Italian Parliament Speaker Gianfranco Fini made waves this week when he criticized the Catholic Church and Italian society of the 1930s for failing to act on behalf of Italian Jews during the Holocaust. “We must ask ourselves why Italian society embraced the anti-Jewish legislation and why, beyond certain laudable exceptions, there were not demonstrations of real resistance,” Fini said.
Even the Catholic Church failed to protest the laws, Fini added. Vatican Radio later issued a statement in the Church's defense.
The Catholic Church's current leader, Pope Benedict XVI, has defended Pope Pius XII, who headed the Church during the Holocaust. While Pius has been accused of abandoning Jews to anti-Semitic violence—much of it perpetrated by Catholics—he in fact acted with “courageous and paternal dedication,” Benedict claimed. Benedict's defense of Pius led to fresh debate over the Church's role in the slaughter of European Jewry.
Fini made his controversial remarks during a ceremony marking seventy years since anti-Semitic race laws were enacted in Italy. Most of Italy's Jews were deported during the Holocaust, and many were murdered in Nazi death camps.
Began as a neo-fascist
Fini's remarks caused surprise in part because of the source: Fini began his career in a neo-fascist party supportive of policies similar to those promoted by Holocaust-era fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. However, Dr. Efraim Zuroff of the Wiesenthal Center said Wednesday that Fini's remarks were to be expected. Fini is determined to remove any trace of anti-Semitism from his party, Zuroff explained.
Zuroff, who met Fini for the first time in 1995, described the speaker as a “courageous” and “determined” politician who has fought for over a decade against fascist anti-Semitism. Fini's statements vis-a-vis the Vatican were particularly impressive, he said. “It's a very courageous step, in Italy, to accuse the Catholic Church of silence in face of the Holocaust crimes.”