Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:39am

Lying About the Historical Record

 

I would note that none of the following comments are directed at my blogging colleague Joe Hargrave for whom I have the greatest respect.  Joe is a first rate writer and an original thinker.  He and I disagree about the morality of lying under all circumstances, but that is not the issue that is being addressed in this post.

A controversy has arisen regarding the morality of the Lila Rose and Live Action brilliant sting operations against Planned Parenthood with some Catholic bloggers condemning these operations citing Catholic teaching against lying.  I disagree with them and believe that the sting operations are completely compatible with Church teaching and praxis, however that is not the issue I am concerned about in regard to this post.

A side controversy has developed recently regarding Pius XII since many people, including myself, have raised deceptions countenanced by Pius XII in World War II to save Jewish lives as an example where the Vicar of Christ approved lies in an attempt to save the lives of the innocent.  Now the proper response to this fact of history to those who hold that the Church teaches that all lies are immoral is to deal with it honestly.  One could argue that the actions of a Pope do not alter Church teaching.  That of course is a hard argument to make to a Catholic audience.  The easier, albeit dishonest path, is to attempt to pretend that what occurred simply did not occur.  The attempt to do that is beginning currently.

In a post at the Paulist site Busted Halo, Dawn Eden and William Doino, Jr., who has written in defense of Pius XII and who really should know better,  cites a biography of Pope John XXIII written by Peter and Margaret Hebblethwaithe for the contention that when  Pope John XXIII was papal nuncio in Turkey during World War II he did not, as popularly thought, issue fake baptismal certificates for Jews.  Go here to read the post and go here to read the passage in the book.

This passage in the post by Mr. Doino deserves careful reading:

Others have argued that the Church would sanction, or did sanction, lying to Nazis who sought to find and kill Jews. But this claim too has no foundation in the Catechism’s teachings, neither is it true of the actions of the Church during World War II — which did save hundreds of thousands of Jews , but not through faking baptismal certificates, as has been claimed.

This passage, to be blunt, is a masterpiece of deception.  Note how it shifts the general argument from whether the Church did sanction lying, to “refuting” the statement by claiming that the Church did not fake baptismal certificates.  The faking baptismal certifcates is further narrowed down to the single case of Archbishop Roncalli.  Bravo!  I make my living by engaging in litigation and I have rarely seen a better example of the art of seeming to refute an argument while in actuality not doing so.

The historical facts which the cited passage does its best to ignore are as follows:

1.  Issuing fake baptismal certicates to Jews was a widespread practice throughout occupied Europe by Catholic clergy during World War II.  Archbishop Roncalli issued thousands of what were called “baptismal certificates of convenience” to priests.

2.  The Church in World War II engaged in a massive campaign of deception to save Jewish lives:  in addition to fake “baptismal certificates” this included disguising Jews as monks, nuns, brothers, sisters and priests, outright lying to Nazi authorities hunting for Jews, forged  travel documents for Jews, forged certificates of Aryan ancestry, forged birth certicates, falsifying school records to identify Jewish kids as Catholic students, etc.

3.  Pius XII encouraged this campaign, as members of the clergy attested time and again after the war.

4.  A good source for information on the deception campaign waged by Catholic clergy, as well as lay Catholics, on behalf of Jews is  Martin Gilbert’s The Righteous.

One of the most distressing aspects of the Catholic blogosphere for me over the years is the efforts by some commenters to “win” current debates in the Church by attempts to falsify the historical record.  Leave the historical record alone!  Debate what you wish, but manipulating the historical record in order to “win” a current debate does a disservice to the Church.

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Stacy
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 7:43am
Phillip
Phillip
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 10:19am

I agree. There’s one thing to say that what clerics did to protect Jews(deliberately deceive/lie) was wrong. Nothing wrong in saying that clerics (even Popes) sin. Its another to say they didn’t when they did. That’s perhaps not a lie if they truly believe that no false documents etc. were provided. But at least by some sources, it is in fact true that deceptions were carried out.

Also agree about Irena Sendler. Great woman who was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Of course the true liar Al Gore won.

Dawn Eden
Dawn Eden
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 11:33am

Mr. McClarey, please corrrect your assertion that BustedHalo is “my site.” It is run by the Paulists. Prior to my recent article, I last contributed to it one year ago.

Thank you for calling attention to William Doino’s and my article. Mr. Doino is currently writing an op-ed, for which he has consulted Msgr. Peter Gumpel S.J. of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which refutes the claims you cite that the Holy See authorized or in any way condoned lying in its efforts to save Jews and others during the Second World War. Until that article appears, I would refer you to Mark Shea’s blog entry today, which addresses the “false baptismal certificate” canard.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 11:34am

O sage moral theologians,

“Evil is as evil does.”

Here is a rhetorical question. Does refusal (actually paying $$$ millions in legal fees not to) to provide medical records, college transcripts, or original birth certificate render President Obama a liar?

I want to know what he is hiding. I could not care less where he was born.

trackback
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 12:04pm

[…] Lying About the Historical Record – Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic […]

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 12:58pm

The Raol Wallenberg Center believes that ”baptism of convenience” certificates were issued by Roncalli. Don’t know what these are and if they constitute true lies.

Dawn Eden
Dawn Eden
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 1:19pm

Just to retract one thing regarding my earlier post–my choice of the word “canard” was unfortunate and inflammatory, as it implies a deliberate choice to mislead. Mr. McClarey, I am not in any way suggesting you are deliberately publishing misleading facts. William’s and my point is that the Holy See’s work to save Jews and others during the Second World War did not include lying, and that the specific claim of faking baptismal certificates has been proven untrue. I recommend that you and others interested in the topic read Mr. Doino’s article when it appears.

Gabriel Austin
Gabriel Austin
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 2:57pm

May one presume that all those who are so certain about the sinfulness of the sting action at Planned Unparenthood will appear at the time of judgement; along with those who are certain of their knowledge that false baptismal certificates were not provided to Jews.

Much as I am no fan of the current condition of the Society of Jesus, the actions of their members during the Elizabethan persecution, as well as the discussions of the 17th Century Fr. Escobar [whom Pascal erroneously attacked] should weigh heavily in this discussion. Plain common sense, and the common opinion of mankind, is also on the side of the perps, teste GKC.

Austin Nedved
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 6:53pm

According to Dawn Eden,

Others have argued that the Church would sanction, or did sanction, lying to Nazis who sought to find and kill Jews. But this claim too has no foundation in the Catechism’s teachings…

I think that these people are out of their minds. Plain and simple. Nothing more can be said.

tom in ohio
Friday, February 18, AD 2011 10:11pm

I wrote something on this as the first entry in my new blog. It has elicited some intersting responses. Check it out

http://meaningfulconversation.blogspot.com/

tom in ohio

Ivan
Ivan
Saturday, February 19, AD 2011 1:48am

Once again we see the irritating Catholic nitpickers cast aspertions on the good faith of others who try to do some good. These people are better off starting a commune of their own. I simply cannot understand how these people expect a Catholic hiding a Jew to answer to the Gestapo. Perhaps if they were in warime Europe they would have exposed the Jew, instead of heaven forbid, besmirch their precious souls. It is for fools like these, that Jesus gave the saying “the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath”.

trackback
Sunday, February 20, AD 2011 7:31am

[…] Hargrove who are opposed to this as an example of lying to be condemned, to Dr. Peter Kreeft and myself who find absolutely nothing wrong with it.  This of course obscures the fact that most Catholics […]

Michaelus
Michaelus
Monday, February 21, AD 2011 4:48pm

Anyone have a copy of a “fake” baptismal cert. issued by anyone during WW2? Are you all so quick to believe that Pius XII and Bishop Roncalli would lie about baptism?

The “fake” baptism story has more to it. First – many Jews were actually baptised validly. Many accepted baptism out of fear and hence were considered conditionally baptised. Many allowed themselves to be “conditionally baptised” because they may or may not have accepted Christ but they certainly wanted to get away from the Nazis. To non-Catholic writers this is called “fake” but we ought not make the same mistake.

Christine
Christine
Tuesday, March 1, AD 2011 4:42pm

Dawn Eden wrote:

“the specific claim of faking baptismal certificates has been proven untrue”

This overstates the case. All Doino says is that the claim remains (in his opinion) unconfirmed. That is not the same as proving something is false–particularly when so many people have testified to having issued or received false or temporary baptismal certificates.

If your strongest source is Hebblethwaite, an open dissenter to Catholic teaching, then I’d say your case is not very strong at all. Mgr. Gumpel is going to know better–but then again, Sr. Margherita Marchione, also involved in Pius XII’s canonization process, has claimed the opposite–that he did indeed sanction the issuing of false baptismal certificates.

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