Pius XII, the real reasons for a false trial.

By advancing the process of beatification of Pius XII, Benedict XVI revived the controversy over his action during the war. But it is always the same arguments that are brandished against him.

                                                Berlin, 1927. Before becoming Pius XII, Mr Pacelli 

was a nun in Germany and secretary of state to his predecessor, Pius XI, author of an encyclical                                                                          denouncing Nazism.

 Cardinal Pacelli was out of luck. His pontificate was that of totalitarianism. Pius XII had to face both Nazi and Soviet monsters. That was his destiny. He had not been trained for this. He had been a close collaborator of Benedict XV who, during the First World War, and in spite of an obvious Germanophilia, kept the balance approximately equal between the two camps.

He was a man of the nineteenth century. It was the product of a theological and diplomatic school. He thought he could reconnect with the Matoise dwellings of the Church. Applying a policy desired by Pius XI, he negotiated with Hitler - and tried to do the same with the Soviets - what his distant predecessor had forged with Napoleon: a concordat. A compromise that would respect the authority of secular power, but safeguard Catholic populations and the practice of worship. He did not immediately understand that he was dealing with new barbarians for whom the treaties were only "paper rags."

Pius XII was not of the temper of a prophet who, in the Jewish tradition, thunders and thunders, in the name of God, against the abuses of power. To a German cardinal who came to him for advice, he replied, "Martyrdom is not decreed from Rome." He had no sympathy for the Führer, whom he compared to the devil, and was even said to be trying to exorcise in secret. He had been the principal editor, under Pius XI, of the famous encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, which had condemned Nazism. But if he opened the doors of the Vatican wide to persecuted Jews, he was also obsessed with the security of Catholics under the German boot. The call of the Dutch bishops against the persecution of the Jews had provoked the fury of the Nazi military against the Dutch Catholics, and had not saved a single Jew.

But Pius XII was fighting on two fronts. The other great totalitarianism of the century haunted him. Yet he was careful not to tank the Russians as long as they faced Hitler. It was only after the end of the war that he relentlessly fought communism. It was a very difficult fight to fight. Many progressive Catholics were seduced by the new Rome. Pius XII ends up condemning the working priests, to stop the bleeding towards the Party. Communism was a thousand lenarisms without dogma; a universalism without God; a paradoxical and diabolical humanism that held man for nothing. A religion of substitution. Pius XII fought him relentlessly.

To do so, he encouraged the building of the Common Market around France, Germany, and Italy, all led in the 1950s by Christian Democrats, De Gasperi, Adenauer, and Schuman. This was the time when Gaullists and Communists blamed cannon against "Vatican Europe." It is in this context that we must appreciate the creation of the play Le Vicaire, in 1963. It would change the posthumous fate of Pius XII.

Before this play, he is the man to whom the greatest Israeli leaders, Golda Meir and Ben Gurion, paid tribute. He is the friend of the Jews, the man who dared, even in secret words, to evoke the great Jewish misfortune, where Roosevelt, Churchill, or de Gaulle said nothing. The great rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, then converted to Catholicism and was baptized with the first name of Eugenio, like that Pacelli who saved his life. Admittedly, at the time, some Roman Jews resented Zolli, whom they blamed for accepting the pope's hospitality without caring about the tragic fate of the Nazi-ravaged Roman Jewish community. But no one suspects Pius XII of colluding with Hitler, though some are irritated to see some congregations protect the Nazi escape to South America.

After this play, Pius XII became, in the collective imagination, "the Pope of Hitler." The personality of the play's author, the German Rolf Hochhuth, is highly controversial. He is suspected of having been manipulated by the USSR secret services at the time. In any case, their methods are recognized. Since the Third International, in the 1930s, the method of communist propaganda has always been the same: to demonize the adversary, one must treat him as a fascist and a Nazi. To destroy the Christian tradition, it must be Nazized. To make Pius XII pay for his anti-communist commitment, it must be digitized. Pius XII, "the Pope of Hitler", is the equivalent of CRS-SS. In 2002, Costa-Gavras made a film: Amen.

The thesis is firmly established in the media. Hence the virulent campaign when Benedict XVI advances the process of beatification of Pius XII. If the Roman curia believed to escape the media lynching by linking this cause to that of the popular John Paul II, the operation was failed. We wonder about the motivations of Benedict XVI. First, the theologian pope pays homage to another great theologian, who greatly inspired his youth. Then, above all, this beatification enters into the long-term strategy of reconciliation and reunification of all the branches scattered through the history of Christianity. Pius XII was the last pope before Vatican II. To pay him homage is to honor the traditionalist sensibility of which Benedict XVI initiated the reintegration into the family.

Coronavirus: Scotland bans households mixing indoors as Nicola Sturgeon criticises Boris Johnson plan

Nicola Sturgeon has announced a new ban on households mixing across Scotland from Wednesday, as she said Boris Johnson’s plan will not go far enough to bring down cases of the virus.

In a statement, the first minister said Scotland would align with England on plans to introduce a 10pm curfew for pubs, restaurants and other entertainment venues, with workers being asked to continue to work from home where possible.

But Ms Sturgeon also said the measures introduced to restrict hospitality in England – unveiled by the prime minister just hours before – will not be sufficient to bring down the R rate of Covid-19 transmissions.

Diverging from the rules in England, which permit gatherings of six people inside in areas not subject to local lockdown, she said from tomorrow Scots will not be able to meet in other people’s homes.

The first minister said data suggested this measure had reduced the spread of the virus in the west of Scotland and extending it to the rest of the country will hopefully reduce transmission. Certain exemptions will apply, however, including couples not living together, tradespeople, and those who need childcare.

“Difficult though it is, any serious effort to reduce the R number below one must take account of this key driver of transmission and seek to break it,” she said.

"So after careful consideration, we have decided that from tomorrow, to be reviewed after three weeks and with exceptions that I will come on to, visiting other households will not be permitted."

Addressing teenagers specifically, she added: "I know how miserable this is for you and you have been so patient.

"We are trying to give you as much flexibility as we can. In return, please work with us and do your best to stick to the rules, for everyone's sake."

On the issue of a so-called “circuit break” lockdown in October, which would result in a return to short-term closures of venues such as pubs and restaurants, the SNP leader said no decision had yet been taken by the Scottish government, but it was being kept “under review”.

She also urged people in Scotland not to book travel overseas for the October break "unless it is absolutely essential" and advised people against car sharing with those outside of their own household.

Elaborating on her decision to enforce more severe restrictions than England, Ms Sturgeon, who attended Tuesday’s Cobra meeting chaired by Mr Johnson, said: “I can confirm that we will introduce measures on hospitality similar to those outlined in England by the prime minister – and thereby align as far as possible with the rest of the UK.

“However, the advice given to the cabinet by the chief medical officer and the national clinical director is that this on its own will not be sufficient to bring the R number down.

“They stress that we must act, not just quickly and decisively, but also on a scale significant enough to have an impact on the spread of the virus."

Pleading with Scots to follow the new restrictions, she urged people to “stick with this”, adding: "Keeping to all these rules isn't easy – but they remain the best way for all of us to protect ourselves, each other, the NHS and ultimately save lives.

 "All of this is incredibly tough – and six months on it only gets tougher. Though it doesn't feel like this now, this pandemic will pass. It won't last forever and one day, hopefully soon, we will be looking back on it, not living through it."

 

Pastel-colored Jupiter dazzles in gorgeous Hubble telescope photo

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this unique panchromatic image of Jupiter on Aug. 25, 2020. The photo combines Hubble observations in near-infrared, visible and ultraviolet light.

 It's like somebody put Jupiter under a blacklight. 

A new photo by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the solar system's largest planet in surprising pastel hues.

The image, captured on Aug. 25, combines data in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light to give researchers a new look at Jupiter, one that could reveal insights about the gas giant's thick atmosphere.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!

"In this photo, the parts of Jupiter’s atmosphere that are at higher altitude, especially over the poles, look red as a result of atmospheric particles absorbing ultraviolet light," Hubble team members wrote in a description of the photo, which was released on Thursday (Sept. 17). "Conversely, the blue-hued areas represent the ultraviolet light being reflected off the planet."

The white storm in the upper left portion of the image, which first boiled up on Aug. 18, "is grabbing the attention of scientists in this multiwavelength view," Hubble team members wrote. "The 'clumps' trailing the white plume appear to be absorbing ultraviolet light, similar to the center of the Great Red Spot, and Red Spot Jr. directly below it. This provides researchers with more evidence that this storm may last longer on Jupiter than most storms."

Hubble, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, launched to Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. Scientists soon realized that the big scope had a flaw in its primary mirror, which spacewalking astronauts fixed in December 1993. 

Astronauts maintained and upgraded Hubble on four additional servicing missions after that, the last of which occurred in 2009. As the new Jupiter photo shows, the telescope is still giving astronomers and the public amazing views of the cosmos, three decades after its launch.

The Battle of Passchendaele

 

The official name of the battle is the 3rd Battle of Ypres, but it is universally known as the Battle of Passchendaele because the capture of Passchendaele town and its ridge (Passchendaele ridge) eventually became the primary objectives of the operation. The battle began on July 31, 1917 with an attack northeast on Pilckem and right on Gheluvelt ridge. The attacking troops in the Pilckem sector were supported by massive tanks. Initially the advance was successful, but unfortunately the right flank failed in its attempt to take Gheluvelt ridge.

Later, at four in the afternoon it started to rain. The rain lasted for several days and of course the land was flooded and made the advance of the tanks impossible.

Although Haig had the original purpose of a brief battle to break through the German lines it was revealed that it was impossible. Despite this, Haig insisted on continuing operations further north in the Langemarck area. General Gough, selected for his aggressiveness to carry out the main attack, warned Haig about the impossibility of continuing and urged him to call off the attack. But Haig inflexible as always ordered to continue the attack, despite the terrible losses. The totally sterile attack lasted three more weeks until he decided to suspend it. Then he decided to change the axis of the attack, from north to east, and by the time the weather cleared he ordered the ridge to attack again. Haig also decided to replace Gough with General Plumer who would be in charge of the next attack. Plumer, one of the most cunning and intelligent generals in the British General Staff, was in favor of carrying out small-scale attacks under the cover of an intense barrier of fire that would also discourage German counterattacks. This strategy led to the accumulation of large numbers of troops in a very narrow front, which facilitated the relief of exhausted troops and the provision of food and ammunition. The troops would advance behind a screen of fire and would be hidden and camouflaged under the smoke and dust of the explosions. However, these forecasts would be nothing if the rain made an appearance and the terrain became a viscous and impractical element.

The Battle of Menin Road on September 20 was the first of three famous victories that were achieved through the use of Plumer's new programmed tactics. At dawn on the fifth day, after five days of uninterrupted bombardment, the ANZACS launched a victorious attack with two Australian divisions on both flanks and a Scottish division to the left to reinforce the flank. One of the most notorious episodes of this attack was that of Australian 2nd Lieutenant Fred Birks. Birks led the heroic takeover of a machine gun company located in one of the German fortifications, eliminating the enemy and capturing the weapons. After this action he organized a party to take another of the fortifications that ended up taking 16 enemy soldiers, one of them the commanding officer. Birks died shortly after a shell blast while digging trenches for the shelter of his platoon. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His body lies in the Perth Cemetery in Zillebeke (Grave I.G. 45).

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Australians reached the bottom of Polygon Wood and Black Watch Corner at a cost of 5,000 casualties. They were relieved, and the captured sector consolidated by installing a small railway line to ensure the delivery of supplies to the new front line. On September 26 the good weather continued and the ground conditions were still optimal for Plumer's curtain of fire to continue and the Anzacs to continue. The Australian 4th Division captured the remainder of the Polygon and Butte position. They had managed to reach a position from which it was possible to attack the bulk of the Broodseinde ridge (Broodseinde ridge). The Battle of Broodseinde took place at dawn on October 3. The Australian troops waiting to attack were bombarded in their own trenches by enemy mortar fire, and when they jumped out of the trenches to attack they were surprised to see how the German troops used their own fire barrier to advance towards the Australian positions, curiously, found themselves face to face in the middle of No Man's Land. However, the Germans were eventually driven back by an Australian bayonet charge. At this point, a German machine gun began to sweep through the front Australian ranks, slowing down part of the attack. Then Sergeant Lewis McGee, armed only with a revolver, traveled about eighty meters under the bullets, finally taking the machine gun and reorganizing the attack again. McGee was awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding leadership. Unfortunately he died on October 12 without knowing his mention. His body lies in Tyne Cot Cemetery Grave No. XX.D.1.

After the Australian bayonet charge, the German troops withdrew to their trenches. There, together with other reserve troops, they were crushed by British artillery. The Australians continued the advance under the barrier of fire and finally managed to take the Broodseinde ridge on 4 October. When the Australian troops reached the ridge, they saw the drawing of the German lines crystal clear. The only obstacle to victory was the town of Passchendaele located to the north and which was heavily occupied by the Germans. These three fantastic victories vindicated Plumer's strategy of going step by step, although they were possible because time gave them a truce and the ground was dry enough to allow a breakthrough. The next day, October 5, it started to rain. It was not torrential rain, but a constant rain that ended up soaking to the bone. Haig, encouraged by the three successes, ignored the rain and decided to launch another attack on the Germans on the Passchendaele ridge. He even warned the cavalry to be ready for the attack. He ordered the Anzacs to take Passchendaele on October 9 even when the wind and rain had raised a terrible storm. Haig's decision was reckless as conditions were utterly adverse: the belts of barbed wire had not been cut and the Germans had replaced their exhausted troops with fresh reinforcement units sheltered from the elements in their concrete fortifications. The main reason for Haig's insistence on continuing the attack was to prevent his troops from having to remain all winter in a Dantean scenario, with extreme weather conditions, and above all with the constant threat of being within range of the German positions without coverage.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Australians attacked and in Augustus Wood, near Tyne Cot, Captain Clarence Jeffries, with an assault platoon, in the attack on a German fortification, captured four machine guns and took 35 prisoners. Position secured Jeffries led the attack to the next German position but fell under the bullets of a German machine gun. He was posthumously awarded the VC and his grave is in Tyne Cot Cemetery, not far from that of Sergeant McGee. According to John Laffin, all the officers in the battalion were killed or wounded that day.

Incredibly, and largely because of the courage of Captain Jeffries, twenty Australian soldiers reached the ruins of what was once the church of Passchendaele. Unfortunately, the British troops, from the right flank, were unable to hold and support the Australians, who were forced to retreat into the craters flooded with water and mud that the howitzers and torrential rains created and that was their front line. original. The British artillery had no reserves of ammunition, and the few shells that fell did so by sinking into the slimy mud, turning into harmless columns of mud and water. Despite all this, Haig decided to continue the attack, even as rain and freezing cold made their appearance on October 12. The attack was hopelessly doomed to failure. The slimy sea of ​​mud invaded everything and made the sacrifice of the troops as absurd as it was inhuman.

It was in this attack that Sergeant McGee was killed. The only solid objects in the middle of this sea of ​​crater-spattered mud were the German concrete fortifications, which with their machine guns under the camouflaged protection of the mud caused many casualties. The attack cost 7,000 casualties. 3,200 soldiers from the Australian 3rd Division died in just 24 hours. In the end, the exhausted Australian troops were withdrawn, but Haig, pathologically obsessed with taking Passchendaele, ordered the Canadians to end the battle. However, Canadian General Arthur Currie, one of Haig's few generals with common sense, adamantly refused to advance until weather conditions improved and troop supplies were adequate.

Finally, on November 12, the Canadians took Passchendaele, or what was left of it.

The battle was over, and aerial photographs were taken after it. It is estimated that there were more than half a million craters in the area where the town of Passchendaele had once stood. This was what Haig hoped, for his troops to spend the winter there. The results of the offensive were Pyrrhic: the predictions of breaking the enemy lines were not fulfilled, and the few gains were at a very high price in human losses. The British had achieved their objective, although it was totally useless in terms of strategic planning as the amphibious attack on Nieuport had been abandoned and there was no longer any hope of capturing the German ports, which were finally blocked with the sinking of old ships. in Zeebrugge.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Battle of Passchendaele claimed more than half a million dead in three months. The Germans lost about 250,000 men and the British about 300,000, of whom more than 36,000 were Australians. More than 90,000 bodies of Australian or British soldiers could not be identified, and around 40,000 were never recovered, dwelling forever in the hideous quagmire. Many of those who drowned were wounded or exhausted soldiers who had slipped or fallen from the wooden walkways that crossed the huge craters or puddles created by the howitzers and who were unable to escape the disgusting and nauseating slimy sludge that had become. battlefield.

Passchendaele was the last war of attrition of the Great War, and it still remains in memory as a futile battle, just like that of the Somme a year earlier. The criticisms lie, above all, in the fact that a year after the battle of the Somme, Passchendaele was a carbon copy in terms of strategy and tactics, not so much in weapons.

400 Years After the Mayflower Set Sail, a New Exhibit Acknowledges the U.K.'s Impact on Native American Communities

Circa 1621, Massasoit or Ousamequin, chief of the Wampanoag of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, pays a visit to the Pilgrims' camp at Plymouth Colony with his warriors after signing the earliest recorded treaty in New England

On a September day in Plymouth, southwest England, a ship set sail. The day was Sept. 16, 1620, and the vessel was the Mayflower. Its passengers and their voyage would soon secure their place as an indelible part of American history. Now, 400 years later, in another September in Plymouth, the facts of that story are coming in for a reexamination.

The Mayflower story taught to generations of American schoolchildren goes something like this: The ship’s arrival in Cape Cod, Mass., that November, was the start of British colonization in the Americas. Those onboard were pilgrims, migrating from Europe as a result of religious persecution; they created a new Plymouth in Massachusetts, overcame adversity and eventually celebrated the first Thanksgiving. But that is only a fraction of the true history. The Mayflower’s passengers were not all pilgrims and 1620 did not mark the start of British colonization, nor did the 1621 Thanksgiving event mark a happy ending when it came to the settlers’ impact on the Indigenous Wampanoag people, who had been living on that particular part of the land for thousands of years.

“Quite honestly, the Mayflower story can’t be told without the inclusion of the Wampanoag perspective,” says Paula Peters, a Wampanoag historian living in the community of Mashpee, Cape Cod. For the anniversary of the Mayflower’s journey (which began 400 years ago Wednesday according to modern calendars, though the date was recorded as Sept. 6 at the time), she has been advising organizers of anniversary activities on both sides of the Atlantic about how to properly incorporate this often overlooked perspective.

One result of that collaboration: a new exhibition in the U.K. that acknowledges the impact of the Mayflower on Native American communities. While many Americans have begun to grapple more in recent years with the Indigenous perspective on their history, the U.K. has in many ways been slower to address its own role in that story—and when Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy opens at the new gallery The Box in Plymouth, England, it will represent the first collaboration of its kind in the U.K., according to curator Jo Loosemore. The exhibition was conceived from the start to be co-curated by the Wampanoag and also features a specially commissioned artwork by Wampanoag artist Ramona Peters.

A short walk from the Plymouth waterfront, the gallery’s cool air provides some relief on a sticky September day. The museum’s staff are busy preparing for its opening later this month, which was delayed from earlier in the year by the coronavirus pandemic. As Loosemore leads the way up the building’s stately stone staircase, she explains how this year in particular has shown the circularity of history. “We are telling this story in the midst of a pandemic, and effectively the disease that decimated the Wampanoag population before the Mayflower arrived really shaped that relationship,” says Loosemore. “Traditionally [the Mayflower story] has been told in a certain way, and that tradition has dominated for 400 years. With the Wampanoags’ help, and through the fact that we are telling a chronological story but with contemporary sources, [we can] unravel the fact from the fiction.”

Both Loosemore and Paula Peters highlight the importance of including context from the Wampanoag perspective as part of that unraveling.

Squanto shows the pilgrims of the Mayflower how to plant corn and fertilize it with dead fish. 

“It really has been a comfortable way to look at history: the Mayflower arrived, they met this friendly Indian named Squanto, Squanto taught them how to plant and fish, and they lived happily ever after,” says Peters, adding that most people don’t ask themselves how Squanto was able to communicate with the colonizers. In fact, six years prior to 1620, 20 Wampanoag men, including Squanto, and seven men from the neighboring Nauset tribe, were captured by English explorer Thomas Hunt and taken to England with the intention of selling them as slaves in Spain. Squanto was later able to earn his way back home as a guide, but by the time he returned home to Patuxet, most of the villagers had perished because of a plague known as the Great Dying, thought to be due to arrivals of European settlers, who brought diseases against which the Native American population lacked immunity.

Initially when the Mayflower arrived in Patuxet, which the passengers later renamed Plymouth, the relationship between the colonists and the Wampanoag was one of co-existence. For the Wampanoag, who had been diminished in number by disease, having an alliance with the English meant having an alliance with people who had arms and could help them defend their territory. But as more settlers arrived, relations became more strained.

“That backstory is so important to knowing the impact on the Wampanoag, of both pre-colonial and colonial contact,” says Peters.

In the U.K., too, there was more backstory than is often told. The port city of Plymouth played a fundamental role in English attempts to create colonies in America, both in the 1580s with Roanoke and in the early 1600s with Jamestown and Popham. By acknowledging those facts at the beginning of the exhibition at The Box, Loosemore makes clear that while the Mayflower as a ship and as a journey occupies a unique space in public consciousness, its real importance comes from its place in a larger context.

The main contemporary historical account from the time is the journal of William Bradford, called Of Plymouth Plantation. But, though the written record is all in the hand of the colonists, through this journal and other letters and diaries, it was always possible to interpret those materials from the Wampanoag side, says Peters, as the colonists were open and honest about how they treated the community. “Many pilgrims were seeking a place where they could have the freedom to worship as they pleased and live as they pleased,” she points out, “and yet they did not have that same tolerance for the Wampanoag.”

 Second Peirce Patent, 1621

In fact, the long-term impacts for the Wampanoag would be devastating. The 1621 Peirce Patent Agreement is the oldest surviving state document of New England, and effectively granted the Pilgrims permission from England to settle in what would become Plymouth, Mass. As Peters puts it, it was a form of a land grab. The English colonists would completely take over the region within 50 years and force English law upon the community, and a series of bloody conflicts would then ensue. “[The Wampanoag leader], whose name was Ousamequan, could not have known that he was going to be subject to the rule of the crown,” says Peters. “In spite of the fact that this is something the English had run from, they brought it with them.”

Bradford’s journal was lost for almost two centuries and then rediscovered in the 1850s in Plymouth, U.K., giving rise to a Victorian fascination with the Mayflower story, says Loosemore. But the Victorian version eliminated any Wampanoag history or perspective, blurring the fact and the fiction about 1620 right up until the present day. “It’s about heroism, it becomes about romance, it becomes about overcoming adversity. They paint it, they write poems about it, they write prose,” says Loosemore.

The power of that romanticized story has persisted—though it’s starting to show cracks. As recently as 1970, organizers a 350th anniversary event at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts asked Wampanoag tribal elder Frank James, who was due to speak, not to elaborate on the negative impacts that colonization had on his people. James withdrew from the official celebrations and went to Cole’s Hill, overlooking Plymouth Rock, giving his speech from there. That became the first annual National Day of Mourning in remembrance of the sacrifice of Indigenous ancestors, an event that has continued every year since. At the new exhibition in Plymouth, a transcription of James’ full speech is on display, with no censorship.

For Peters, the anniversary of Mayflower‘s journey and the colonization of Wampanoag land is a time to reflect on how Indigenous people have been marginalized throughout history, and how their story is one of survival despite all that has happened in the past. “When you look at what happened 50 years ago, and where we are today—to be able to step up as equals on an international platform talking about our story,” she says, “I feel as though we are at last being heard.”