Editing Maximilian Kolbe (section)

===Controversies===
Kolbe's recognition as a [[Christian martyrs|Christian martyr]] generated some controversy within the Catholic Church.<ref name="peterson"/> While his self-sacrifice at Auschwitz was considered saintly and heroic, he was not killed out of ''odium fidei'' (hatred of the faith), but as the result of his act of [[Charity (virtue)|Christian charity]] toward another man. [[Pope Paul VI]] recognized this distinction at Kolbe's beatification, naming him a Confessor and giving him the unofficial title "martyr of charity". Pope John Paul II, however, overruled the commission he had established (which agreed with the earlier assessment of heroic charity). John Paul II wanted to make the point that the Nazis' systematic hatred of whole categories of humanity was inherently also a hatred of religious (Christian) faith; he said that Kolbe's death equated to earlier examples of religious martyrdom.<ref name=peterson/>

====Accusations of antisemitism====
Kolbe's alleged antisemitism was a source of controversy in the 1980s in the aftermath of his [[canonization]].<ref name="Yallop2012"/> In 1926, in the first issue of the monthly ''Knight of the Immaculate'', Kolbe said he considered Freemasons "as an organized clique of fanatical Jews, who want to destroy the church."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/12/05/mass-is-set-for-the-saint-of-auschwitz/18a930db-756e-4f7c-a484-399305713a29/ |title=Mass Is Set For the Saint of Auschwitz |author=Joyce Wadler |date=5 December 1982 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> In a 1924 column, he cited the ''[[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' as an "important proof" that "the founders of Zionism intended, in fact, the subjugation of the entire world", but that "not even all Jews know this".<ref>{{cite web |title=Czy prawda się zmienia? |url=https://pisma.niepokalanow.pl/967-czy-prawda-sie-zmienia}}</ref> In a calendar that the publishing house of his organization, the Militia of the Immaculate, published in an edition of a million in 1939, Kolbe wrote, "Atheistic Communism seems to rage ever more wildly. Its origin can easily be located in that criminal mafia that calls itself Freemasonry, and the hand that is guiding all that toward a clear goal is international Zionism. Which should not be taken to mean that even among Jews one cannot find good people."<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |author=Henry Kamm |date=19 November 1982 |title=Saint Charged with Bigotry; Clerics Say No |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/19/world/saint-charged-with-bigotry-clerics-say-no.html}}</ref> In his periodicals he had published articles about topics such as a [[Zionism|Zionist]] plot for world domination.<ref name="Dershowitz1992"/><ref name="jta"/><ref name="Michael2008"/> Slovenian philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]] criticized Kolbe's activities as "writing and organizing mass propaganda for the Catholic Church, with a clear anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic edge."<ref name=jta/><ref name="Zizek2012"/> In contrast, a writer for online [[EWTN]] claimed that the "Jewish question played a very minor role in Kolbe's thought and work" and that "only thirty-one out of over 14,000 of his letters reference the Jewish people or Judaism, and most express a missionary zeal and concern for their spiritual welfare".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/was-st-maximilian-kolbe-an-antisemite-1068 |title=Was St. Maximilian Kolbe an Anti-Semite? |author=Becky Ready |newspaper=[[EWTN]]}}</ref>

During World War II, Kolbe's monastery at Niepokalanów [[Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|sheltered Jewish refugees]].<ref name=jta/> According to the testimony of a local, "When Jews came to me asking for a piece of bread, I asked Father Maximilian if I could give it to them in good conscience, and he answered me, 'Yes, it is necessary to do this because all men are our brothers.{{'"}}<ref name="BeckyReady"/>