The more research into the "Pius Question," the more I've come away convinced that Pius XII was "the real deal" - generous, courageous and principled.  There is no question that Pius was responsible for saving more Jewish lives than any single person duing the Holocaust because the Catholic Church was the institution responsible for saving more Jewish lives during the Holocaust than other institution, and Pius XII issued the instructions to rescue Jews.  Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide in 1967 credited Pius with having saved between 700,000 and 800,000 Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

It is particularly shocking that the Roman Jewish community would lead a revisionist attack on Pius inasmuch as Pius threw open Roman churches and Catholic religious offices to shelter the Jews and at one point offered to come up with the ransom for the Roman Jewish community, ostensibly as a loan of gold, but in actuality a gift.