A 1941 New York Times article provides key evidence in a momentous dispute
by Jared Israel
Editing and translation by Samantha Criscione
A well-informed, Vatican-friendly voice from the past — The New York Times — reports a Vatican policy of subversion to push Yugoslavia into the Nazi camp and, failing that, break it up and bring the clerical-Fascist Ustasha to power in a faux-independent Croatia.
[from: The Emperor’s New Clothes (TENC), June 15, 2009]
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“The pope does not go to the museum.”
— Vatican Ambassador Antonio Franco, quoted in
“Pope to shun disputed Israel photo: envoy,” Agence France Presse, March 10, 2009
In April 2007, Vatican ambassador to Israel Antonio Franco threatened to boycott that year’s observances at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority. Following bitter criticism, the Vatican backed down, and Franco attended the observances.
In March 2009 Franco announced that, during his Middle East trip in May, Pope Benedict XVI would visit Yad Vashem but would definitely not enter the Yad Vashem museum, thus contradicting standard protocol for visiting dignitaries. And in May, Benedict XVI did indeed boycott the museum.
These actions, diplomatically severe and aggressively publicized by the Vatican through statements to the media, are part of an intense struggle between Israel and the Vatican over Eugenio Pacelli, otherwise known as Pope Pius XII. The bone of contention? A caption under a picture in the Yad Vashem museum, criticizing Pacelli for his role during the Holocaust. [1]
Continue reading Did the Vatican do too little to hurt the Nazis? Or too much to help them?