{"id":2170,"date":"2007-12-18T17:13:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T17:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/a-pause-for-pius.html"},"modified":"2007-12-18T17:13:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T17:13:00","slug":"a-pause-for-pius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/a-pause-for-pius.html","title":{"rendered":"A pause for Pius"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to press reports<\/a>, our German-born pope may be having second thoughts about sainthood for the pontiff who ruled during the Second World War:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Moves to make wartime Pope Pius XII a saint have been delayed because Pope Benedict wants more study of documents, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Il Giornale reported that Benedict has decided to set up a committee in his Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s diplomatic section, to review old documents from the World War Two period and study new ones that have come to light.<\/p>\n

Some Jews have accused Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of being indifferent to the Holocaust and not speaking out against Hitler. His supporters consider him a holy man who worked behind the scenes to help Jews throughout Europe.<\/p>\n

Last May, the Vatican’s saint-making department voted in favour of a decree recognising Pius’s “heroic virtues”, a major hurdle in a long process toward sainthood that began in 1967.<\/p>\n

But Benedict has so far not approved the decree, meaning that the process is effectively stalled and that Pius cannot move on to beatification, or the last step before sainthood.<\/p>\n

Il Giornale reporter Andrea Tornielli, who has written four books about Pius, said the Vatican was not questioning his holiness but was concerned about the wider ramifications of making him a saint too soon.<\/p>\n

A Vatican spokesman said he could not confirm that the Pope had set up an internal committee.<\/p>\n

Vatican sources say top cardinals have advised Benedict to go slow on Pius’s sainthood process because of the repercussions it could have on relations with Jews and Israel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to press reports, our German-born pope may be having second thoughts about sainthood for the pontiff who ruled during the Second World War: Moves to make wartime Pope Pius XII a saint have been delayed because Pope Benedict wants more study of documents, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday. Il Giornale reported that Benedict…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nA pause for Pius - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/a-pause-for-pius.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A pause for Pius - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to press reports, our German-born pope may be having second thoughts about sainthood for the pontiff who ruled during the Second World War: Moves to make wartime Pope Pius XII a saint have been delayed because Pope Benedict wants more study of documents, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday. 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