Pius XII and the Unspeakable

Jack W. Douglass’ brilliant and courageous book, JFK and the Unspeakable:  Why He Died and Why It Matters, has challenged the elite establishment consensus regarding the controversial life and unreported behind-the-scene efforts of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in trying to bring peace and conflict resolution to a world beset by the insane spectre of thermonuclear war (what Douglas, following the example of  Trappist monk Thomas Merton, has called the Unspeakable).  JFK was savagely murdered for his actions.

Like Kennedy, Pope Pius XII, the intrepid pontiff during the Second World War, has been the subject of intense controversy and calumny because of his under-reported behind-the-scenes efforts to bring peace and conflict resolution to the warring parties of WWII.  In some circles of vilification he is regarded as “Hitler’s Pope,” and the moral equivalent of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in regards to the Holocaust.  The latest move this week by the present Vicar of Christ, Benedict XVI, in declaring Pius XII “venerable” in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church and one more step closer toward sainthood has again angered these groups.  What hatred, animosity, and character assassination lay behind these ongoing relentless attacks?  Is it a case of Pius XII and the Unspeakable?

UPDATE:  A vigilant LRC reader has refreshed my memory concerning another little-known chapter of this controversial story, that of active measures by post-war eastern bloc intelligence agencies in fostering disinformation regarding Pius XII and the Holocaust during WWII.

Share

7:00 pm on December 19, 2009