How much I love Pope Pius XII. He was pope on the day of my birth and I clearly remember his death in 1958 when I was eleven. I may still have the newspaper clipping I saved at the time somewhere in my piles of papers. He had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart and how much he must have suffered walking in the steps of the Savior during World War II, particularly during the assault on Rome and the Nazi occupation. How hard he fought to protect the Roman Jews and those under Nazi domination from persecution and genocide!
What a great man, so reviled by evil liars who called him "Hitler's pope" while he did so much to save Jews from annihilation, hundreds of thousands in fact. Even before he became pope, he was a staunch enemy of the Third Reich:
Former Israeli diplomat and now Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Pinchas Lapide states that Pius XI “had good reason to make Pacelli the architect of his anti-Nazi policy. Of the forty-four speeches which the Nuncio Pacelli had made on German soil between 1917 and 1929, at least forty contained attacks on Nazism or condemnations of Hitler’s doctrines. . . . Pacelli, who never met the Führer, called it ‘neo-Paganism.’
In one speech as a Vatican diplomat, four years before becoming pope, he described the Nazis as "miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of social revolution, whether they are guided by a false concept of the world and of life, or whether they are possessed by the superstition of a race and blood cult.” Strong words indeed!
The truth didn't prevent liars like John Cornwell, author of Hitler's Pope from disseminating the myth that the pope supported and helped the Nazi supermen. Truth drove a stake into the heart of that lie by the conversion to Catholicism of the chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Yisrael Zolli, a staunch friend and witness to the pope's advocacy for his people:In a statement of thanks, Zolli said, “What the Vatican did will be indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts. . . . Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism.”[1] Although Zolli said he converted for “theological reasons,” it is generally believed that he did so out of gratitude for what the Pope did for his people. Rather than encouraging a massive conversion on the part of Jews to Catholicism, Zolli preferred to state that his conversion was a personal one based on his rethinking of Catholic theology and teachings and his personal friendship with Pope Pius XII, a man whose personal integrity he deeply respected and admired.
Pope Pius XII should have been at the head of the line for canonization long before scandalous modernists who laid the foundation for religious indifferentism and even Pachamama pagan worship. But that's another story.
I'll end this post with this from Pope Pius XII about the Sacred Heart of Jesus which he imitated so well:
This devotion...is the highest act of Religion. It demands the full and absolute determination of surrendering and consecrating oneself to the love of the Divine Redeemer. The wounded Heart of the Savior is the living sign and symbol of that love....Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart is so important that it may be considered as as practice is concerned the perfect profession of the Christian Religion.
During this month, will you join me in reciting the consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus? And please pray for the canonization of a hero of Catholicism, Pope Pius XII!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I consecrate myself to Your Most Sacred Heart. Take possession of my whole being; transform me into Yourself. Make my hands Your hands, my feet Your feet, my heart Your heart. Let me see with Your eyes, listen with Your ears, speak with Your lips, love with Your heart, understand with Your mind, serve with Your will, and be dedicated with my whole being. Make me Your other self. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, send me Your Holy Spirit to teach me to love You and to live through You, with You, in You and for You.
Come, Holy Spirit, make my body Your temple. Come, and abide with me forever. Give me the deepest love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus in order to serve Him with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Take possession of all my faculties of body and soul. Regulate all my passions: feelings and emotions. Take possession of my intellect, understanding and will; my memory and imagination. O Holy Spirit of Love, give me an abundance of Your efficacious graces. Give me the fullness of all the virtues; enrich my faith, strengthen my hope, increase my trust, and inflame my love. Give me the fullness of Your sevenfold gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Most Holy Trinity, make my soul Your sanctuary.
Pius XII is surely a pope that must be canonized (even if he is "pre-conciliar").
ReplyDeleteM. Prodigal, unfortunately, I think we've seen the last canonisation of a 'pre-conciliar' Pope. Popes Pius IX and John XXIII were beatified together on 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II. On 27 April 2014, John was canonised. Pius is still a Blessed. Coincidence? I'm not so sure.
ReplyDelete