Reply to Ellyn

Submitted by Gloria Stewart (United States), Sep 22, 2006 at 22:40

Dear Ellyn,

I am not sure exactly what you mean. Are you asking me if I feel that the Papacy stood up to the Nazis before and during WWII? That was before my time, so I did not read contemporaneous accounts. From what I have read I would say that the Papacy did much good. They provided flawless passports to rescue many from the Nazis; they provided phony birth certificates to Jewish children to hide their Jewish identity. Many Jewish children lived in convents and monastaries until the war's end.

With the wisdom of hindsight I would say it was probably not enough. The Papacy should have been in the forefront of of opposition to Nazism as it should have been in the forefront of opposition to Communism. Pope Paul VI was certainly not, though his successor was.

The first obligation of any religious body is to stand up for what is right and to name that which is wrong and fight against it. I realize the Church did not last 2000 years without doing business with the guys who run the store. Still, Fascism, Communism and Islamic fundamentalism ae not minor players on the stage.

Unmitigated opposition to Islamic fundamentalism should trump all other considerations.

Gloria Stewart

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".