Was the pope pro German or pro allies? Was he silent on the oppression of the Jews of Europe? And why did the Vatican maintain ties to the Ustashe regime in Croatia
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I have read a wonderfull book about that, ‘Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War by Owen Chatwick. The Pope was deeply concerned about Nazism, but surrounded by Fascist Italy, he was in a difficult position. The Vatican refused official recognition of any borderchanges during the war, while there was no peacetreaty. So therefore Croatian ‘independence’ was not officially recognized. Mussolini was dissappointed by the refusal of the Pope to publicly support the ‘crusade’ against Bolsjewism/SovietUnion.
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That s not true. He maintained close links and support to the Ustashe. They were ultra Catholics. He didn’t excommunicate them and neither did he condemn the genocide in the Balkans or the holocaust in the rest of Europe.
I did not say that the conduct of the Catholic Church towrds the Ustasha was perfect. But there was no official recognition of Croation independence by the state of Vatican City during the Second World War.
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I recommend reading this:
Even though the guy who wrote it is not a historian he bases his articles on good history and does a good job IMO
I from nothing but my sense guiding me here, would believe that regardless of their official stance if one was made would be a wishful thought at best, with the rise of nationalism around the world the opinion of the Vatican would almost be moot, as we saw with the declaration of jihad by the sultan, people held their religious beliefs but were hard to supersede their own national goals, it’s not like they were raising a all catholic military force to even give a second option to Catholics that didn’t believe in their own nations goals not to mention the difficulties involved for the individual trying such a thing
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