Suspicion and Conspiracy: Defending the Reputation of Noble Individuals

The idea that Pope Pius XII did little to oppose Nazi persecution of Jews is a lie perpetrated by communist sympathizers, according to a University of Mississippi law professor.

Ronald Rychlak, associate dean at the University of Mississippi School of Law, spoke on March 21 at the Lincoln Center campus. He said the communists besmirched the Pope to sow division between Jews and Catholics.

Working from the research he conducted for his book Hitler, the War, and the Pope (Our Sunday Visitor, 2000), he told an audience in the 12th-Floor Lounge that Pope Pius XII was rightly lauded in the days after World War II for his efforts to save Jews from extermination.

Many Jews, including the city of Rome’s chief rabbi, took refuge at the Vatican as the war raged around it, said Rychlak, who is an adviser to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations.

In addition, Pope Pius XII passed along messages to the British on behalf of Nazi officers contemplating the overthrow of Hitler, as depicted in the 2008 film Valkyrie.

"Pinchas Lipade, the Israeli consul in Italy, said, 'The Catholic Church saved more Jewish lives during the war than all other churches, religious institutions and rescue organizations put together,’” he said. "[Lipade] put the number at 850,000."---Fordham University

The Vatican's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations sponsored an event at Fordham University on March 21, 2011 titled Suspicion and Conspiracy: Defending the Reputation of Noble Individuals. [See a collection of articles about the event here.]

The topic of the event was a discussion and signing of Prof. Ronald Rychlak's book on Pope Pius XII, Hitler, the War and the Pope.

This weekend (April 2-4, 2011), the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is hosting a workshop in the Vatican for climate scientists, who are also unjustly maligned and hounded by fanatical propagandists and politicians such as Virginia's Attorney General Cuccinelli. The workshop is titled The Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene.

A fearful Dante and his guide Virgil in the ninth circle of Hell look upon a colossal Satan, who flaps his wings while frozen in the ice from his chest down.

It would be better if Attorney General Cucinelli's ice-cold heart would melt instead of the Earth's glaciers. The Attorney General is a law officer, but instead of upholding the law and protecting the innocent, he flaps his mouth, abuses his office, and persecutes our innocent prophets--climate scientists. I think this is because Attorney General Cuccinelli's father is a natural-gas lobbyist.