|
|
Article: Careful scholar takes fresh look at Pius XII.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- October 6, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Pope Pius XII has become the ecclesiastical counterpart of the actor Eric von Stroheim. Because of his bristling portrayals of villains, the latter became known as "the man you love to hate."
Even such an ardent defender of the faith as English historian Paul Johnson, a conservative Catholic, judged Pius XII harshly. In his "A History of Christianity," he concludes that the pope failed to rally Catholics against Hitler and when he finally condemned Nazism in "June 1945, the Germans had surrendered and Hitler was safely dead."
Indeed, after 40 years of almost uninterrupted criticism, symbolized in the play The Deputy, in which Pius is explicitly faulted ...