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1. Too soon. I do not dispute the processes that are in place for the decrees of heroic virtue etc, but I think it would be a wiser move to wait until all the relevant archives are open. The Vatican Archives (ASV) will not be ready to release the war-time archives of Pius XII until 2013 at the earliest. Why the hurry? There are still too many historical and moral questions to be answered about what Pius did or did not do during the war years and the Holocaust. Again, why the hurry?

   Posted By: Paul

2. I am wondering why it takes nearly 100 years to canonise a woman from another side of the world and it takes less than 50 years to canonise two popes.

   Posted By: Zed

3. Possible canonisation of Pius XII is an utter disgrace. If a saint is one to be admired and imitated then we are on a very slippery slope to oblivion as a church if Pius XII joins the ranks of the saints. Our Church would become the laughing stock of organised religion.
   It was largely due to his ineptitude and superior attitude (that promoted clerical excesses and lack of care for ordinary people) that Vatican II needed to be held. Thank God for the wisdom of John XXIII in calling the council to bring our Church out of the quagmire perpetrated by Pius XII.
   No doubt it is still all about power and money.
   Do yourself a favour and read "Hitler's Pope" for a balanced and professional review of Pius XII.
   Rob

   Posted By: Robert Lennox

4. Zed: There are no doubt plenty of saints that don't get officially canonised - whose names we don't know at all - but we get to see some canonised and show us the way that some human being can live a grace filled life on earth. Perhaps we should be grateful for the ones who are shown us for there are so many others whose names we will not know on earth, only in the next world.

   Posted By: Skye

5. Pope Pius XII turned a "blind eye" to Monseignor O'Flaherty who helped thousands of Jewish people in Rome escape from the holocaust - including during the period when the Nazi's occupied Rome. It is very easy for people to criticize him when if he opened his mouth too much he risked the tiny Vatican state being taken over by the German army and the destruction of the smuggling operation conducted by Monseignor O'Flaherty. To read more how Monseignor smuggled thousands of Jewish people out of Rome during Nazi occupation see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_O'Flaherty

   Posted By: Bruce Murray

6. Zed: The process of canonisation can be long and arduous and each candidate may encounter unique obstacles. Only this year, the Pope canonised Nuno Alvares Pereira -- his cause took 600 years.

   Posted By: Kyle

7. Paul: Did you also protest “Too soon!” when John XXIII was declared Venerable, and then beatified in 2000, even though the archives from his reign probably won’t be publicised until at least 2020?
   As far as serious historians and these who were alive during the time are concerned, there are no outstanding historical and moral questions to be answered about what Pius did or did not do during the war years and the Holocaust. The lie that Pius “didn’t do enough” to combat Nazism and help Jews was concocted by the Communist USSR decades after his death to try to cover their own massive blood guilt. Pius was the greatest hero of World War II. At enormous risk to himself, he and those acting on his orders saved more Jews than were saved by all other religious, secular, allied military, Resistance and other anti-Nazi groups all combined together.

   Posted By: Peter G

8. Zed: Pius XII and John Paul II have not been canonised. Neither, as of this moment, has Mother MacKillop. The two Popes have been declared “Venerable.”
   I can think of any number of reasons why it has taken longer to reach this latest stage in the cause of Mother Mary.... many practical, and, of course, the most important, the required miracle. You will have to speak to God about that.
   Had you referred to the 21 decrees of 19th December, amongst which was that dealing with Mother MacKillop, you would have noticed that our Mary has not done too badly for herself.
   Whilst most of the subjects of the decrees were active in the 19th and 20th centuries, one died in 1489, one in 1400, one in 1524 and one in 1585.
   Of the women named in the decrees, one died in 1917, one in 1937, one in 1951, one in 1990. All after Mother Mary, who died in 1909.
   You are trying just a little too hard.
   

   Posted By: Marco Elliott

9. Until a broader group than 1] MALE Vaticanites2] rely on " miracles' - word never seen in the Gospels - for calling someone a saint, the whole thing is a publicity stunt.

   Posted By: bernard ryan

10. Rob Lennox: You need to get a balanced view of Pius XII. That book has been widely criticised and shown to be biased, ignoring evidence from even Jewish sources. Your comment re power and money also betrays a bias, and is more relevant to those trying to make a buck from a book.
    Pius XII was caught in a diabolical situation and no-one to my knowledge even with the benefit of hindsight, has definitively shown that such a situation could have been handled, definitely, better.
    I trust the canonisation process to look at the man's whole life and the good effects he had on many people and the Church.

    Posted By: Chris Saidou

11. Bernard Ryan: Even a casual reader realises that a major and regularly repeated theme of all four Gospels is that our Saviour proved His divinity by the miracles that He worked.

    Posted By: Peter G

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