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Hitler’s Pope, by John Cornwell, is a scandalous
book that not only distorts the truth about
Pius XII’s efforts to save the Jews during WW II.
The nun versus
the spin master
By Margherita Marchione
n In Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (Viking, New York, 1999) John Cornwell claims Pope Pius XII helped start World War I, World War II, betrayed German Catholics, and enabled the Holocaust. The British journalist deals in rumors, half-truths and misrepresentations. Twice in recent months I have had the frightening experience of confronting Mr. Cornwell. I agreed to debate him because I felt I had to stand up for the truth as I know it.
Although I am keenly aware that there are many scholars and trained historians who could deal with Cornwell’s demonizing of Pius XII, and I would be only too happy to have them debate in my place, the TV and radio talk show hosts turned to me. Maybe the good Catholic scholars are unwilling to face the criticism and scorn that defense of the Church today entails. Maybe the media want an old-fashioned nun. Maybe they wanted someone as different from Cornwell as they could find.
All I knew was that someone had to speak out. And if that someone had to be me, it had to be. I was 17 when Eugenio Pacelli became Pope on March 2, 1939—the “Pope of Peace,” as newspapers everywhere described him. Like most Catholics of my generation I revered the new Pope and prayed that he would be able to prevent the dictators of Germany, Russia and Italy from plunging the world in a bloodbath of war. Unlike most Catholics I was a young nun whose order had a special connection with the papacy from 1707 when Pope Clement XI called our Sisters to open schools in Rome. Pius XII was often in my prayers.
I also had even closer connections. For several months I accompanied his niece Elena Pacelli Rossignani who was a guest in my convent, Villa Walsh, Morristown, New Jersey. The relationship continued throughout the years. When I received a scholarship from Columbia University in June 1957, I went to Italy. I visited Elena and her mother Elisabetta in Rome. Accompanied by Pius XII’s niece, I had the opportunity to meet him in the Basilica of Saint Peter. We chatted and he blessed us. He was extremely interested in my research. The memory of this meeting remains precious to me.
I still see his tall, dignified, and ascetic stature along with his penetrating glance, his loving smile, and animated gestures. He had a warm personality, concerned, gracious. He recognized the habit of the Religious Teachers Filippini, intelligently questioned me about my work, and chatted genially with us for several minutes. All the accounts I had heard about Eugenio Pacelli’s great learning, his personal holiness, his strict, monastic piety were reinforced by this personal meeting. Everything anyone ever said about him, all the numerous Roman stories that circulated about him, all the news reports and biographical accounts seemed to agree on one thing: he was an extraordinarily sincere, dedicated and holy man.
Thus when the great onslaught against Pius XII began filling the media a few years ago, I was compelled to investigate more deeply and to publish what I discovered. My books are: Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy, 1997, and Pius XII: Architect for Peace, Paulist Press, 1999. These books have been published in Italian editions, Pio XII e gli Ebrei, and Pio XII: Architetto di Pace, Editoriale Pantheon, Rome 1999. In these books I try to remind readers of the single, undeniable truth that defined Pope Pius XII’s life: he was Christ-like. He was a man who devoted himself totally to finding peace, completely dedicated to healing and helping all the victims of war. His critics may ignore his total dedication to peace and loving charity, but they cannot change the facts of his life. It was a life of total dedication and giving.
Even Mr. Cornwell acknowledges the saintly life of Pius XII. In his book, the author gives the reason for writing about the Pope: “Convinced, as I had always been, of Pius XII’s innocence, I decided to write a new defense of his reputation for a younger generation. I believed that Pacelli’s evident holiness was proof of his good faith.” However, it is difficult to respect the credibility of the author who claims to recognize the Pope’s “good faith,” when he places the provocative photograph on the jacket of the book depicting part of an ordinary ceremonial accorded Pacelli, years before Hitler came to power. It conveys the deceitful impression that Pius XII was pro-Nazi.
When the extermination of Jews began, the Dutch bishops issued a statement that precipitated a Nazi acceleration of the roundup of Jews. On p. 287 Cornwell contests the statement that there were 40,000 Jews deported from Holland, calling this figure exaggerated. Not true. Deportation was not limited to Jews of Holland, but included “the Lowlands.” The reference to the roundup that took place throughout the entire region includes priests and religious. Newspapers spoke of “deportation of 40,000 Jews of the Lowlands.”
My first exchange with the British historical revisionist began when Wally Kennedy, producer of TV station WPVI (ABC Sunday Live) in Philadelphia, called me and asked if I would be on their October 3 program. I agreed to a telephone interview. I knew full well I would not have the “media presence” to expose Cornwell’s errors. In no way could I respond properly to the insidious attacks in a 20-minute segment. In addition, as I soon learned, Cornwell would play the lead role, with all the time he wanted to speak; my part would consist of mainly shouted interjections. According to a later note from the producer, my contribution “provided the balance we wanted.”
Present for the interview with Cornwell, who was in the New York studio, were Carol Saline, who described herself as a practicing Jew and journalist; Christine O’Donnell, who informed us she was a Catholic turned Protestant and has now returned to Catholicism; and Frank Desimone, a serious Catholic who admitted he had detailed knowledge of Pius XII. Nevertheless these panelists had definite and passionate viewpoints concerning Pope Pius XII.
At one point when Cornwell accused Pius XII of not protesting, I broke in and shouted: “There were 60 written protests against racial and religious persecutions sent to the Nazis on behalf of the Jews. Pius XII’s radio wartime speeches, and messages in the Vatican newspaper, provoked the Nazis to call him “a mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.” My comment was ignored as though the fact he repeatedly protested had no connection with the charge he was “silent.”
Wally Kennedy addressed me, “Why didn’t the Pope speak out against the Nazis? “Because he was concerned,” I answered, “that a public condemnation would mean the loss of more lives. Because he had agreed with the World Jewish Congress, the World Council of Churches, and the International Red Cross that they should avoid provocation that would undoubtedly have had serious consequences.”
When Kennedy asked Mr. Cornwell if Pacelli ever met with Hitler, he said they never met but there had been negotiations for years before the signing of the Reich Concordat. He also insinuated that Pius XII was responsible for the demise of the Catholic Center Party. When I finally had the opportunity, I responded: “Contrary to your allegations, Mr. Cornwell, Pius XII was always an opponent of anti-Semitism and did everything in his power to preserve Germany’s Catholic Center Party. The Vatican agreed to the Concordat with Germany only after Hitler’s reign of terror forced the Catholic Party to dissolve itself.”
In his book, Cornwell brands this saintly Pope with the very serious charge of being an anti-Semite based upon a description of the 1919 terrorists’ uprising in Munich. This typewritten report was prepared by a Monsignor who had investigated the incident. It was sent to the Vatican under Pacelli’s signature.
The report describes the conduct of a Communist leader and his mistress—both atheist Jews from Russia who were terrorists—to whom the papal representatives were obliged to pay homage. In this six-page letter there is nothing against the Jewish people.
Yet, Cornwell states: “This association of Jewishness with Bolshevism confirms that Pacelli, from his early 40s, nourished a suspicion of and contempt for the Jews for political reasons.” The description of terrorists cannot reasonably be defined as anti-Semitic. Furthermore, this is not a newly-discovered document. Cornwell is unaware that it was published in 1992.
Later in the interview, Wally Kennedy asked Cornwell: “At what point do you think the Pope should have stepped up to a microphone and said, Nazism is mortally sinful and to be a subscriber of the theories of Hitler is to be anti-Catholic? Do you believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that Pius XII knew not only that there were gassings going on, but about the magnitude of the numbers of Jews put to death daily?”
Cornwell answered: “There is evidence from July 1942. Pius XII could have spoken out in his 1942 Christmas message. He could have addressed the consciences of millions of Germans. . . . I would have preferred that he had indeed remained silent as his counterpart Benedict XV, who said absolutely nothing, had done in WW I. When Pius XII did speak, it was a denial of what was going on; he reduced the millions to hundreds of thousands. He never mentioned the word Jews; never mentioned the word Nazis. . . . He lulled the consciences of millions of people, millions of Germans.”
I tried, unsuccessfully, to say that Pius XII repeatedly addressed the consciences not only of Germans but of the entire world over and over. I again indignantly interrupted Mr. Cornwell when he falsely claimed that only in the 1942 Christmas message Pius XII referred to the extermination of Jews. “This is not so. The Pope spoke out long before! The New York Times on March 14, 1940 stated in large, bold print: ‘Pope is Emphatic About Just Peace: Jews Rights Defended.’”
I had the Times text before me and shouted: “The paper described his confrontational meeting with the German Foreign Minister.” I quoted: “It was also learned today . . . that the Pontiff, in burning words about religious persecution, also came to the defense of the Jews.”
It took great persistence to continue reading the following from the New York Times: The Christmas 1941 editorial praised Pius XII for having “put himself squarely against Hitlerism.” Headlines (August 6, 1942): “Pope Is Said to Plead for Jews Listed for Removal from France”; (August 27, 1942): “Vichy Seizes Jews; Pope Pius Ignored.” Pius XII publicly defended the Jews whenever the bishops informed him about Nazi atrocities.
I also added that the Vatican Radio (October 15, 1940) explicitly condemned “the immoral principles of Nazism,” and the Osservatore Romano condemned “the wickedness of Hitler” citing Hitler by name (March 30, 1941). There were many references to the “fundamental rights of Jews” (December 3 and 5, 1943). The London Times (October 1, 1942) praised Pius XII: “There is no room for doubt. He condemns the worship of force . . . and the persecution of the Jewish race.” Later the Tablet of London reported that Nazi leader Goebbels issued pamphlets in many languages which condemned Pius XII as a “pro-Jewish Pope” (October 24, 1942).
To round off the very chaotic interview, Kennedy, in the usual American media fashion called for a poll among the five people present. The question these experts should express their opinion on: “Should Pope Pius XII be canonized?” The Catholic criminal attorney and I immediately said “Yes.” The Jewish reporter and John Cornwell reported strong “No’s.” The Catholic founder of an activist organization, SALT, preferred to make reference to the Bible which speaks in favor of Jews. Her counterpart did not agree and there ensued a loud debate between the two women participants. I could not believe what happened!
The program was suddenly over. I felt almost as though I had not said anything. All the facts and figures and accounts of the millions Pius XII had helped were still in my mind, unspoken. I thought of a Jewish journalist, whose cousin was saved by nuns in a convent in Belgium who recently wrote to me: “The canonization of Pope Pius XII would be an act of supreme justice, charity, and truth. . . .”
And I remembered the words of Carlo Sestieri, a Jewish survivor, I talked with in Rome. He had been hidden in the Vatican: “Only the Jews who were persecuted understand why the Holy Father could not publicly denounce the Nazi-Fascist government. Without doubt, it helped avoid worse disasters.”
I could not even get in a single word about my own order, the Religious Teachers Filippini in Rome who, in obedience to the Pope’s directives, opened convents and risked their lives to save 114 Jewish men, women, and children. At the end of the war they received, in gratitude, a 5-foot statue of the Madonna that today still stands in the very wing where Jews lived for more than a year.
Providentially, three days later I was given a second chance to answer Cornwell’s libelous opinions. On a 30-minute radio interview from Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Al Kresta of WWCM. Cornwell and I again faced off. I listened to the author’s remarks and then I began by telling Mr. Cornwell that his book unjustly defames the memory of Pope Pius XII who was a humble, holy, selfless humanitarian. He was not the ambitious or power-hungry leader described in this book.
I accused Mr. Cornwell of false statements, omissions, misinterpretations and inaccuracies. I was given the opportunity to cite specific inaccuracies and errors. I pointed out, for example, that in dealing with the March 24, 1944 Rome massacre he accuses Pius XII of having had prior knowledge of plans for this massacre. I reminded him that he knew this was an old lie which had long ago been disproved, and that he not only repeated the falsehood but compounded it with new falsehoods. His book states that Pius XII’s sister and nephew sued perpetrators of this lie in a Roman court.
It was not the pope’s sister and nephew who brought this to court, it was his niece! It was Elena Pacelli Rossignani, my friend, who arranged for me to meet Pope Pius XII! She brought suit for defamation against film producer Carlo Ponti, author Robert Katz and director Cosmatos. After the trial and appeals, the producer, author, and director were found guilty of calumny against Pope Pius XII on February 7, 1981.
When I accused Cornwell of totally twisting the Roman court’s decision in this famous case, he heatedly insisted that he had not falsely reported the verdict. I quoted to him from his own book, Hitler’s Pope, p. 380: “The Pacellis lost, but appealed, and the case was eventually judged inconclusive.” Even then he would not admit that the Pacelli’s had won, that the court had ruled in their favor and found Pope Pius XII had been falsely accused. He would admit nothing. He was silent.
I cannot adequately describe my feelings of repugnance as I listened to Cornwell repeat over and over his inaccuracies and misrepresentations. There are many examples that could be cited. On pages 274-276 of his book, Cornwell portrays Cardinal Henri de Lubac —the great French Catholic anti-Nazi theologian—as being progressive and totally opposed to Pius XII. The truth of the matter is that de Lubac was a great admirer of Pius XII and wrote a book of wartime memoirs, Christian Resistance to Anti-Semitism: Memories from 1940-1944 (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1990) in which he discusses Pius XII’s influence on Catholic rescuers of Jews. Nowhere does Cornwell mention this book!
On page 262, Cornwell quotes Cardinal Tisserant out of context to suggest the Cardinal denounced Pius XII in a private letter to Cardinal Suhard (Le Monde, March 26, 1964). In fact, in “Interview,” Informations Catholiques Internationales (April 15, 1964), as well as in other Catholic papers, Cardinal Tisserant clearly stated that he was not criticizing Pius XII whom he admired, but criticizing members of the Curia for not carrying out the Pope’s policies.
Concerning Pius XII, Cardinal Tisserant said: “The Pope’s attitude was beyond discussion. My remarks did not involve his person, but certain members of the Curia. . . . If the consequences of a protest were to fall on himself alone, Pius XII would not have been in the slightest way concerned. Everyone knows that he was ready to go to a concentration camp. But he weighed before all else the mortal risks to which the victims of Nazism could be exposed in the case of a protest. . . .”
Cornwell’s allegations were made in a calm, superior manner. But at one point in the TV interview my indignation upset him. He admitted that he was upset because I so strongly exposed his injustices to Pius XII. He spoke of his position being misunderstood, of more explanation being necessary, of a disturbing “anger” in “the Sister’s response.” His sense of irritation with me was ever more evident in the radio interview where I had more time to speak. Thanks to Mr. Kresta of WWCM, I was able to express my outrage at this sensationalized and propagandistic and inaccurate book.
Critics should consider the wisdom of Pius XII’s words and actions. Jewish physicist Albert Einstein wrote: “Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth” (Time magazine, December 23, 1940). Jewish scholar Jenö Levai, testifying at the Adolf Eichmann Nazi War Crime Trials, insisted that bishops of the Catholic Church “intervened again and again on the instructions of the Pope. . . . the one person who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences, is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others” (Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy: Pius XII Was Not Silent, Sands and Company, London, 1968).
Unlike Cornwell, Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide, a practicing Jew, strongly defended Pope Pius XII. Why? “If fairness and historical justice are keystones of Jewish morality, then keeping silent in view of slanderous attacks on a benefactor is an injustice. . . . Far more than two million Jews did indeed survive, thanks to the help of the Church, bishops, priests, laymen. . . . The Talmud teaches us ‘whoever saves a life receives as much credit as if he had saved an entire world.’ If this is true—and it is just as true as the most typical of all Jewish principles: that of the holiness of human life—then a Jew must also defend loudly a great saver of Jewish life” (Die Welt, July 16, 1964).
Cornwell’s real objective is to destroy the Papacy and the Church as we know it. He writes in Vanity Fair, p. 192: “A future titanic struggle between the progressives and the traditionalists is in prospect, with the potential for a cataclysmic schism, especially in North America.” By denigrating Pius XII, depicted as authoritarian, traditional and Roman, by painting John Paul II with the same brush, Cornwell is contributing to the goal of many confused Catholics—changing the Church into a social institution.
Hitler’s Pope, by John Cornwell, is a scandalous book that not only distorts the truth about the efforts of Pius XII and the Church to save the Jews during World War II, but actually also depicts this saintly Pope as a collaborator of the Nazis. Instead of objectivity, Cornwell favors sensationalism. He ignores what does not fit into the image he wants to convey and omits the real record of Jewish-Vatican relations that earned the appreciation of Jewish leaders of that generation throughout the world. It is time to restore the truth as to the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.
Sister Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., the author of 30 books and 100 articles, received the Michael award from the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame in 1993. She is one of the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and Pope Pius XII. Her books on this topic are in both English and Italian: Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy (1997), and Pius XII: Architect for Peace (Paulist Press, 1999). This is her first article in HPR.
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