Should Pius XII Become a Saint?
The Catholic Church’s process of declaring saints is a complex and fascinating one. On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that several candidates for sainthood had reached the initial “venerable” status, having been shown by a Vatican committee to have lived heroically virtuous lives. If a scientifically inexplicable miracle is subsequently attributed to their post-mortem intercession, the second step of “beatification” takes place, followed by eventual canonization if a second miracle is proven. Two popes were among the new “venerables.” The first was Benedict’s still-mega-popular predecessor, John Paul II. The other, however, has doubts swirling around his legacy more than half-a-century after his passing. The inclusion of Pope Piux XII among the venerables brought howls of protest from Jewish groups across Europe and the world. There are long-standing accusations from some Holocaust scholars and Jewish leaders that Pius did little to try to stop the Nazi extermination of some six
