Pius Wars

[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] In 1963, a play entitled The Deputy which portrayed Pius XII as a sycophantic aide to Hitler, was produced on the German stage.

[10] "Pius Wars" books and articles published during the 1960s include: The Deputy: A Christian Tragedy” (original title: “Der Stellvertreter.

Its author, Rolf Hochhuth, also published a book based on the play, which purported to give evidence that his portrayal of the Pope was accurate.

[12] An American professor of political science, Guenter Lewy, published The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany in 1964, soon after “The Deputy” was staged but said in his preface that research for the book began in 1960.

He opined that the "often fierce reaction to Hochhuth's play" was due to its having touched a "raw nerve" and says that the relationship between the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany is "a subject which for many years has been obscured by what may justifiably be called an extensive mythology.

[14] In 1965 Carlo Falconi attempted to support Hochhuth's thesis in a more scholarly way,[15] with Il Silenzio di Pio XII.

[30] James Carroll drew parallels in this article between the reign of Pope John Paul II and that of Pius XII.

He claimed that, despite John Paul's attempts, Catholic-Jewish relations would never improve until the Church admitted that Pius XII did wrong in not speaking out against the Nazi regime.

Kenneth L. Woodward wrote in Newsweek that the book was "a classic example of what happens with an ill-equipped journalist assumes the air of sober scholarship....

"[35] In a 2004 interview with The Economist, Cornwell admitted that “Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war.

[37] In Hitler, the War, and the Pope Catholic University of Mississippi law professor Ronald J. Rychlak in 2000 compiled "an enormous amount of evidence" in defense of Pius XII's wartime record.

"[38] Also in 2000, Michael Phayer's The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930 – 1965 suggested, among other charges, that it was no accident that Pius's detractors waited until after his death to speak out, and pointed out that all those who did were post-war appointees.

[39] He also opined that Pius's reputation began to wane, not in 1963, but after a question about his refusal to speak publicly about the Holocaust came up during the Eichmann Trial.

[41] Brown University professor of ethnography and history David I. Kertzer's website described his 2001 book, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, as "A groundbreaking historical study based on documents previously locked in the Vatican’s secret archives" and adds that "the book is full of shocking revelations" regarding the actions not only of Pius XII but of many other antisemitic Popes throughout history.

"The book, published in September (2020) but so far only in French, reveals correspondence with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to prevent the escalation of the war, Pius' support for an escape route to help the most persecuted, diplomatic attempts to influence the policing of the Third Reich, the rejection of Marshal Pétain's anti-racial laws, an emergency organization of baptisms to save thousands of Jews from deportation, and the condemnation of priests sympathetic to the Nazis in Slovakia.