The Holocaust. Sixty-four years after troops entered Dachau, Auschwitz, and the other concentration camps that Germany erected for the eradication of those that did not meet up with their version of the Master Race, it is still on everyone's mind. Gays, Gypsies, Jews, and Academics all met with death at the hands of the Third Reich. Death on a grand scale and genocide will forever mar German history in such a way that to even broach the subject is a touchy subject. So the Pope has come home to Germany and delivered a speech on the subject of the Holocaust. The same Holocaust that killed 6 million jews, 2-3 million Soviet POW's (the rest of the Allies captured were put into separate prison camps), 2 million Poles, up to 1.5 million gypsies, the disabled and mentally ill, Freemasons, political rivals, and Jehovah's Witnesses all died in the camps.
Oh... And so did the Catholics.
Catholics were vociferous advocates against such actions. According to some sources, the T4 program, (the elimination of the mentally ill and disabled) ended due to overwhelming Catholic public pressure. Catholic and Protestant theologians were killed by the Third Reich. Pope Pius XII, the occupant of the Holy See at the time of World War II opened the Vatican to Jews, offering to shelter them. He appointed Jewish academics who were forced out of Italian universities to positions within the Vatican. Pius XII issued the encyclical Summi Pontificatus, denouncing anti-Semitism to all Catholics. Outside of these and other re-affirmations of the Church position against Anti-Semitism, history records the Church as being quite 'silent' on the matter. Why? Because the Pope didn't grab a gun and go commando? Because he didn't order the Swiss Guard to attack the Third Reich? In fact Pius XII overrode one of his predecessors, Pius XI. In the encyclical Divini Redemptoris, Catholics were forbidden from giving aid to Communists due to the extreme anti-religious fervor exhibited by both Lenin and Stalin in the former Soviet Union. Pius XII in fact determined that the bull did not apply to Catholics helping the Soviet Army defeat the Third Reich!
So you can understand, perhaps, my upset at reading an article complaining about the current Pope, Benedict XVI and his speech given in Germany. He denounced the Holocaust, and pledged to work to ensure that it would never happen again. But is that enough? Apparently not! Apparently, the people expected an apology from the Pope. The Pope who, at the end of World War II was only 18 years old. The Pope who entered into the Hitler Youth under penalty of being labeled a political dissident and thrown into a camp himself. The same Pope who's cousin that suffered from Down Syndrome was murdered by the Third Reich's T4 program, who was drafted and forced into serving in the anti-aircraft corps at the age of 16 while he was away at seminary. But apparently the people at this meeting expected some stronger words, even close to an apology.
The Holy See has committed itself to fighting anti-Semitism. It has supported Jewish-Catholic relations in the modern era, and it did everything short of militarizing the Vatican and clergy to fight the Third Reich.
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