Pope Benedict chats with chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Sengni

Pope Benedict XVI defended his predecessor Pius XII against Jewish critics on Sunday, telling the audience at a Rome synagogue that the Vatican worked quietly to save Jews from the Nazis during World War 2.

Many Jews object to Benedict moving Pius toward sainthood, contending the wartime pope didn’t do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives.

While he didn’t mention Pius by name, Benedict told Jewish leaders in the synagogue that the Vatican “itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way.”

Benedict said Catholics acted courageously to save Jews even as their extermination “tragically reached as far as Rome.” He spoke shortly after Jewish Community President Riccardo Pacifici criticised Pius, saying Italian Catholics worked to save Jews but the “silence” of Pius “still hurts as a failed action. “Pacifici said his grandparents were killed at the Auschwitz death camp while his father was saved by Italian nuns in a Florence convent.

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