POPE Benedict XVI yesterday praised a controversial predecessor, Pius XII, while celebrating a commemorative mass on the 50th anniversary of the wartime pope's death.
Benedict told more than 270 bishops, in Rome for a synod on the Bible, that Pius saved the "largest possible number of Jews" by acting in silence to "avert the worst". He also noted that Pius had been recognised after the war by Jewish leaders, inclu
ding Golda Meir, and gave his strongest indication that Pius would be made a saint.
Benedict said: "I am praying that Pius's progress towards sainthood will continue happily." But he gave no indication as to when he would sign a decree on the "heroic virtues" of Pius – an essential part of the process.
The Vatican's saint-making department, the Causes for the Congregation of Saints, unanimously voted in favour of recognising those virtues in May last year, but Pope Benedict has yet to sign the relevant decree.
Some observers have said the delay is a sign of German-born Benedict's belief that more reflection is needed and many historians have said that although Pius did what he could during the war, he could have done more.
Yesterday in an editorial Paolo Mieli, editor of the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, called Pius "a great pope (who was] equal to the situation" he was faced with and he added that attempts to portray him as "mute or supine in the face of the Nazis were mad".
However, earlier this week the first Jew to address a synod, Rabbi Shear Cohen of Haifa, said he might not have come to Rome if he had known Pius was to be celebrated, too.
He spoke out against the move to canonise Pius and added that Jews cannot "forgive and forget" that he did not speak out enough about the Holocaust. Pius was put on the road to sainthood in 1965, but progress has been slow because of accusations that he remained silent in the face of the Nazi bid to exterminate Jews.
In 1942, Pius condemned extermination "by reason of nationality or race", but did not use the words Nazi or Jew. Supporters claim that if he had been totally explicit, the Nazi reaction would have been to try to wipe out Jews even faster.
