What are their concerns and why are there protests regarding this move?
The reasons are simple enough :
1. It is being said that Pope Pius XII could have done more to save more Jews during World War 2 ;
2. Pope Pius XII is being accused of being silent during Nazi atrocities, particularly, during the Holocaust.
From these accusations branched out other accusations such as the Pope being anti-Semitic(or anti-Jews) and of being pro-Nazi or pro-Hitler.
Very hard to believe. Why?
How can someone be anti-Semitic when he is so revered by a lot of Jews :
a. Rabbi David G. Dalin of New York has proposed that Pope Pius XII be proclaimed "Righteous Among the Nations," the highest award given by the state of
b. Israel Anton Zolli, Chief Rabbi of Rome during the war. In his book, Antisemitismo said : "World Jewry owes a great debt of gratitude to Pius XII for his repeated and pressing appeals for justice on behalf of the Jews and, when these did not prevail, for his strong protests against evil laws and procedures." and "No hero in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic than Pius XII in pursuing the work of true charity!...and this on behalf of all the suffering children of God."
c. Albert Einstein, yes, the great Albert Einstein, on Dec. 23, 1940, in an issue of Time magazine, said : "Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks.
Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess, that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."
It is a sad, frightening and deplorable act of distorting history. Sad, because a magnificent saint, who, in some of man's darkest hours, stood above the rest in protecting lives, is now being portrayed, unjustly and unabashedly, as a coward and, worse, an accomplice to Nazi crimes. Jeno Levai, the foremost Jewish Scholar of the Holocaust at its height in Hungary said "particularly regrettable irony that the one person in all of occupied Europe who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others."
Frightening, because people readily believes a lie. Just a simple research on the life of this great man will quell all doubts about this man being a saint.
Lastly, its deplorable. Anti-Catholics will use anything to bring down the Church that Christ has established.
