Hitler

Double Agent Garbo: The Ordinary Person Who Played a Major Role in Defeating Nazi
History

Double Agent Garbo: The Ordinary Person Who Played a Major Role in Defeating Nazi Germany

Bruce Strom 0

After Nazi Germany invaded Poland, then France, Pujol decided the best way he could contribute was to serve as a spy against Nazi Germany. He visited the British embassy in Madrid three times in early 1941 offering his services. He was rebuffed out of hand.
How could our Spanish friend burnish his spy resume? By volunteering at the German embassy, playing the role of a fanatic Spanish fascist who could travel to London on official business! The Germans gave him a crash course in espionage, secret writing with invisible ink, a codebook, cash for expenses, giving him the codename ALARIC. His instructions were to move to England and recruit a network of British agents. […]

Building Bridges Between Church and LGBTQ Community
Catholic Catechism

The Church, the Catholic Catechism, and the LGBT Community

Bruce Strom 1

How should this two-fold Love of God and love of neighbor affect how we enforce moral laws in our faith and civil communities? When should these be enforced?

Simply put, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, they should be enforced so they increase in our hearts the two-fold Love of God and neighbor. This certainly means we should discourage sexual abuse and punish serious sexual abuse that is proven. Certainly, it means we should seek to be compassionate rather than cruel, because compassion is loving, while cruelty is hateful. […]

History

Was Pope Benedict XVI proactive in the pedophile priest sex scandal?

Bruce Strom 0

Penance is what Christians do; Christians repent. Unfortunately, many secular media interpreted these gestures by Pope Benedict as an admission of personal guilt.
During this time Cardinal Ratzinger confessed, “The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without but arises from sin within the Church.” “The Church has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.”
The media can be unfair at times. Pope Benedict XVI said that “we must be grateful for every disclosure. The truth, combined with love rightly understood, is primary. The media could not have reported these incidents had there not been evil in the Church herself.” […]

Current Events and History

Ukrainian President Zelensky Speaks to Joint Session of Congress, Reflections on David Frum Editorial in Atlantic Magazine

Bruce Strom 0

David Frum writes, “Zelensky came to Washington to speak for his nation. He came to Washington to ask for assistance. But above all, he came to Washington to recall Americans to themselves. He came to say, My embattled people believe in you. Embedded in his words of trust was a challenge: If we believe in you, perhaps you can again believe in yourselves?” […]

History

How Did the Experiences of World War II Influence the Second Vatican Council?

Bruce Strom 0

Vatican II marks a shift in the Church’s attitude towards the modern secular world. Gone are the anathemas of the Council of Trent and many other councils that condemn those who may disagree with the teachings of the church, instead Vatican II seeks dialogue with the modern world in with a pastoral rather than a condemning attitude. The Vatican II decree on religious freedom announced that democracy and freedom of religion and conscience were the friends of the church, that a totalitarian form of government could never be a trustworthy friend of the Catholic or Christian Church. […]

History

Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Could the Pope Have Done More To Save the Jews?

Bruce Strom 3

The major questions raised about the wartime policies of Pope Pius XII were:
Why did the pope say so little when the Nazis were committing brutal atrocities, both against Jews and also Catholics in Poland?
Why did the pope not protest more forcefully against the persecution of the Jews?
We wonder why Hitler, when the Nazis occupied Rome, didn’t simply march into the Vatican and capture or at least intimidate the pope? […]

History

Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Allied Powers Turn the Tide of War

Bruce Strom 4

When do the Italians first realize that Mussolini and Hitler might possibly lose the war? Our beloved author gives us a hint exactly halfway through his book, The Pope At War, when, “late on the night of October 22, 1942, wave after wave of British bombers swooped below the clouds over Genoa, Italy, and released hundreds of bombs.” Later, Milan and Turin would be bombed. Soon after, Rommel’s Afrika Corps would be defeated, and American soldiers waded ashore in North Africa in Operation Torch. […]

History

Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Axis Powers March Across Europe

Bruce Strom 3

The complete archives of Pope Pius XII were opened in 2019, then were closed for Covid, and our favorite author David Kertzer was waiting on the steps for the archives to open so he could begin his next enthralling book, The Pope at War, filling in much detail on the years of the war. Maybe he should have titled the book, The Pope Behind Enemy Lines During WWII, but he did not ask me.

Cardinal Pacelli, former Nuncio, or ambassador to Nazi Germany, was crowned Pope Pius XII, taking the same name to signal that no major changes were planned in his papacy, mere months before World War II erupted in Poland. […]