The BBC’s internal watchdog has ruled that a BBC One news bulletin was wrong to accuse the Catholic Church of “silence” over the Holocaust. After Pope Francis’s visit to Auschwitz in July, BBC News at Six carried a report which said: “Silence was the response of the Catholic Church when Nazi Germany demonised Jewish people and then attempted to eradicate Jews from Europe.”
The crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool and Fr Leo Chamberlain, the former headmaster of Ampleforth, made an official complaint.
The BBC’s editorial complaints unit has now concluded that the item was unfair. According to the unit, the BBC reporter “did not give due weight to public statements by successive popes or the efforts made on the instructions of Pius XII to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution, and perpetuated a view which is at odds with the balance of evidence”.
In a blog, Lord Alton pointed out that several historians had praised Pius’s achievements in the fight against Nazism. The peer quoted Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish historian and Israeli diplomat, as saying that Pius XII “was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands”.
Through its diplomatic network, the Holy See under Pius XII helped Jews to travel safely out of Eastern Europe.
It also issued baptismal certificates to Hungarian Jews to help them escape. Thousands of Jews were sheltered in the Vatican.
Lord Alton said: “The BBC is right to recognise that the libel that Catholics said and did nothing against Nazism is precisely that, a collective libel. I am grateful to them for doing so.”
Sharp rise in annulments
Enquiries about annulments have risen in recent months and more than doubled in some dioceses.
Westminster, Southwark, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Leeds and Clifton dioceses have reported a “substantial” rise in requests, though other dioceses say there has been little or no change, according to the Tablet, a Catholic magazine.
The rise in enquiries in Britain echoes a similar rise reported in some American dioceses a few months ago.
The surge in requests for information on how to pursue an annulment is being attributed to Pope Francis’s two motu proprios for Western and
Eastern churches in September last year: Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus (“The Lord Jesus, the Gentle Judge”) and Mitis et misericors Iesus (“The Meek and Merciful Jesus”).
The Pope sought to make the process of annulment less complicated and more efficient. Couples no longer need to have a judgment of nullity confirmed by a second tribunal, and bishops can shortcut the process in straightforward cases.
The changes came into effect on December 8 last year, the beginning of the Year of Mercy.
Grant will keep cathedral warm
Plymouth Cathedral has been awarded £100,000 by the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund.
The money is to repair and upgrade its more than 20-year-old heating system.
Mgr Canon Bart Nannery, dean of the cathedral, said: “It means that all the recent work to make the building’s exterior wind- and waterproof will be assured by keeping the interior warm and dry as well.”
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