That's exactly what Pope's tend to do best. They'd sleep with the devil if it meant that their privilages were secure. This may not have been the case with the Russians - although I'm sure you've read Animal Farm and see how the crow gets rewarded with beer by the pigs even though the pigs claim that the crow's superstition is the enemy of the animals - but it certainly was with either the Nazis or the Anglo-Americans. Pius probably kept a double sided portrait in his office of Hitler on one side and Churchill on the other for any eventualities. No wonder he 'blessed' them before ensuring that a load of Nazis escaped to Spain and then Latin America.Originally Posted by liam88
Popes are followers of realpolitik as is shown with their blessing of King William the fruit and their excommunicating of the Fenians two centuries later, and unlike the Danish (and Protestant) King Christian X who had some morality and at least stuck up for his Jewish subjects even if he was physically powerless to prevent their deportation (In the end Denmark lost only a tiny number of Jews to the gas chambers).
One should never of course mix the evil of certain individuals with the Christianity they claim to represent, and this is where I personally draw the line. If you are interested, John Cornwell's 'Hitler’s Pope, The Secret History of Pius XII' is a good examination of this evil little man, coming from what he describes himself as a former unconditional Catholic. No doubt Pius will be made a saint one day, though.
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