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Mordechay Lewy, Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican, on Thursday praised Pope Pius XII for helping Jews during the Nazi occupation of Rome.
On Sunday he “backed off” the comment, saying his analysis was “premature” and that it was a personal judgement.
Lewy’s initial comments were made at a ceremeony on Thursday night to honour an Italian priest who helped Jews. During the course of his speech he mentioned that Catholic convents and monasteries had opened their doors to save Jews in the days following a Nazi sweep of Rome’s Ghetto on October 16, 1943.
“There is reason to believe that this happened under the supervision of the highest Vatican officials, who were informed about what was going on,” he said in a speech.
“So it would be a mistake to say that the Catholic Church, the Vatican and the pope himself opposed actions to save the Jews. To the contrary, the opposite is true,” he said.
Thursday’s comments were the warmest ever made by a Jewish official about Pius XII.
Afterwards, however, Lewy was quickly assailed by a group of Holocaust survivors.
Three days later the ambassador cooled his comments, saying they were premature as the matter was still being researched.
“Given the fact that this context is still under the subject of ongoing and future research, passing my personal historical judgment on it was premature,” the statement said.
Some Jewish groups labelled Lewy’s comments as “morally wrong”, “historically inaccurate” and “hurtful” to Holocaust survivors.
Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors said he appreciated Lewy’s clarification.
“It takes courage to admit a mistake,” he said.
The question of what Pius did or did not do to help Jews has tormented Catholic-Jewish relations for decades and it is very rare for a leading Jewish or Israeli leader to praise Pius.
Many Jews have accused Pope Pius XII of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust, whereas the Vatican says Pius worked behind the scenes because speaking out would have led to Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.
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