Israeli Ambassador to Vatican on Pius XII

During a ceremony conferring the title of Righteous Among the Nations on Father Gaetano Piccinini, a priest of the Sons of Divine Providence, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, Mr. Mordechay Lewy stated: “It would be an error to say that the Catholic Church, the Vatican or the Pope himself were opposed to activities to save Jews… It is quite certain that it was the contrary: They always gave the help that they could.”

Mr. Lewy stated that the Vatican was unable to prevent a train from taking Jews to the extermination camps after the October 16-18 Nazi raids in Rome. This "can only have contributed to reinforcing the desire, on the part of the Vatican, to offer its own premises as a refuge for Jews," Lewy said. “We must recognize that the train that left on 18 October 1943 was the only convoy that the Nazis managed to organize in Rome for Auschwitz,” he added.

After this raid, Lewy explained "monasteries and orphanages run by religious orders opened their doors to Jews and we have reason to believe that this happened under the supervision of the highest authorities of the Vatican who, therefore, were informed about these gestures.”

Lewy said the Jews of Rome “saw in the person of the Pope a kind of protector and hoped that he would save them and avoid the worst.”

Asked if this casts a different light on the figure of Pope Pius XII, Lewy said that "Judaism is not monolithic and there are different opinions at the historical level.”

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