Defending Pope Pius XII By Alan Caruba It is counter-intuitive
for many Jews to regard the Roman Catholic Church as its friend,
given the weight of history that records the many expulsions and
attacks on European Jews over the centuries. However, there is
another historical record—that of its popes—which tells of their
continued efforts to protect Jews and save their lives. This
history is recounted in The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius
XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis by Rabbi David G. Dalin ($27.95,
Regnery). He wrote this book because Pope Pius XII has been
under attack for a very long time by dissident Catholic authors.
It should escape no one's notice that the author's faith is
Judaism and this lends particular weight to his carefully
documented rebuttal. "There has been a tradition of papal
support for the Jews of Europe since at least the fourteenth
century." "It is an abominable slander to spread blame that
belongs to Hitler and the Nazis to a pope who was a friend of
the Jews," says Rabbi Dalin.