Pope Pius XII and Judaism

Documents discovered in the Vatican archives by Michael Hesemann indicate that Archbishop Pacelli intervened in 1917, through the German government, to assure the Jews of Palestine that they would be protected from any harm from the Ottoman Turks.

"[3] This second quote, which was published in a Hungarian newspaper, has been used by some commentators [4] to imply that Pacelli was making an antisemitic remark, despite his words including non-Jews (such as the Roman emperors and Pontius Pilate) in the speech.

Peter Gumpel, law professor Ronald J. Rychlak, and historian William Doino, Jr., who state that the context indicates that it was an attack on the mass political movements of the day, and was particularly applicable to fascism.

[5] Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione received a request from Chief Rabbi of Palestine Isaac Herzog in the spring of 1940 to intercede on behalf of Lithuanian Jews about to be deported to Germany.

In his 1940 encyclical Summi Pontificatus, Pius rejected antisemitism, stating that in the Catholic Church, there is "neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision.

"[6] In the summer of 1942, Pius explained to his college of Cardinals the reasons for the great gulf that existed between Jews and Christians at the theological level: "Jerusalem has responded to His call and to His grace with the same rigid blindness and stubborn ingratitude that has led it along the path of guilt to the murder of God."

When war was declared, the Pope maintained the attitude of impartiality but also looked for possibilities for justice and peace in Palestine and for the respect and protection of the Holy Places.

[10] According to biographer Judith Cabaud, in 1944, while conducting a Yom Kippur service, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, experienced a mystical vision about Jesus Christ.

The English translation of the prayer read: In 2005, Corriere della Sera published a document dated 20 November 1946 on the subject of Jewish children baptized in war-time France.

The document ordered that baptized children, if orphaned, should be kept in Catholic custody and stated that the decision "has been approved by the Holy Father".