No one can deny the phenomenal positive strides made between Catholic and Jewish leaders in the theological realm in recent decades. Hopefully, the relationships forged will help us weather the coming storm – the one politely and conveniently pushed off for the past five or six years, but which has now returned.

Last week at an interfaith symposium in Rome, Pope Benedict XIV defended the legacy of Pope Pius XII, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (http://www.jta.org). The comments are likely meant to help prepare the theological world for the bombshell of the Vatican’s pushing to declare Pius XII – whose name is cursed by many Jews of the World War II generation – a saint.

Now Pope Benedict noted that his predecessor “spared no effort” to help Jews during World War II. Pius, he said, had undertaken “many interventions, made secretly and silently, precisely because given the concrete situation of that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews.”

Wait a minute. As is documented, the Pope did indeed help shelter Jews in Rome during the Nazi push to round up the cities Jews and send them to an unquestioned death in concentration camps. He also helped individual Jews whom he knew and their families. However, the truth is that the record is mixed. One simply cannot say that Pius “spared no effort” to help Jews. That’s because he and the rest of the world failed during this era, which brings a permanent stain to the human record. But as an influential leader whose words and orders were repeated by priests all over the continent – particularly in Poland – he had a heightened responsibility as well as opportunity to help stem the slaughter.

The Pope – and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Zionist movement, and so many others – did not do enough. How can anyone say otherwise?

It’s the Catholic Church’s business as to who it wants to make a saint. It’s the obligation of the Jewish community to comment on their choices and remind our friends that in this ever-connected world, we’re going to need much more than platitudes and press releases to buy the words.