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Is this true? Did Pope Pius XII really, in fact, work secretly and silently to try and save the Jews from Hitler?

Here is an article from the Catholic News Service. What do you think about it?

Pope Benedict says Pope Pius worked bravely, secretly to help Jews

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Pius XII worked courageously, secretly and silently to help save Jews targeted by the Nazis’ “criminal plan … to eliminate them from the face of the earth,” said Pope Benedict XVI.

“Wherever possible, (Pope Pius) spared no effort in intervening in their favor” and providing organized assistance to the Jews either directly or through others, including Catholic religious institutes, Pope Benedict told participants in an international symposium dedicated to examining the papacy of Pope Pius.

The pope held a Sept. 18 private audience at his summer residence south of Rome with some 80 attendees of the Sept. 15-17 symposium organized by the U.S.-based Pave the Way Foundation. Participants included members of the foundation and representatives of the Jewish community, including rabbis and scholars from around the world. The Vatican published a text of the remarks.

Thanking the foundation for its efforts in seeking the truth, Pope Benedict said that “not all of the genuine facets” of Pope Pius’ pontificate have been examined “in just light” in the 50 years since his death.

Critics have said they believe Pope Pius did not speak out clearly enough in defense of the Jews during World War II or was indifferent toward the victims of Nazism.

Pope Benedict said many of Pope Pius’ efforts to support the Jews were “made secretly and silently” because “in that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews.”

Gary Krupp, Jewish founder and president of the Pave the Way Foundation, told the pope in his speech that “the Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving the lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.”

Krupp told Catholic News Service after the audience that Pope Benedict “was very appreciative” of the organization’s extensive research, which had revealed clearly that the current negative perception of Pope Pius “is completely wrong.”

He presented the pope with nine video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other eyewitnesses to Vatican humanitarian efforts, as well as the 200-page book of documentation compiled by the foundation and unveiled at the Rome symposium.

Dozens of Jewish representatives who believed Pope Pius had done nothing to help the Jews during the Holocaust had been invited to the symposium.

Many accepted the invitation, but some publicly critical of Pope Pius and representatives from three major Jewish museums did not attend even though the foundation had offered to pay for a live video feed if they were unable to travel to Rome.

Symposium organizers wanted to convince curators of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem that a picture display of Pope Pius at the memorial is historically inaccurate and should be changed. The captions accompanying the pope’s picture state he did nothing to condemn the Nazis and their slaughter of the Jews.

David Nekrutman, executive director of the Israeli-based Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, told CNS the exhibit at Yad Vashem should be taken down “until it’s done correctly.”

The display makes the pope look like he was a Nazi collaborator “and that image affected me when I went to Yad Vashem in 1993; I automatically wrote off the Catholic Church from that image.”

He said he came to the symposium not knowing much about Pope Pius “but whatever I knew it was definitely bad.”

“The conference did enlighten me, that he did help, but what I am now trying to discover is to what extent,” said Nekrutman. Perhaps people “place too much importance on the pope’s position, figuring that if he had done something it would have saved who knows how many lives, I don’t know. It’s a learning process,” he added.

George Blumenthal, an American Jewish philanthropist and entrepreneur, told CNS the documents and testimonies unveiled at the symposium “will be the beginning of revolutionary knowledge” about the late pope.

Perhaps, he said, it will take decades of bombarding people with the truth “like water wears away a rock one drip at a time” to erode the ignorance of the war years and prejudice surrounding Pope Pius.

Though members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes voted unanimously in May 2007 to recommend Pope Benedict formally declare Pope Pius venerable, Pope Benedict put the cause on hold seven months later. Pope Benedict established a commission to study new archival material about his predecessor’s papacy and to examine how his possible beatification would impact Catholic-Jewish and Vatican-Israeli relations.

Jesuit Father Peter
This, of course, goes against the conventional view that says the Pope during World War II did little or nothing to voice any opposition against Hitler.

Hey, we’ve got the technology. Cameras and streaming video for the visual, microphones and speakers for hearing the word and congregational singing, we don’t need the other senses. Teleconferencing software, virtual libraries for biblical and theological materials, everything is covered.

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Church obsessed with gays - Tutu
By Robert Pigott
Religious Affairs Correspondent

Archbishop Tutu said tackling poverty was key to global security

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused the Anglican church of allowing its “obsession” with homosexuality to come before real action on world poverty.

“God is weeping” to see such a focus on sexuality and the Church is “quite rightly” seen by many as irrelevant on the issue of poverty, he said.

It may be good to “accept that we agree to differ” on the gay issue, he said.

Archbishop Tutu was addressing a conference of church leaders organised by the Christian charity Tearfund.

The Church says its work on poverty tends to be overlooked.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer, said that apart from the government, the Church of England was the biggest provider of social services at home.

The Anglican Communion was also a major contributor to international projects such as Make Poverty History and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.

Tutu: ‘I am ashamed of homophobia’ in the Church

More than 600 Anglicans marched through London in July to draw attention to the increasing danger that the goals - which include eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 - will not be met.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told them that millions of people owed the Anglican Communion a debt of gratitude for upholding the cause of the poor.

Archbishop Tutu told the conference in London that the Anglican Church was ideally placed to tackle poverty because of its presence at the heart of communities in the UK and overseas.

However, he said he sometimes felt ashamed of his fellow Anglicans as they focussed obsessively on trying to resolve their disagreement about homosexuality while 30,000 people died each day because of poverty.

“We really will not be able to win wars against so-called terror as long as there are conditions that make people desperate, and poverty, disease and ignorance are amongst the chief culprits,” he said.

‘Totally irrelevant’

“We seem to be engaging in this kind of, almost, past-time [while] there’s poverty, hunger, disease, corruption.

“I must imagine that God is weeping, and the world quite rightly should dismiss the Church in those cases as being totally irrelevant.”

Archbishop Tutu accused some of his fellow Anglicans of going against the teaching of Jesus in their treatment of homosexual people by “persecuting the already persecuted”.

The South African Nobel peace laureate said traditionalists were wrong to suggest that gay people had chosen homosexuality and the dispute had to be kept in proportion.

It will be good for us obviously, to resolve our differences on this, and maybe accept that we agree to differ

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“It will be good for us obviously, to resolve our differences on this, and maybe accept that we agree to differ,” he said.

For the Anglican Communion, that is more easily said than done.

Traditionalists suspect that the call for an end to discussions about homosexuality is designed to allow liberal developments to go unchallenged.

Others, including Bishop John Packer, insist that the Church must have a sexual ethic - a sense of what is right and wrong in sexual behaviour.

Most agree that only by staying united will it continue to exercise real influence on the world stage.

I’m a Pentecostal, who has often skitted @ “RRR: Ravin’ Rotten Rowan, Arch-Cant-er-bury-the-truth-at-all-costs”

Tutu is starting to sound like him: both come over as narcissistic attention addicts who now say anything that will get them a headline

I’d say both John Packer & the trads are right @ this: the C o E folk I know are Bible-believing evangelical charismatics, who are getting on with all aspects of the job of completing our Great Commission in this climax generation of history - as in Matt 24:14

http://www.BibleGateway.com

Does Tutu show 2 Thessalonians 2 ’spirit of antichrist’ by asking the world to ignore the church on the basis of his lies @ Bible-believers ignoring the poor?

Evangelicals & charismatics, for decades now, have taken the lead in social action & campaigns for justice

But not at the expense of being gagged from preaching gospel truth

“The truth shall set you free”

The Gospels & Acts show Jesus & followers feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead & casting out demons - by God’s miraculous power confirming the truth of what was preached

Contrast Matt 24 warnings @ endtime multiplication of false messiahs/teachers & prophets

& Revelation 17 Great Whore persecuting the true Bride of Christ

“If you love Me, obey My commands”

Satan is the ‘father of lies.. great deceiver .. enemy .. destroyer’
Duplantis: God Has Solution to the Economy

CBNNews.com
September 6, 2008

http://CBNNews.com - Concern about the economy is still a top campaign issue.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama may have different plans on how to tackle it, but one Christian visionary says God has a solution, too.

Recently, CBN News sat down with Jesse Duplantis, a popular evangelist and the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries.

Jesse shared how Christians should respond to a slowing economy.

Click play to view Wendy Griffith’s entire interview with Jesse Duplantis.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/438404.aspx

A couple weekends ago we had a youth conference at my church. We had teenagers from all across Nebraska there.

Towards the beginning of the service they showed this “good idea/bad idea” video. It would be like “good idea, invite your friends to church- BAD idea, invite your friends to church by bribing them with beer” and there were people acting it out. then there were a few more good/bad idea thingies with people acting them all out

One said “Good idea- go to your school’s FCA (fellowship of christian athletes) meeting. BAD idea- go to your school’s GSA (gay straight alliance) meeting.”

and the way they said it was just really rude and MAKING FUN of homosexuals and people who agree with homosexuals.

One girl walked out. I got really angry. THAT’S how we’re showing Christ’s love?! It wasn’t very funny to me.

My youth pastor was gone last week, but tonight at church I’m going to give him a letter saying what I thought about it. CONTINUED IN DETAILS…
I’m not going to be rude about it. I just want to say something so nothing like that happens again.

How can I start off this letter?! What should I/should I NOT say?!

I want to sound intelligent, and not like I’m just ranting about something I didn’t agree with.

I just want the letter to be effective…

HELP?!?!

thanks