Saint Or Fascist

Somewhere in the more obscure corners of the Vatican, someone floated the notion of elevating Pope Pius XII to sainthood.

The rumour resulted in an outcry of anger, and the canonization was tucked back into its obscure corner.

Many claim that Pius XII stood by and did nothing while the Nazis over-ran Italy and rounded up the Jews. He was all about saving the Vatican itself, protecting its art work, and there was no price too high to pay.

Those who refer to Piux XII as Hitler's Pope may have an opportunity to look at the documents that have previously been locked away from public view.

Rabbi Abraham Skorka thinks the new Pope, the first Francis, just might be interested in clearing the air, even at the risk of raising a stench.

Did Pius XII let the Holocaust go on for the sake of preserving physical artifacts? Or did he have a great deal to do with saving thousands of Jews when it first became clear that Hitler meant to annihilate them?

Father Hugh O'Flaherty operated out of the Vatican, under the noses of the Gestapo, and there is no evidence that the Pope ordered him to stop. Then again, he was aiding POWs, not Jews bound for the gas chambers. Easy to look the other way when an Irishman is disguising a British pilot as a priest so he can slip away undetected. It says nothing about the Pope's attitude in regard to the Holocaust.

Rather than allow the question to linger, Pope Francis may be amenable to letting scholars come in and hunt through the records, to ascertain the facts and expose the truth, no matter if it is good or bad.

Hypocrite or saint, it is time to be open and honest about the Church's past.

That is the fresh air that Pope Francis would like to bring into the Holy See, to abandon the old practice of secrecy that leads to assumptions of misdeeds going unpunished.

Secrecy has nearly killed the Catholic Church, with poedophile priests shifted around to hide their crimes out of a misplaced desire to protect the Church.

Examining the Papacy of Pius XII is a first step in open honesty, a means to strengthen a weakened institution by facing unafraid what was done in the past in the name of the Church.