Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF), a non-sectarian organization founded to remove obstacles between religions in order to foster cooperation and to end the misuse of religion to justify violence and terrorism, has initiated an extremely important project to investigate the Papacy of Pope Pius XII. Identifying the conflicting information about Pope Pius XII’s actions during World War II, a continued source of discord between Jews and Catholics, PTWF has begun interviewing eye witnesses and gathering publicly available documentation and newspaper accounts. We hope that this will help to clarify this most difficult time in history. After spending over a year speaking to experts on both sides of the debate, Gary Krupp (PTWF President) has discovered vast amounts of information which is available publicly but simply not known. In the interest of education and religious harmony PTWF has taken on this project, the results of which will be released to the public and delivered to various Holocaust memorials worldwide.
To date the investigation has uncovered many events which paint an entirely different picture of this controversial Papacy. In the furtherance of the PTWF mission, Gary and Meredith Krupp PTWF President and founders, are traveling to London, France, Israel and Italy to meet and video interview eye witnesses, historians and people with first hand information. We are meeting with historians to get an accurate picture of why events have been perceived so negatively since we have discovered that prior to the introduction of the fictional play The Deputy, Pius XII was revered by Jews and many Israeli leaders. Gary Krupp stated, “The information we have been gathering is completely independent of any official Vatican Archival records, which I do not believe is absolutely necessary to realize what happened during the war years. We have discovered many personal intercessions of Pope Pius XII which directly contradict the impression that he remained silent and did nothing to save Jewish lives.”
On January 25th, in France, Gary and Meredith Krupp will be video interviewing 95 year old Monsignor Giovanni Ferrofino. In February 1942, Monsignor Ferrofino delivered, along with the Vatican Ambassador to Haiti and the Dominican Republic Archbishop Silvani, a personal verbal plea from Pope Pius XII, to General Rafael Trujillo to issue 400 visas to the Dominican Republic for Jews trying to escape Europe. The request was initially denied, and then the General reversed his decision after receiving the verbal plea from the pope by stating “how can I deny my Pope?” This was only one example of Pope Pius XII’s personal and direct intervention. We also have also come to realize that all Vatican and papal actions had to be secret and delivered either by word of mouth or by code. Completely contrary to the claims of papal complicity in John Cornwell’s book Hitler’s Pope. We discovered through the research of journalist Dan Kurzman, that the Pope was aware of an imminent order by Hitler to kidnap Pius XII, and kill him and to seize the Vatican. This information is revealed in Dan Kurzman’s new book, A Secret Plot. Dan Kurzman held extensive direct interviews with General Karl Wolff, commandant for Italy and Himmler’s deputy, just prior to his death in 1984. The Vatican had actually begun forming a government in exile in the event this order was carried out.
There are numerous public newspaper accounts, which directly challenge the current opinion of this Papacy. PTWF will be continuously providing all of the gathered information to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Yad Vashem has stated to Mr. Krupp that they welcome any information to help to clarify the actions of the Vatican during World War II.
PTWF works diligently to address and overcome any barrier to true inter-religious understanding and cooperation. False, one-sided, or biased information causes continued misunderstandings and strife. Historical accounts can be slanted to serve various private agendas. These continual misrepresentations through false and incomplete information lead people to errors in thinking and action. Revealing the truth is an important step in ending bigotry and hatred and achieving peace through tolerance and understanding.
About Pave the Way Foundation
PTWF is dedicated to achieving peace by bridging the intellectual gap between religions through cultural, technological, and intellectual gestures. The Foundation has a simple yet monumental vision: To enable all the world’s religions to mutually realize that extremism, politics, and personal agendas must not be allowed to poison the true benevolent message common to all faiths. Bigotry and hatred must be abolished by the faithful embracing their similarities and savoring their differences.
