NBC’s “Today Show” (3/21/00)
DR. DONOHUE: …I think the Catholics have to own up to the fact that they didn’t do enough during the Holocaust. The is a grand collective act of contrition. On the other hand, you know, Catholics are not a punching bag. And there are some people who want to keep upping the ante. It’s like it’s never enough.
“HARDBALL with Chris Matthews” (3-21-00)
DR. DONOHUE: Let’s get a couple of things straight about Pius XII. He wrote an encyclical in 1937 for his predecessor which condemned Nazism long before a lot of people in the Jewish community were doing so, certainly in the Protestand community and in the Catholic community.
In 1941, he was commended by the New York Times as the lone voice breaking out of the silence in Europe for condemning what was going on. The New York Times again, on Christmas Day of 1942, did the same thing.
When the war was over in 1945, here’s a pope who was congratulated by virtually every single Jewish organization throughout the world. He was given all kinds of money from the World Jewish Congress. We know that in his own backyard in Italy, something like 85 percent of all the Jews survived as a direct consequence of what he did. Who do you think opened up the convents? Who opened up the monasteries? There were Jewish women who gave birth inside these monasteries.
