Catholic Antisemitism, 12/28/2002

Editor MNH:  12/28/02

Daniel J. Goldhagen, author of  “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” (meaning the Germans) has written a new book “A Moral Reckoning – The Role of  the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair.” According to Goldhagen  in the New Testament there are approximately 450 anti-Semitic passages from which sprang the undercurrent of anti-Semitism within Christianity. On this undercurrent  the Holocaust  floated like a ship on water. Highlighted is Pope Pius XII. I quote from Goldhagen: “Pius XII anti-Semitism comes from an unimpeachable source: Pius XII. A letter he wrote describing a scene of “absolute  hell” from the Communist insurrection in Munich of April 19, in the royal palace, is explicit:”

Let me interject. Goldhagen is wrong. There was no insurrection, but a highjacking of a legally elected government by foreigners, Russians Jews, sent by Lenin, who thought defeated and hungry Germany was ripe for the picking.

And here is what the Pope wrote: “…in the midst of all this a gang of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like all the rest of them, hanging around in all the offices with lecherous demeanor and suggestive smiles. The boss of  this female rabble was Leviens’ mistress,  a young Russian woman, a Jew …, who was in charge. And it was to her that the nunciature was obliged to pay homage in order to proceed…“ 

What happened next? This Soviet Government eliminated the free press, censored the telephone, confiscated property and took  ten citizens of Munich as hostages. The legally elected government, now in Bamberg,  called for loyalist troops. The street fighting with a death toll of 927 lasted until May 8, l919. On the last day in power the Soviets had the hostages shot. 

Pope Pius XII called it the way he saw it. What is  anti-Semitic about that?