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Entry: Patrick Buchanan and the Necessary Book Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/patrick_buchanan_and_the_necessary_book#30333 Post contents: Thank you, Digby. I don't think for one moment that Pius XII was concerned about his own life. But he was worried about the lives of others--having seen that the public denunciation by the Dutch bishops of Nazi crimes led directly and immediately to the deportations of thousands more Jews (in this case baptized ones) to death camps, including St. Edith Stein. If you read Robert Rychlak's "Righteous Gentiles," you'll see that Pius was urged by Polish Jewish leaders to TONE DOWN the tenor of his attacks on Hitler's abuses, since they were making matters worse. I much prefer the quiet sanctity of Pius, who risked his good name for the sake of saving more lives, to the hysterical self-righteousness with which, I imagine, Paul VI would have openly denounced Hitler and courted martyrdom--not just for himself, but for hundreds of thousands of others who might otherwise have survived. "Jack too"--when will some people grow cojones and post under their REAL FRIGGIN' NAMES--fails entirely to assert that an injustice is being committed when a would-be murderer, who has no right to the information about someone's religious heritage, is deprived of data that would permit him to select his victims. I know that St. Augustine adopted a rigorous view on this--saying that one was obliged never to lie, even to a murderer who sought out an innocent. This position was gradually set aside by the Church, just like his assertion that unbaptized infants must burn in Hell. Sorry to speak lightly of a Father of the Church, but by Augustine's logic, if the SS were at your door seeking the Jews (or Gypsies, or priests) you had hidden inside, you would NOT have the right to mislead those murderers. However, since they were threatening violence, you WOULD have the right to kill them. If this doesn't strike you as a logical problem, you don't need education so much as medication. Try Paxil. Sent at: 2008 12 01