visit our warehouse showroom!

8 9 000 YDS.

40 9 000 YDS.

of

CARPET

in

SAVE

40%T° 70%

30 % TO

PAD - 25% OFF • LABOR - 10% OFF

Mr

44.

11111111w

. OVER 600

■

AREA RUGS ;n STOCK

■

SAVE 25 % TO 50 %

■
■
■

■
■
■

Contemporary,Traditional, Oriental

2258 Franklin Rd. Bloomfield Hills
1 block East of Telegraph, North of Square Lake Road
(248) 332-9430

Master Card

Floor Covering Pius, Inc.

HOURS: Mon., Tue., Wed. & Thur. 9-7 • Fri. & Sat. 9-4

For your best price,
selection einel
personellized service

CINDY

SCHLUSSEL

CHRYSLER

niuminn

mfr

SClitaS,

Plymouth

Jeep

Eagle

1490
Mails

6235 Orchard Lake Rd • Next to Orchard Mall

Fall Specials

Featuring:

Healthy, Hydro-Spa
Whirlpool Pedicure!

Acrylic Fill-in (reg '18)

Full-set (reg S28)

Pedicure Only (reg S 28)

ASK ABOUT OUR

'16
S25

S

25

Manicure (r" '12)
Manicure/Pedicure (r" '40)

s10

Pedicure/Fill-in (reg '46)

'41

'33

Call for an appointment:

248-538-0948

9/24
1999

walk-ins welcome • bring in ad for discount

34 Detroit Jewish News

Vatican denounces book
alleging wartime pope deeply anti-Semitic.

of VINYL LINOLEUM in STOCK

STOCK

SAVE

■

Pius XII Red=

OVER

OVER

Preventive
Maintenance P rogram

• 24 Hour Emergency Service
• 30 Vehicles • Radio Dispatch
• Quality Installation

RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Rome

new book that claims deep-
seated anti-Semitism caused
the wartime pope to con-
done the Holocaust and
facilitate Hitler's rise to power has
drawn Catholic outrage and bolstered
Jewish calls to
open Vatican
archives to schol-
ars.
The issue has
also prompted
warnings that the
troubled legacy of
Pope Pius XII —
and plans for his
possible beatifica-
tion — could be
manipulated to
reverse positive
strides in Jewish-
Catholic relations.
Excerpts from Hitler's Pope: The
Secret History of Pius XII by British
historian John Cornwell appear in the
October issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
Not only do they describe Pius XII,
who was pope from 1939 to 1958, as
a knee-jerk anti-Semite, but they
assert that he helped Hitler consoli-
date power through the Vatican's 1933
Concordat with the Third Reich.
Pius XII, according to Cornwell,
had "undermined potential Catholic
resistance in Germany. He had implic-
itly denied and trivialized the
Holocaust, despite having reliable
knowledge of its true extent. And,
worse, he was a hypocrite because
after the war he had taken undue
credit for speaking out boldly against
the Nazis' persecution of the Jews."
The Rev. Pierre Blet, a Jesuit schol-
ar who co-edited an 11-volume edi-
tion of Vatican wartime papers, dis-
missed Cornwell's book as "very con-
fusing" and lacking documentation.
The New York-based Catholic
League for Religious and Civil Rights
also attacked it for bad scholarship,
describing the Vanity Fair article as
"laced with conjecture and innuendo
of the most scurrilous kind."
But Richard Heideman, the presi-

dent of B'nai B'rith International,
called Cornwell's work "deeply dis-
turbing." "It reinforces our position
that the Vatican needs to open its
Holocaust-era archives to independent
historians and journalists so the con-
troversy over Pius XII's wartime
actions can be dealt with fully.
Jews have long accused Pius XII of
remaining silent in the face of the
Holocaust, and the
outlines of the
material in the
Vanity Fair excerpts
have been presented
in the past.
And Pius XII is
well-known to have
been a staunch anti-
Communist.
The battle lines
over Pius XII's
wartime role have
become sharper in
recent years with
the approach of the
year 2000. The millennium year is cel-
ebrated as a Holy Year by the Roman
Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul
II, 79 and ailing, has indicated it as a
landmark for reflection, repentance
and self-examination.
John Paul II has made improving
Catholic-Jewish relations a priority of
his papacy. He is the first pope to have
visited a synagogue, he has visited
Holocaust sites, and he has spoken out
eloquently and frequently against anti-
Semitism. He also oversaw the estab-
lishment of diplomatic relations
between Israel and the Holy See.
But several recent events have raised
concern among Jews.
A major Vatican document released
last year repented for individual
Catholic failings during the Holocaust,
but absolved the Catholic Church itself
from any responsibility and, in particu-
lar, staunchly defended Pius XII.
Last year, too, many Jews were
deeply offended by the pope's canon-
ization of Edith Stein, a Jewish convert
to Catholicism who became a nun and
was killed at Auschwitz. Some Jews
also questioned the pope's beatification
of a Croatian cardinal, Alojzije
Stepinac, accused by many of having
been a wartime fascist collaborator. E.

,'