1 -New letter reveals Pope Pius XII had detailed information on Nazi killing of Jews
Vatican archive documents on mass killings in Poland undercut Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t denounce Holocaust as it was unable to verify diplomatic reports
2 - After accusations by top Ukrainian official, Vatican Bank denies receiving funds from Russia
3 -Vatican brings its message for peace in Ukraine to Beijing
A high-ranking Ukrainian official accused the Vatican of taking money from Russia and called Pope Francis a ‘Russophile.’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After a close aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Pope Francis of being a Russophile and the Vatican of receiving Russian funds, the Catholic Church issued a statement denying the accusations on Sunday (Sept. 10).
“The IOR does not receive or invest money from Russia,” read a statement by the Institute for Religious Works, using the Italian acronym IOR for the institution more commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank. “The IOR strongly rejects the allegations of the Councilor, according to whom the IOR would be investing Russian money.”
The Vatican Bank insisted the institute only provides financial services to Catholic organizations and that it is held to the highest possible international standards.
“Any statements made to the contrary in the media are based on nothing and must, therefore, be considered as such,” the statement concluded.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, called Pope Francis a “Russophile” in an interview on Ukrainian television Channel24 that aired Sept. 8. “The Vatican can’t have any mediation role, because it would betray Ukraine and justice,” he said.
Podolyak also stated that the Ukrainian government plans to “look into the Russian investments that are being made in the Vatican Bank” and promised to “study this more in detail.”
Pope Francis has promoted peace in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February of last year, but has stopped short of openly criticizing Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Vatican diplomacy has been focused on attempting to build a bridge between the warring factions and to promote a lasting peace.
The pope sent a peace envoy, the experienced diplomat and Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to visit Russian elites in Moscow and meet with Ukrainian leaders. The cardinal also met with members of the United States government, and the pope hinted that the next stop for Zuppi might be Beijing. While Zelenskyy has publicly thanked the Vatican for its peace efforts, especially in helping displaced children to reunite with their families and other charity work, he has also made it clear Ukraine is not interested in the pope’s mediation offer and will seek peace “on its own terms.”
A few diplomatic blunders have also hindered Pope Francis’ chance to bring peace. In a message to young people in Russia in late August, the pope was quoted praising the great history and legacy of Russia, including Russian historical figures like Catherine the Great and Peter the Great, which was interpreted by some as a papal sanctioning of Russian imperialist aims.
Addressing those comments, Podolyak said that “it doesn’t make sense to speak of Pope Francis as a mediator, if he takes on a Russophile position that is obvious to all.”
“I was not thinking of imperialism when I said that,” said Pope Francis, while justifying his comments aboard the papal flight returning to Mongolia (Sept. 4). “Maybe it wasn’t the best way of putting it, but in speaking of the great Russia, I was thinking not so much geographically but culturally.”
Francis’ trip to the Central Asian nation was largely seen as an overture to its larger neighboring countries of China and Russia, which don’t have official diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
While the pope acknowledged his error, he also underlined that “Russian culture is so beautiful, so immensely profound, and it must not be canceled because of political issues.” On a previous occasion, Francis suggested the Russian invasion had been caused by “NATO’s barking at Russia’s door.”
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The meeting with Chinese officials is the latest step in Pope Francis’ appeals for peace in Ukraine.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine, the Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, made history on Thursday when he became the first Vatican prelate to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing. The meeting was the latest step in the pope’s diplomatic efforts to put an end to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
An experienced diplomat and the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Zuppi met with the Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, who was charged with promoting Beijing’s 12-point peace plan for Ukraine. Hui was also the Chinese ambassador to Russia and has traveled to Moscow and Kyiv.
“The meeting, which was open and cordial, focused on the war in Ukraine and its dramatic consequences, underlining the need to join efforts to favor dialogue and find paths leading to peace,” read a Vatican statement on Thursday.
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https://religionnews.com/2023/09/15/vatican-brings-its-message-for-peace-in-ukraine-to-beijing/
“The novelty and importance of this document comes from this fact: that on the Holocaust, there is now the certainty that Pius XII was receiving from the German Catholic Church exact and detailed news about crimes being perpetrated against Jews,” Coco was quoted by Corriere as saying.
ROME (AP) — Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland, undercutting the Holy See’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.
The documentation from the Vatican archives, published this weekend in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is likely to further fuel the debate about Pius’ legacy and his now-stalled beatification campaign.
Historians have long been divided about Pius’ record, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives while critics say he remained silent amid the Holocaust.
Corriere is reproducing a letter dated Dec. 14, 1942 from the German Jesuit priest to Pius’ secretary which is contained in an upcoming book about the newly opened files of Pius’ pontificate by Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives.
Coco told Corriere that the letter was significant because it represented detailed correspondence about the Nazi extermination of Jews from an informed church source in Germany who was part of the Catholic anti-Hitler resistance that was able to get otherwise secret information to the Vatican.
According to the Belzec memorial which opened in 2004, a total of 500,000 Jews perished at the camp. The memorial’s website reports that as many as 3,500 Jews from Rava Ruska had already been sent to Belzec earlier in 1942 and that from Dec. 7-11, the city’s Jewish ghetto was liquidated. “About 3,000-5,000 people were shot on the spot and 2,000- 5,000 people were taken to Bełżec,” the website says.
The date of Koenig’s letter is significant because it suggests the correspondence from a trusted fellow Jesuit arrived in Pius’ office in the same three weeks before Christmas 1942 that Pius was receiving multiple diplomatic notes from the British and Polish envoys to the Vatican with reports that up to 1 million Jews had been killed so far in Poland.
While it can’t be certain that Pius saw the letter, Leiber was Pius’ top aide and had served the pope when he was the Vatican’s ambassador to Germany during the 1920s, suggesting a close working relationship especially concerning matters related to Germany.
According to “The Pope at War,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning anthropologist David Kertzer, a top secretariat of state official, Monsignor Domenico Tardini, told the British envoy to the Vatican in mid-December that the pope couldn’t speak out about Nazi atrocities because the Vatican hadn’t been able to verify the information.
“The novelty and importance of this document comes from this fact: that on the Holocaust, there is now the certainty that Pius XII was receiving from the German Catholic Church exact and detailed news about crimes being perpetrated against Jews,” Coco was quoted by Corriere as saying.
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