Vatican-Israel Tensions Rise Over Pius
Tensions heightened this weekend between the Vatican and Israel after a Vatican official said that Pope Benedict XVI had halted the beatification of Pius XII, the pope during World War II, for fear of repercussions from Jewish groups.
The official, the Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit priest who is directing beatification efforts, also told the ANSA news agency on Saturday that the pope would not visit Israel until a plaque criticizing Pius was removed from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
Pius, who was pope from 1939 until 1958, has been criticized as not speaking out enough against deportations during the Holocaust. On Sunday, Italian newspapers carried front-page interviews with a former leader of Italy’s Jewish community, Amos Luzzatto, who said beatifying him would “open up a wound that will be difficult to heal.”
Last year, a Vatican decree recognized Pius’s “heroic virtues,” a key step toward sainthood, but Benedict has not yet approved it. Earlier this month, Benedict said that Pius had worked “secretly and silently” to save Jews and that he hoped the beatification “can proceed happily.”
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The official, the Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit priest who is directing beatification efforts, also told the ANSA news agency on Saturday that the pope would not visit Israel until a plaque criticizing Pius was removed from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
Pius, who was pope from 1939 until 1958, has been criticized as not speaking out enough against deportations during the Holocaust. On Sunday, Italian newspapers carried front-page interviews with a former leader of Italy’s Jewish community, Amos Luzzatto, who said beatifying him would “open up a wound that will be difficult to heal.”
Last year, a Vatican decree recognized Pius’s “heroic virtues,” a key step toward sainthood, but Benedict has not yet approved it. Earlier this month, Benedict said that Pius had worked “secretly and silently” to save Jews and that he hoped the beatification “can proceed happily.”