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Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
A Dialogue Toward Consensus and Healing

Monday, May 2, 2005

The issue of Pope Pius XII's activities—or "silence"—during World War II is one of the thorny controversies that divides Catholics and Jews.  In this dialogue session, we examined the issue from both scholarly and pastoral perspectives. Panelists included leading Catholic and Jewish historians who served on the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, a scholarly board appointed in 1999 to study Vatican activities during the Holocaust. But scholarly consensus is not enough. The controversy has generated misinformation and human wounds, which must ultimately be handled on a pastoral level.  Leading local clergy therefore presented a pastoral perspective on the issues. Open discussion followed the panel presentations.

Transcripts of Panelists:
Fr. Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J. | Dr. Michael R. Marrus | Rabbi Bill Rudolph | Fr. Christopher Pollard
(Their biographies appear below)

Goals:  

1. To provide an overview of the scholarly discussion, including (a) points on which critics and defenders of Pius XII have reached a general consensus and (b) points on which there is still substantial disagreement.
2. Examine popular Catholic and Jewish attitudes toward the issue and discuss how they may or may not flow from the scholarly consensus.
3. Suggest ways of furthering the discussion in the future, with a view toward (a) reaching a scholarly consensus on all major points of disagreement and (b) healing the wounds suffered by ordinary Catholics and Jews.

Panelists:

Fr. Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J.

 

Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J. is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Religious Studies and History at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1975.  After completing his Ph.D. in history at Yale, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1970.  Although the principal focus of his research has been on the Vatican and the United States, his most recent book is Commonwealth Catholicism: A History of the Catholic Church in Virginia (Notre Dame, 2001).  Named as one of three Catholic members of the Catholic-Jewish committee to examine the volumes published by the Vatican on the war years, he is currently completing research on a book on the Vatican and the United States during World War II.

 

Dr. Michael R. Marrus

 

Michael Marrus is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Historical Society, he is a graduate of the University of Toronto and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. Among his principal interests is the history of the Holocaust, about which he has taught at the University of Toronto, UCLA and the University of Cape Town, in South Africa.   He is the author of six books on this and other subjects.  In collaboration with Robert Paxton he published Vichy France and the Jews in l981, which received a National Jewish Book Award.  His prize-winning The Holocaust in History has appeared in Polish, Portuguese, Italian, French and Japanese editions.  Professor Marrus was a member of the international historical commission to examine the role of the Vatican and the Holocaust.

 

Rabbi Bill Rudolph

 

Rabbi Bill Rudolph is Rabbi of Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County.  Previously he served as Associate International Director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.  At Beth El, Rabbi Rudolph has created the Community Torah Institute, a host of inreach activities, and a burgeoning seniors program.  He was also instrumental in Beth El's multi-faceted response to the current Middle East crisis, including a Million Dollar Rally for the Israel Emergency Campaign.  He is the recipient of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington's Matthew Simon Rabbinic Leadership Award.

 

Fr. Christopher Pollard

 

Fr. Christopher Pollard holds an M.A. in catechetics from the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College, a Ph.L. in philosophy from Catholic University of America, and S.T.B. and S.T.L. degrees in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.  He has served as parochial vicar of St. Mark Church in Vienna and is currently the parochial vicar of St. Agnes Church in Arlington.  He is a member of the Academic Committee of the Catholic Distance University as well as various committees of the Diocese of Arlington.

The session featured a performance by the St. Charles Interfaith Ensemble. The Ensemble sang one song before the program began, and we invited the audience to sing along.

Contact Janice Lent at interfaith@stcharleschurch.org.