Rehabilitating Hitler's Pope

The Daily Wire has decided to put out a four-part documentary on the great things Pope Pius XII was doing during the reign of Hitler. 

After reviewing Part One, they are off to a bad start.

For decades the pope was accused of being in bed with Hitler.  The reason he was accused of this is because he was in bed with Hitler. 

Michael Knowles, of the Daily Wire, attempts to make the case that Pope Pius XII has been misunderstood for decades.  He claims that the pope is the victim of lies and historical revisionism by the Communists and the left. 

Looks like we are in store for some propaganda and historical revisionism from the right.

Knowles has dug into the Vatican archives and found that Pope Pius XII and the Vatican were actually great defenders of the Jews.

And bitter enemies of Hitler. 

Unfortunately for Knowles and the Daily Wire, rehabilitation does not work on criminals, and it won’t work on the pope’s well-earned reputation either.

It is claimed that the reason Hitler’s pope was so misunderstood is because, although he publicly supported Hitler, allegedly, he silently worked to undermine his regime. 

Hmmm.  That sounds a little hinky to me.

I suppose when the Antichrist comes on the scene, we Christians should publicly support him while quietly working to undermine his administration.  I’m not sure I want to stand before the Lord with that on my resume.

A brief overview of the job of the church is as follows:

1.    Testify that Christ died for our sins.

2.    Call sinners (publicly) to repent and be forgiven in the name of Jesus.

3.    Make disciples of all nations through baptism

4.    Teach everyone to obey everything that Christ has commanded.

Publicly complying with evil while, allegedly, trying to subvert it from within is not on the list.

Paul said to put on the full armor of God and take a stand (publicly) against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11).  He didn’t recommend trying to ‘out-scheme’ the Prince of Darkness behind the scenes. 

Michael Knowles defends his position that Pope Pius XII was not ‘Hitler’s pope’ with the following justifications:

·       Hitler once wrote that he was an enemy of the Roman Catholic church (RCC).

·       The (RCC) allegedly saved a lot of lives and did a lot of good (gave false Catholic baptism certificates, collaborated with charities to help Jews, etc.)

·       The silence (of the papacy) during this time does not mean ‘inaction’

·       The RCC had secret documentation that they protected Christians and Jews

·       “Activists” gave Pius a bad name

·       In 1929, anyone who flew a Nazi flag would be excommunicated

·       The RCC secretly considered the Nazi movement pagan and criticized Hitler as a demagogue

·       The RCC needed to maintain neutrality and had to compromise with Hitler to avoid persecution of Catholics

·       The RCC was being spied on by Mussolini, so they had to be careful what they said publicly and in private

·       There were many pro-Nazi, Antisemitic Catholics in the Vatican and among the people, who had to be patronized

On the last point, it could be asserted that the pope’s silence on the rise of Naziism contributed to the popularity of Hitler.  The pope’s secret statements and private conversations did nothing to restrain the ambitions of this madman. 

Despite the above ‘proofs’ that the Vatican stood against Hitler, in 1933 Pope Pius XI signed a Concordat with him. 

A ‘concordat’ is an agreement between the Vatican and a government. As far as the Vatican is concerned, any government that signs a concordat immediately becomes a part of the government of God.  This document means that the Vatican fully intends to stabilize that government, give it divine protection, and give it international security.

I guess light and darkness can find common ground (II Corinthians 6:14-19).

As we all know, the ‘Holy Father’ is infallible when he speaks ‘Ex Cathedra.’ We can therefore rest assured that when the pope signs a concordat with an antichrist, that antichrist has the pope’s blessing as well as the blessing of God.

At least in the eyes of the Vatican.

Hitler was still consolidating his power in 1933 which would have been the perfect opportunity to speak out, publicly, against his rise to leadership.  That would have been a great time for the ‘Holy Father’ to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 

Instead, the Vatican helped to stabilize his rule, gave his administration divine protection, and helped provide the Nazi regime international security. 

There is little question that the Vatican aligned with Hitler because the papacy feared the Communists.  Hitler hated the communists also. The papacy saw Communism as a greater threat than the Nazi’s and joined with the lesser of two evils. 

Jumping in bed with the lesser of two evils is still jumping in bed with evil which is kind of a ‘no no’ for those of us called by the name of Christ.

Apparently, Pope Pius XI forgot Jesus’s admonition:

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

Looks to me like there was an awful lot of fear of man rather than fear of God in the justifications listed by Knowles.  The pope acted like a weak politician rather than a ‘Holy Father’ who stood firm in the power of God.

Italy, which is the home of the Vatican, was extremely Antisemitic in the 1930’s.  There is no evidence that the Vatican or the pope ever attempted to change that. 

Besides, Hitler got some of his best ideas regarding how to deal with the Jews from the RCC. 

For instance, at the Council of Zamora (1313) in Spain, Jews were excluded from State functions, edicts enforcing the wearing of distinctive badges were instituted, and other oppressive measures were inaugurated. 

At the Council of Basel (1434), Jews and ‘Christians’ were to be separated in terms of marriage, celebrations and employment.  Jews were not permitted to hold public office, were excluded from higher education, and were forced to wear garments that distinguished them from Christians. 

These are just some of the mandates from RCC ‘Holy Councils’ that resulted in extreme and lasting Antisemitism in many European countries.

This brings us to Kristallnacht in 1938.  The Vatican, according to Knowles, was silent on this Nazi atrocity as well.  Knowles claims that its silence did not mean this event had the pope’s assent. 

However, there was no open denunciation of this incident which is crucial to standing against evil. 

Pius XI decided to stay neutral and ambiguous regarding his position on the rise of Nazism.  As a politician, he was allegedly concerned that, by criticizing this event, it could create a diplomatic incident, and that would have been a mortal sin (sarcasm intended).

Let’s hope we never have to rely on the Vatican to stand up for Christians when we in the West start getting persecuted by a powerful, evil person.  The sad fact is, as true Christians are being persecuted around the world (Africa, Asia, Middle East), the Vatican is even now in bed with the persecutors. 

Christian persecution is worse than it has ever been and the silence, except in a few circumstances, of the Vatican mirrors its silence during the holocaust.  After all, they don’t want to cause a diplomatic incident by publicly calling evil to account.

Pope Pius XI died suddenly under suspicious circumstances in 1939.  It is possible he was given too much heart medication.  Popes dying under suspicious circumstances are not all that unusual in the land of the ‘Holy See.’

Pope Pius XII, in March of 1939, was quickly elected Pope.  He took on the name of Pius because he wanted to show the world that he intended to continue the policies of the previous pope. 

That means he can be held responsible for his predecessors’ positions. 

The previous policies that he would continue were

·       silence in the face of evil,

·       ensuring that no diplomatic incident occurred that would upset Hitler,

·       allowing Antisemitism to continue to fester,

·       and not denouncing any atrocities (like Kristallnacht or the Holocaust).

I can only imagine how the documentarians at the Daily Wire will deal with the Vatican ‘Ratlines’ that allowed numerous Nazi’s to escape justice after they lost the war.  There is way too much testimony about that little scheme.

And this was done with the blessing of Pius XII.

The reason this is important is because the Protestant Churches are dying and the RCC is presenting itself as an alternative.  The RCC is an enemy of the Gospel and cannot be allowed to supplant the true faith that was once delivered to the Saints.

Any attempt at rehabilitation of any of the papal villains of the Nazi era, or any era, should be resisted, especially when it is easily proven false.

If there is a great falling away from the faith in the near future, which is possible since we are approaching the end of the church age, the RCC will be leading it. 

There is no way to rehabilitate this church or the papacy.  This prostitute is about to become extremely popular but will lead many into the pits of hell. 

It is the job of the evangelist to thwart this to the greatest extent possible.

This review is a shame because I like the guys at the Daily Wire.  They seem so clear thinking on so many other issues.  A lot of credibility to being lost trying to rehabilitate this villain.

They really are embarrassing themselves.

Spiritual blindness makes fools of us all.

 

www.gospelist.net                                                                                   September 05, 2025