Robert Sungenis - Misrepresentations? Part 2

Dear Moriel Ministries,

I read with interest your critique of Robert Sungenis and his anti-Jewish writings.  I have myself been very public in my criticism of Mr. Sungenis.  I have been unsparing in my criticism of his bigoted approach to Jewish issues, as well as his absolutely shoddy scholarship.  Please see my contributions to this controversy at http://www.sungenisandthejews.com/Intro-Foreword.html and http://www.lumengentleman.com/cont

I found the first part of your critique of Sungenis very helpful, especially the portions which put alleged Jewish influence in media, finance, etc. well in perspective.  But then unfortunately your essay degenerated into an anti-Catholic rant in the very same vein as Sungenis’s bigotry, backed up by the same sort of shoddy “scholarship”.  This was very disappointing, to say the least.

For example, I noted that the photos at the end of your article were gleaned from Cornwall ’s book “Hitler’s Pope”.  The dates of those photos betray the conclusion which you draw from them (they are all from the early to mid 1930s).  And you seem unaware that Cornwall ’s “scholarship” has been thoroughly discredited.  For example, Jewish historian William D. Rubenstein says of Cornwall ’s “Hitler’s Pope” that it is, “a malign exercise in defamation and character assassination” (First Things, Feb 2002; cited in Dalin, “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope”, 7).  And Newsweek columnist Kenneth L Woodward described Cornwall ’s book as, “a classic example of what happens when an ill-equipped journalist assumes the airs of sober scholarship. . . . Most of his sources are secondary and written by Pacelli’s harshest critics.  Errors of fact and ignorance of context appear on almost every page.  Cornwall questions [Pius’s] every motive, but never doubts those who tell a different story.  This is bogus scholarship” (from Philip Jenkins, “The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice”; cited in Dalin, “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope”, 7-8).

A number of very significant books have been written answering in detail the bogus charges levelled against Pius XII and the Catholic Church with respect to the Holocaust.  These include Ronald. J. Rychlak’s “Hitler, the War, and the Pope”, Pierre Blet’s “Pius XII and the Second World War, according to the Archives of the Vatican”, Margherita Marchionne’s “Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII”, Ralph McInerny’s “The Defamation of Pius XII”, Justus George Lawler’s “”, Jose Sanchez’s “Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy”, and Rabbi David Dalin’s “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope”.  Could you please tell me which of them you read before posting your essay?  If you cannot name the books or articles that you read giving a defense of Pius XII, then please tell me how your approach to matters Catholic differs at all from the approach Sungenis takes to matters Jewish.  And if you did read such books defending Pius XII, please tell me why you did not include any of that material in your essay.

Your essay betrays a similar ignorance concerning the Spanish Inquisition.  Even the BBC, hardly a bastion of pro-Catholic sentiment, ran a program entitled “The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition”, a sober reevaluation based on solid documentary evidence of the mythical charges so often levelled against the Catholic Church.  For more information, see http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/SPANINQ.TXT and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/998159/posts.  These are just two of many issues in which your essay was lopsided, unfair, and, dare I say, bigoted.  I asked Bob Sungenis how such bigotry can possibly advance the cause of Christ.  I ask the same thing of you.  You owe your readers, especially the Catholic ones, an apology.

David Palm 

Thank you for your letter.

 

We disagree that Cornwall's scholarship is discredited. Cornwall is a Catholic himself and the coalition with the Zentrum (the Bavarian Catholic party) that brought Hitler to power and Von Papen's sentincing at Nurmberg are irrefutable.

 

So are the actions of The Roman Church in The Rat Route. The same institution that protected Nazi war criminals from justice is now protecting its pedophile clergy from justice (177 of the 179 American diocese have been found libel in civil litigation).

 

The actions of Arch Bishop Stepinac are documented and photo documented

in the Yugoslav holocaust. The treatise of Munich Cardinal Michael Schmauss

'Empire and State' and the Ansclauss sermon of the Cardinal of Vienna can still be obtained in German and in English or French translation (see Avro Manhatten's

'The Vatican Contra Europe" ; the photos alone speak for themselves. 

 

Our mention of the Spanish Inquisition was scant, not exhaustive but the role of The Roman Church in it is irrefutable to say nothing of the culture of Inquistion 

engendered by The Dominicans.     

History is one thing. Revisionism is another.

 

Sincerely,

 

JJ Prach

Moriel