Editing Antisemitism in Christianity (section)

====Pope Pius XII====
{{further|Pope Pius XII and Judaism|Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust}}

Before he became Pope, Cardinal Pacelli addressed the [[International Eucharistic Congress]] in [[Budapest]] on 25–30 May 1938 during which he referred to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today"; at this time anti-Semitic laws were in the process of being formulated in Hungary.<ref>Donald J. Dietrich.  ''Christian responses to the Holocaust: moral and ethical issues Religion, theology, and the Holocaust''. p. 92, Syracuse University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8156-3029-8}}</ref>

The 1937 encyclical ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'' was issued by [[Pope Pius XI]],<ref>Coppa, Frank J. (1999). ''Controversial Concordats.'' Catholic University of America Press. p. 132</ref> but it was drafted by the future [[Pope Pius XII]]<ref name="Pham45">Pham, p. 45, quote: "When Pius XI was complimented on the publication, in 1937, of his encyclical denouncing Nazism, ''Mit brennender Sorge'', his response was to point to his Secretary of State and say bluntly, 'The credit is his.'"</ref> and it was also read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches, it condemned [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]] and scholars have characterized it as the "first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize [[Nazism]]" and "one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican."<ref>Bokenkotter, pp. 389–392, quote "And when Hitler showed increasing [[Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany|belligerence toward the Church]], Pius met the challenge with a decisiveness that astonished the world. His encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge'' was the 'first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize Nazism' and 'one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican.' Smuggled into Germany, it was read from all the Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday in March 1937. It denounced the Nazi "myth of blood and soil" and decried its neopaganism. The Nazis retaliated by closing and sealing all the presses that had printed it and took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of Catholic clergy."</ref>

In the summer of 1942, in the presence of his college of Cardinals, Pius explained the reasons for the great gulf that existed between Jews and Christians at the theological level: "Jerusalem has responded to His call and to His grace with the same rigid blindness and stubborn ingratitude that has led it along the path of guilt to the murder of God." Historian Guido Knopp describes these comments of Pius as being "incomprehensible" at a time when "Jerusalem was being murdered by the million".<ref>Knopp, Guido. ''Hitler's Holocaust'', Sutton,2000, p. 250, {{ISBN|0-7509-2700-3}}</ref> This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed in ''[[Nostra aetate]]'', which was issued during the [[Second Vatican Council]] starting from 1962, during the papacy of [[John XXIII]].<ref>Kessler, Edward, Neil Wenborn.'' A dictionary of Jewish-Christian relations''", p. 86, Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-521-82692-6}}</ref>

Prominent members of the Jewish community have contradicted the criticisms of Pius and they have also spoken highly about his efforts to protect Jews.<ref>Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Doubleday. pp. 480–481, quote: "A recent article by an American rabbi, David G. Dalin, challenges this judgment. He calls making Pius XII a target of moral outrage a failure of historical understanding, and he thinks Jews should reject any 'attempt to usurp the Holocaust' for the partisan purposes at work in this debate. Dalin surmises that well-known Jews such as Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Moshe Sharett, and Rabbi Isaac Herzog would likely have been shocked at these attacks on Pope Pius. ... Dalin points out that Rabbi Herzog, the chief rabbi of Israel, sent a message in February 1944 in which he declared 'the people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness ... (is) doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history.'" Dalin cites these tributes as recognition of the work of the Holy See in saving hundreds of thousands of Jews."</ref> The Israeli historian [[Pinchas Lapide]] interviewed war survivors and concluded that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000&nbsp;Jews from certain death at Nazi hands". Some historians dispute this estimate.<ref>Deák, István (2001). ''Essays on Hitler's Europe''. University of Nebraska Press. p. 182.</ref>