Rome, Italy, May 28, 2009 / 10:55 am
The Vicar Emeritus of the Diocese of Rome has penned a personal article about his childhood and adolescence during the pontificate of Pius XII, who he said reached out to the Jews and laid the foundation for the Second Vatican Council.
In the article published by the L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Camilo Ruini recounts his memories of the first Pope he remembers as a youngster, Pius XII, and how as a seminarian he felt a special closeness with the Pope. “The devotion to him and affection for him were an essential aspect of the atmosphere of the school and of our ecclesial and spiritual experience,” he wrote.
Cardinal Ruini went on to address the black legend surrounding Pius XII for supposedly not helping the Jews during World War II. “I can say that during my years as a youth (…) I never heard criticism of the Pope over this issue, only praise and gratitude,” the cardinal said, adding that one of his most vivid memories is “of everything Pius XII did to save the greatest number of Jews possible, while nobody said anything about his ‘silence.’”