I don’t think I have ever written about one particular individual who I consider one of the Chasidei Umos HaOlam. Every thing I have ever read, seen or heard about him points in that direction. I have in fact never seen a disparaging word about him by anyone of any faith.
And once again newly discovered records about him have been discovered that reinforces my feelings about him.
It is quite a statement about a figure who was an official of the Catholic Church, a non Jew, a European... that he was a Tzadik of “the nations of the world”. Indeed I have said many times that Rashi’s statement of “Halacha He, Esav Sonei L’Yaakov” can be applied in a general way to all Europeans. Certainly his church was less than heroic during that era. The Chasidei Umao HaOlam amongst Europeans are the rare exceptions that prove the rule. (As I have said many times in the past, I do not believe that Esav Sonei L’Yaakov applies in a general way to Americans but that is not my issue here).
An article in the Washington Times reports that a Catholic bishop, Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, a Vatican diplomat in Istanbul during World War II helped to save thousands of Jews in Nazi occupied Hungary.
From the article:
“The memoirs, documents and letters stashed away in the private collection of a Jewish associate of Monsignor Roncalli describe frequent late-night meetings in the Vatican compound in the heart of Istanbul.”
“His ally in the effort was Chaim Barlas, who had been sent to Istanbul as an emissary of the Jewish Agency Rescue Committee, established by the Jewish community in what was then Palestine to try to save European Jews from the Nazis.”
"Roncalli allowed Barlas to meet him in the middle of the night to draft urgent letters to Pope Pius XII about the plight of Hungarian Jewry," Mrs. Porat said in an interview. "He told Barlas that he sent cables to [Pius], but did not receive replies. It seemed to him that his ecclesiastical superiors who could act did not, and he wondered why."
Angelo Roncalli issued fake baptismal certificates without any intent of converting the people he was saving. In fact I believe he tried to prevent any attempts at it by other religious figures in his church. Considering the rather lukewarm approach of this priest’s Pope, it is quite remarkable for him to have done that. In fact it was downright heroic. Had he been caught by the Nazi occupiers he certainly have been arrested, or shot, or sent to Auschwitz right along with those who he was trying to save.
I have heard many such stories about him over the years and considering his better known legacy, I am not surprised by it. Because it was this priest who laid the groundwork for Vatican Two. It was he who forced the church to change its official attitude about Jews and Judaism. It was he who forced his Church …against the grain… to revisit and change its theology of blaming the Jews for the death of their god. And it was he who sought to have Judaism validated by his church as a sister religion and not just an archaic one that was replaced by Christianity.
And he was a beloved man by the people of his Church. One who was so beloved after he died, two Popes used his official name as part of their own. Yes, he was a kindly man who valued his fellow man and was prepared to sacrifice his life for them even though of they were not of his faith. He did much and yet does not yet have a place in the righteous gentile section of Yad VaShem. And that is just not right. He ought to be, and it is long overdue. A truly great man was Angelo Roncalli a man who would later become Pope John the 23nd. Too bad there were not more like him.
