Pius the Righteous

From Mr Christopher Keeffe SIR – Gary Krupp’s plan to propose Pope Pius XII as “Righteous Among the Nations” (Report, October 2) is worthy of merit. Through due to the bias and popular myth presented at Yad Vashem – mentioned by Mordechay Lewy, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See – this proposal is guaranteed to fail.
Yad Vashem, which oversees the process of recognising Righteous Gentiles, proposes several criteria; one of these is that the person saved Jews without regard to personal safety and without reward. Several non-Catholic authors have proved Pius’s case as a Righteous Gentile, including the Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide, Rabbi David Dalin and that great British historian Sir Martin Gilbert. These Jewish writers have used material at Yad Vashem itself to demolish the myth – created by the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth – that Pius somehow collaborated with Hitler to liquidate European Jewry.
Mr Lewy and the Yad Vashem do those Jews who suffered during the Holocaust and knew that Pope Pius was their only friend a great disservice by continuing the slander against Pope Pius.
It is also significant that the American Jewish lobby group the AntiDefamation League also heaped praise on Pope Pius at his death yet now it has jumped on the bandwagon against Pope Pius. Yet it has not justified its historical amnesia in persecuting Pope Pius, who was not only a great shepherd of Christ’s flock but also a Righteous Gentile.
Incidentally, Pope Paul VI opened the beatification Causes for both Blessed Pope John XXIII and Pope Pius XII on November 18 1965 during a session of the Second Vatican Council, and not in 1967 as reported. The website www.ptwf.org provides access to historical documents proving Pope Pius’s work on behalf of Jews.
Yours faithfully CHRISTOPHER KEEFFE West Harrow, Middlesex