Journal News
A news bulletin for E-mail subscribers from Christians Evangelizing Catholics
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August 10, 2001
Vatican Slander Allegation Unwarranted
For Immediate Release
August 8, 2001
Jonathan Levy and Tom Easton, Attorneys
Tel. 513-528-0586
Email: resistk@yahoo.com
Vatican spokesman Rev. Peter Gumpel has accused Jewish historians on a special Holocaust commission of "clearly incorrect behavior," charging that they have helped mount a "slanderous campaign" against the Catholic Church. Gumpel said several of the Jewish members of the commission had "publicly spread the suspicion" that the Holy See was trying to hide documents "that in their judgment could be compromising."
However, World War II era documents in possession of attorneys suing the Vatican Bank for laundering Nazi gold tell a different story. According to Jonathan Levy, co-counsel for plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, Alperin v. Vatican Bank, plenty of evidence already exists to tarnish the reputations of both Pope Pius XII and his successor Paul VI. "I don't understand the Vatican position," said Levy, "Army counterintelligence documents from 1945-1947 period document Nazi war criminals from the Balkans being sheltered at the Vatican. The then Vatican Secretary of State Montini, later Paul VI, met regularly with Ante Pavelic, known as the "Butcher of the Balkans."
The lawsuit against the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order is based in part on a 1998 US State Department report that implicates the Vatican in the laundering of Nazi gold. The Vatican is widely believed to have destroyed incriminating documents. "Pius XII and Paul VI were in bed with the Nazis acting as their landlord, travel agent, and banker," said Levy, referring to the Vatican sheltering of Nazi war criminals in safe houses, Vatican provided escape routes or ratlines to South America, and use of the Vatican Bank to launder Nazi funds.
Levy says he will make available on his firm's web site copies of the most damning documents including one authored by Special Agent William Gowen, one of the few remaining witnesses to Vatican complicity with former Nazis.