"After the German attack on Soviet Union, Pius XII refused to take sides and to engage the Catholic Church in a crusade against Communism. On the contrary, he tried to go beyond the U.S. Catholic opposition to an alliance with the Soviets, although the Pontiff and his entourage still held a negative opinion on Communism." So spoke Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, outlining in his speech on Pope Pacelli the efforts he made to defend Nazi victims, namely the Jews. "Saying Pius XII was indifferent to the sort of the Nazi victims the Polish and, above all, the Jews or even that he was ‘Hitler’s Pope’ is an offensive statement which is, moreover, historically inconsistent. Historically inconsistent is also the image of a Pontiff entirely dominated by the Americans and described as ‘the chaplain of the West’, an image spread and supported by the Soviets and their followers in the European democracies during the Cold War." Cardinal Bertone then exhorted to have a look at "the Vatican Information Office for prisoners of war with its three million and half documents to 1947, which is open to the public but rarely visited." ” ” ” “
