WikiLeaks: Vatican vetoed Holocaust memorial over Pope Pius XII World War II activity

[Better Believe It]

WikiLeaks cables: Vatican vetoed Holocaust memorial over Pius XII row
Moves to beatify controversial wartime pope reveal tension between conservatives and liberals in Catholic church
By Andrew Brown
December 21, 2010

The Vatican has withdrawn from a written agreement to join an international Holocaust memorial organisation because of tensions over the activity of Pope Pius XII, the pope during the second world war, American diplomatic cables show.

Relations have become so frosty that the Vatican "rowed back on a prior written agreement" to take up observer status on an international organisation dedicated to remembering the Holocaust and transmitting its lessons to the future, according to Julieta Valls Noyes, the number two at the American embassy to the Holy See.

In October 2009, she reported that the plans for the Vatican to take up observer status at the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research "had fallen apart completely … due to Vatican back-pedalling".

.... she thought it might also indicate that the Vatican "may ... be pulling back due to concerns about ITF pressure to declassify records from the WWII-era pontificate of Pope Pius XII".

Pius XII has long been a controversial figure for his failure publicly to denounce the Holocaust in 1941 or 1942, when the Vatican was first informed of what was going on.



Pope Pius XII


Read the full article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/21/wikileaks-cables-vatican-holocaust-pius

[nashville_brook]

1. ouch. with his history, he needs to be reaching out, not snubbing Holocaust issues.

[damntexdem]

2. The deeds of Pope Pius XII -- or those of the current ex-Nazi, I mean pope?

But it's a great picture -- my caption: "When I use two fingers like this, they can't tell I'm giving them the finger."