Pope Benedict started Pope Pius XII along the path to sainthood, and then went to visit the main synagogue of Rome. Many, but not all, Jews have problems with Eugenio Pacelli, who was pope from 1939 to 1958.
He is the pope known for "silence" during the Nazi years. Many Jews and others fault him for failure to roundly denounce the Holocaust.
Earlier popes excommunicated kings and dukes and placed their cities under interdict (banning administration of sacraments).
In 1077, the pope deposed and excommunicated the head of the Holy Roman Empire and left him outside wearing only a hair shirt in the snow for three days while he decided to accept the emperor's apology. But those were different popes in different times.
Contention was not the style of Pius XII.
His diplomatic way was a quiet word in the right place.
The Vatican has shown evidence that he and his secretary of state dropped that word "behind the scenes."
They never seem to have realized that there was only one "right place" in the Third Reich, and it was not among functionaries trying to save their own necks.
Pius XII did offer a few public denunciations, but they were couched in his orotund Latinate terms, so when he was through, the reaction was more likely "What did he say?" than "He has insulted the Fuhrer!"
It sounds odd to attribute "heroic sanctity" to Pius when heroism better describes people like Maximilian Kolbe, who has been canonized, and the Jesuit Alfred Delp, who hasn't, both of whom died in concentration camps for being clearly not awed by Hitler.
"Heroic sanctity," however, is a term of art in the Catholic Church's rules for canonizing saints.
A good but rarely asked question is what would have happened if Pius had unleashed a 50-gun oratorical broadside. You can't rule out an answer of: "Nothing."
Pope John Paul II sharply criticized both U.S. wars in the Persian Gulf for lack of sufficient diplomatic effort before the resort to arms.
If they were, as he said, premature and aggressive, that would make them unjust. Unjust wars are as intrinsically evil as abortion, in Catholic teaching.
John Paul was never able to get so much as an amen from the American bishops, who never tire of expressing agreement with popes about everything else.
American bishops might have risked some opprobrium from the pews and an occasional withheld financial pledge if they supported John Paul.
German bishops in the 1940s would have faced much worse. Leaders usually don't blow "Charge" on the bugle when they know no one will move.
Martyrs do, but martyrs are a different case.
Naming saints is one of those things the Catholic Church does that many people consider peculiar. It should be noted that canonization is not a ticket to heaven.
The assumption is that the saint is there.
Also, there is no claim that only the canonized are in heaven, and anyone else is someplace else. Neither worldly success nor brilliance is a prerequisite.
As Mother Teresa said, God didn't call her to be successful, only to be faithful.
Saints are proposed as models of triumph over self to inspire the living in their own efforts at faithfulness.
With Pius XII and John Paul II, who were proposed for sainthood at the same time, there are three popes from the 20th century and one from the late 19th century in the process.
There already are scores of sainted popes, beginning with St. Peter.
It's hard to see who in the church— besides, maybe, a pope — needs another of papal sanctity.
Pope John Paul himself complained that there aren't enough married saints on the roster.
Strictly speaking, the church is under no compulsion to push a case for Pope Pius XII. Someone important wants it, and in this case the controversy — and defending the papacy — must have more to do with it than any pressing need for another pope as a role model.
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