it was risky. it was something he kept from his closest advisors. and it shows us that for all of our understanding of him as very cautious and maybe too cautious, he could at times take some very bold and even risky actions. despite the uncertainty surrounding any papal involvement in the plan to kill hitler, the church s role in hiding jews during the war is undeniable. there is good reliable evidence that church institutions, religious houses were used to rescue and house jews. there is even evidence that jews were hidden on vatican-owned properties. there is some fascinating photographs where you see people not only sleeping on floors in churches, not only in the hallways, but on the staircases, up and down the staircases three across. close to 6 million european jews perished during world war ii.
shooter is taking a jewish child by the neck and shooting them while their mother watches. and then going to church the following sunday. to see that catholics have the capacity to set their faith to one side and be part of the holocaust that destroyed six million families. and to this day, these families come to the museum. and you can see that it goes generations deep. it makes one question what is the point of my faith at all? what is the point of a pope leading a church where love and mercy is not paramount? and it makes you wonder. in times of tragedy, humanity continues to wrestle with faith. the world looks to the pope for
mussolini gets something for having given something. part of the deal was that the church was to remain outside of politics. with church opposition out of the way, mussolini s fascist government flourishes. the treaty is a major step dictatorship. he was able to turn to a population that is largely catholic and show that, in fact, he s made peace with the spiritual leader of the church. while mussolini and the church mutually benefit from their peace in italy, adolf hitler is elected chancellor of germany and nazism becomes the law of the land. jews were a target almost immediately. january 30th, adolf hitler becomes chancellor of germany, the first anti-jewish law is
until the records are released, the world can only speculate. polarized opinions color the emotional debate over the canonization of a deeply controversial historical figure. if in fact he wanted to protect his own church and his oh coreligionists in the face of the holocaust, that decision had consequences. i think pius xii was a human being who made mistakes, and maybe he didn t make the right decision in this case. and maybe that s a lesson for this church, that sometimes we don t make the right decisions, and we need to atone and we need to correct ourselves and we need to do better in the future.
end communism and works to heal in the wake of colonialism and apartheid. pope francis continues in that legacy, a champion for human rights, unafraid to fight for the freedoms of the oppressed. francis and john paul ii have moved us on very significantly. they opened the door. now the vatican is actually a player in world politics, particularly in humanitarian aspects. and that s been an enormously important aspect of its ministry. during the second world war, there was a sense that the church was very different from the world. the pope was isolated. and a life-long practicing catholic who has worked for 17 years at the holocaust museum. and i m a historian. and so it s difficult to just look clinically at a document where a ukrainian catholic