What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Randy Carson]

You may recall that when the bishops did speak out against Nazism in the earliest days of the war, Hitler ordered massive bombing in retaliation, and many innocent civilians died.

As Parker said, examples, sources, if you please. The names of the bishops from countries Hitler wasn't already at war with, since speaking out against an enemy of state is no big deal and the supposed retaliation bombing can be just as well an ordinary bombing.

Here is a massive article that is available online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_r...zi_Germany

The Israeli consul, Pinchas E. Lapide, in his book, Three Popes and the Jews (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967) critically examines Pope Pius XII. According to his research, the Catholic Church under Pius XII was instrumental in saving 860,000 Jews from Nazi death camps (p. 214).

Could Pius have saved more lives by speaking out more forcefully? According to Lapide, the concentration camp prisoners did not want Pius to speak out openly (p. 247). As one jurist from the Nuremberg Trials said on WNBC in New York (Feb. 28, 1964), "Any words of Pius XII, directed against a madman like Hitler, would have brought on an even worse catastrophe... [and] accelerated the massacre of Jews and priests." (Ibid.)

Yet Pius was not totally silent either. Lapide notes a book by the Jewish historian, Jenoe Levai, entitled, The Church Did Not Keep Silent (p. 256). He admits that everyone, including himself, could have done more. If we condemn Pius, then justice would demand condemning everyone else. He concludes by quoting from the Talmud that "whosoever preserves one life, it is accounted to him by Scripture as if he had preserved a whole world." With this he claims that Pius XII deserves a memorial forest of 860,000 trees in the Judean hills (pp. 268-9). It should be noted that six million Jews and three million Catholics were killed in the Holocaust.

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In response to the outrageous accusations posted in this thread, three books by three Jews have been noted by me:

The Myth of Hitler's Pope by Rabbi David Dalen
Three Popes and the Jews by Pinchas E. Lapide
The Church Did Not Keep Silent by Jenoe Levai

Many more could be named in the defense of the Church and Pius XII.

The idea that Pius XII was indifferent to the plight of the Jews during World War II was first put forward in Rolf Hochhuth's play, “The Deputy,” produced during the Cold War. It's a pity that the lies contained in that Soviet propaganda have taken such hold over so many.