Consequences of Vatican II
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Conciliar Church & Judaism - I
Biased Attacks against Pius XII Are Allowed
The booklet The Biblical Commission on the Jews: Changes in Doctrine and New Anathemas by Atila Sinke Guimaraes is a review of the book: The Hebrew People and its Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible. It is a publication of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC), which is a subsidiary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). The book presents the “rationale” for the imposition of de facto (not de fide) changes in Catholic doctrine enabling a “new” understanding of the Catholic Church toward Judaism.
It received a strong endorsement from the CDF, as is evident by the then head of the CDF, Cardinal Ratzinger, who wrote its preface and permitted it to be published under the aegis of the CDF.
Fallacy of the rationale
Page 10 of Guimaraes' booklet contains the following quotation from the PBC publication:
“Modern times have led Christians to become better aware of the fraternal bonds that closely unite us to the Hebrew people. During World War II tragic events … subjected the Hebrew people to an extremely grave trial [the so-called Holocaust, my addition] that threatened their very existence in a large part of Europe. In these circumstances, some Christians did not give proof of the spiritual resistance one would expect from Disciples of Christ by not taking the corresponding initiatives. Other Christians, on the contrary, offered a generous help to the Hebrews in danger ...
“After that terrible tragedy, the need to examine carefully the question of [Catholic] relations with the Hebrew people imposes itself. An enormous undertaking of study and reflection has already been carried out in this sense. The PBC deemed it appropriate to offer its contribution to this effort in its field of competence.” (The Hebrew People, p. 15)
The Biblical Commission used the above rationale as the impetus for defining a new conception of the relation between Catholicism and Judaism. However, not only is the rationale seriously flawed, but the primary premise of its basis is false.
The fallacy appears in the two closely linked sentences: “In these circumstances, some Christians did not give proof of the spiritual resistance one would expect from disciples of Christ by not taking the corresponding initiatives. Other Christians, on the contrary, offered a generous help to the Hebrews in danger ...”
Since these two sentences were used to support the rationale for a radical alteration of the relation between Catholicism and Judaism, one readily concludes the word “Christians” in the first sentence primarily refers to Catholics, and in the second sentence it refers primarily to schismatics and heretics who are not Catholics. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that if the conciliar Church were to accuse a non-Catholic sect of being remiss in preventing the deaths of the Jews in the so-called Holocaust, this would most certainly hinder the ecumenical efforts that the conciliar Church is avidly pursuing with that sect.
Consequently, one is led to conclude that, taken together, the two sentences imply that the efforts of the Catholic Church - and particularly of Pope Pius XII - to save Jews were, at best, minimal.
Sadly this unwarranted implication has been reinforced by the tepid and almost reluctant opposition by the hierarchy of the conciliar Church to the frequent and well-publicized false charges by several Jewish organizations that the efforts of Pius XII during World War II to save Jews were weak to non-existent.
The conciliar Church has been remiss in rebutting the false charges and in defending the efforts of Pius XII to save Jews from prison camps and death primarily because such a defense would require an effective rebuttal and denunciation of the efforts of Jewish-backed organizations, and thus would be counter to the conciliar Church's intensive dialogue with the Jews.
The charge that Pope Pius XII did little or nothing to help save Jews is clearly refuted by abundant evidence that the Pope, together with members of the Catholic Hierarchy, clergy and laity did indeed save thousands of Jews from certain death by the Nazis.
For example, in the Canadian Jewish Chronicle (17 October 1958), Rabbi J. Stern is quoted as saying: “Pope Pius XII made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away.” And in the book Three Popes and the Jews, the Jewish historian Pinches Lapide wrote: “Pius was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at the Nazi's hands.”
Moreover, many prominent individuals of that time praised Pius XII's efforts to save the lives of the Jews. World renowned personalities such as Albert Einstein, former Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who described the Pope as “the greatest man of our time”) each highly praised the Pope for his effective and successful efforts to save tens of thousands of Jews from death by the Nazis.
Thus, the primary support of the reasoning of the PBC is false and renders the entire argument false, or at the very least, seriously flawed.
The effective spreading of the false allegation that Pius XII failed to vigorously defend Jews from death was greatly assisted by the propaganda efforts of the Soviet Secret Police to “frame” Pius XII, and by implication, “frame” the Catholic Church.
These efforts are documented in the book: Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategy for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism by Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa and Ronald Rychlack. The book also describes how Pope Pius XII personally saved countless Jews from death by the Fascists.
To this day, however, some Jews still persist in maintaining the false allegation that Pius XII and the Catholic Church made little effort to save Jews from the Nazis. The post Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust by Shira Schoenberg is typical of such a false allegation.
Continued
Posted August 2, 2013
Fallacy of the rationale
Page 10 of Guimaraes' booklet contains the following quotation from the PBC publication:
“Modern times have led Christians to become better aware of the fraternal bonds that closely unite us to the Hebrew people. During World War II tragic events … subjected the Hebrew people to an extremely grave trial [the so-called Holocaust, my addition] that threatened their very existence in a large part of Europe. In these circumstances, some Christians did not give proof of the spiritual resistance one would expect from Disciples of Christ by not taking the corresponding initiatives. Other Christians, on the contrary, offered a generous help to the Hebrews in danger ...
“After that terrible tragedy, the need to examine carefully the question of [Catholic] relations with the Hebrew people imposes itself. An enormous undertaking of study and reflection has already been carried out in this sense. The PBC deemed it appropriate to offer its contribution to this effort in its field of competence.” (The Hebrew People, p. 15)
The Biblical Commission used the above rationale as the impetus for defining a new conception of the relation between Catholicism and Judaism. However, not only is the rationale seriously flawed, but the primary premise of its basis is false.
The fallacy appears in the two closely linked sentences: “In these circumstances, some Christians did not give proof of the spiritual resistance one would expect from disciples of Christ by not taking the corresponding initiatives. Other Christians, on the contrary, offered a generous help to the Hebrews in danger ...”
Since these two sentences were used to support the rationale for a radical alteration of the relation between Catholicism and Judaism, one readily concludes the word “Christians” in the first sentence primarily refers to Catholics, and in the second sentence it refers primarily to schismatics and heretics who are not Catholics. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that if the conciliar Church were to accuse a non-Catholic sect of being remiss in preventing the deaths of the Jews in the so-called Holocaust, this would most certainly hinder the ecumenical efforts that the conciliar Church is avidly pursuing with that sect.
Numerous books document the assistance Pius XII
gave the Jews during World War II
Sadly this unwarranted implication has been reinforced by the tepid and almost reluctant opposition by the hierarchy of the conciliar Church to the frequent and well-publicized false charges by several Jewish organizations that the efforts of Pius XII during World War II to save Jews were weak to non-existent.
The conciliar Church has been remiss in rebutting the false charges and in defending the efforts of Pius XII to save Jews from prison camps and death primarily because such a defense would require an effective rebuttal and denunciation of the efforts of Jewish-backed organizations, and thus would be counter to the conciliar Church's intensive dialogue with the Jews.
The charge that Pope Pius XII did little or nothing to help save Jews is clearly refuted by abundant evidence that the Pope, together with members of the Catholic Hierarchy, clergy and laity did indeed save thousands of Jews from certain death by the Nazis.
For example, in the Canadian Jewish Chronicle (17 October 1958), Rabbi J. Stern is quoted as saying: “Pope Pius XII made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away.” And in the book Three Popes and the Jews, the Jewish historian Pinches Lapide wrote: “Pius was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at the Nazi's hands.”
Ratzinger as cardinal changed Catholic doctrine to please the Jews, as pope he went to synagogues to give prestige to them; above at the New York synagogue
Thus, the primary support of the reasoning of the PBC is false and renders the entire argument false, or at the very least, seriously flawed.
The effective spreading of the false allegation that Pius XII failed to vigorously defend Jews from death was greatly assisted by the propaganda efforts of the Soviet Secret Police to “frame” Pius XII, and by implication, “frame” the Catholic Church.
These efforts are documented in the book: Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategy for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism by Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa and Ronald Rychlack. The book also describes how Pope Pius XII personally saved countless Jews from death by the Fascists.
To this day, however, some Jews still persist in maintaining the false allegation that Pius XII and the Catholic Church made little effort to save Jews from the Nazis. The post Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust by Shira Schoenberg is typical of such a false allegation.
Continued
Posted August 2, 2013
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