This is a sampling of the mail we received about our New York Times ad:
“I have been sitting here for several hours thinking whether or not I should take the time to give you my opinion on your ad which appeared in the Times….You may offer any proof you want from any source you want and I will believe to my dying day and for that matter, everything I will teach my children and grandchildren, that the murder of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis was aided by the church by their silence, by the millions of Catholic Poles and other catholic and christian organizations throughout Europe. The Nazis used 1500 years of Catholic and Protestant hatred, pogroms, inquisitions, burnings, blood libels, to incite the smouldering hatred which culminated in the Holocaust….I as an American do not hate Catholics nor anyone else for that matter, I deal with every one on a one to one basis, good bad or indifferent. But as for the church as an institution, I rank them up there with the worst purpurtrators of racial hatred and intolerance.
Please save the ads to the Times trying to clean up the record of Pius when the other Popes throughout European history had as much blood on their hands as he did.”
“It took me a lifetime to figure out that Catholics are good, their moral teachings are good, but that the hierarchy is eveil. Many of your popes and cardinals died with the blood of innocent people on their hands. It is an evil empire….What kind of institution is this that you so blindly follow down the pathways of hate, political expedience, murder and greed! Use your God-given head! Someday you will have to answer to your God for suppressing the evidence to further the cause of a worldly, wealthy, powerful organization that has no real ties to its people. An organization of powerful, geriatric men who answer to no one for anything they do. Or refuse to do such as publicly condemning the Nazis.”
“Ad on op-ed page of 4/10/01 NY Times from the noted papist, William A. Donohue. Ad was riddled with lies distortions and misinformation. For your information, Pius XII was Hitler’s silent partner. He was in league with the Nazi’s and his actions are a shameful disgrace, but should not be surprising considering the treatment of Jews and other religions by the Vatican over the centuries. But, rest, assured that Pius XII is frying in hell, as will John
Paul II when he joins him in the near future. We won’t get into the issueof Catholic priests molesting young boys and apparently now raping nuns.
“I wish you Catholics would stop acting like the politically correct types you despise. You are making yourselves into phony martyrs….Your group’s love of human rights came only after your wings were clipped and claws removed. Now, with your temporal powers and responsibilities removed, you can engage in your high moral mindedness and lay your guilt trip on everyone.”
Editor’s note: These e-mail transmissions above appear exactly as they were received by the Catholic League.
