Bishop Preysing of Berlin, a man of courage and compassion, urged the Pope on at least two occasions to issue a public appeal on behalf of the Jews. A similar request with regard to the Hungarian Catholics was directed to Pope Pius in September 1944 by Isaac Herzog, the chief rabbi of Palestine. The pope could have saved numerous lives, if indeed he could not have halted the machinery of destruction altogether, had he chosen to take a public stand and confront the Germans with the threat of an interdict or with the excommunication of Hitler, Goebbels, and other leading Nazis belonging to the Catholic faith. In Slovakia, Hungary, and Rumania, the forceful intervention of papal nuncios, who threatened the pro-Nazi governments with public condemnation by the pope, was also able, albeit temporarily, to halt the deportations. At the very least, it has been suggested, a public denunciation of the mass murders by Pius XII broadcast widely over the Vatican radio, would have revealed to Jews and Christians alike what deportation to the east actually meant.
Real friendship is where both parties have the confidence to air differences.
False friendship is where that confidence is lacking and parties therefore skim over important differences leaving underlying tensions and wounds. I believe that the friendship engendered by the great Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church with the world Jewish community though his recognition of the State of Israel and twice visiting the Synagogue in Rome is a real one, and therefore we must have the confidence to express dissent. To those who would argue that a public pronouncement by Pius XII would not have saved the Jews, I can only offer the example of the current Pope. In the early 1980's, Pope John Paul II, faced with the possibility of an imminent Soviet invasion to his native Poland for the growth and defiance of the Solidarity workers union, sat down and wrote a letter to the head of the Soviet Union. In it he warned that if Soviet Tanks crossed over into Poland, he would resign the Papacy and stand on the front lines to defend Poland.