The Vatican on Saturday called on both Catholics and Jews to stop piling "pressure" on Pope Benedict over whether he should or should not promote the sainthood of his controversial Nazi-era predecessor Pius XII. Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, has been accused by some Jews of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust during World War II, a charge his supporters and the Vatican deny.
Chief Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi issued an unusual statement after an Italian news agency ran an interview with the Rev. Peter Gumpel, the Vatican's chief judge investigating Pius' sainthood cause.
Gumpel, a major proponent of sainthood for Pius, was quoted as saying that Benedict had put the sainthood process for Pius on hold because it would harm relations with Jews.
Last year, the Vatican's saint-making department voted in favor of a decree recognizing Pius' "heroic virtues," a step in a long process toward possible sainthood that began in 1967.
Benedict has so far not approved the decree -- which is needed for beatification, the last step before sainthood -- opting for what the Vatican has called a period of reflection.
"In this situation, it is not opportune to exercise pressure on him (the pope) from one side or the other," Lombardi said.
The Vatican appeared to be at pains to distance itself from the remarks attributed to Gumpel, including one that Benedict would not visit Israel unless a caption of a photograph of Pius in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem museum of the Holocaust was changed.
The caption says that Pius "abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews" and "maintained his neutral position throughout the war."
"OBJECTIONABLE CAPTION"
The Vatican statement said that while the Catholic Church has made it clear to Israeli authorities that it found the caption objectionable, it was wrong to consider it "a determining factor" in the decision about a papal trip.
Some say Pius did not do enough to save Jews. The Vatican and his Jewish defenders say he worked behind the scenes to help because direct intervention would have worsened the situation.
Benedict has repeatedly defended Pius, saying he worked "secretly and silently" during World War Two to "avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews possible."
At an October 9 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Pius' death, Benedict said he prayed the process which could lead to Pius' beatification "can proceed happily."
Four days before the anniversary, the chief rabbi of Haifa, Israel, Shear-Yashuv Cohen, told Benedict during a synod that Jews "cannot forgive and forget" that some major religious leaders at the time did not speak out against the Holocaust.
Cohen, who was the first Jew to address a Vatican synod, separately told reporters Pius "should not be seen as a model and he should not be beatified."
Pius' papacy is one of the most difficult issues in Catholic-Jewish relations.
Many books have been written about it, with most defenders saying the situation would have been worse for Jews if he had spoken out forcefully, prompting retaliations by Hitler.
They say he ordered churches and convents throughout Italy to hide Jews and that Vatican diplomats in Europe also helped give many Jews false passports.
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(Source: Reuters)