MORE MEDIA ANTI-CATHOLIC BIGOTRY: BBC One Libels Pope Pius XII

Here's another shameful example of both lazy reporting as well as anti-Catholic bigotry among the mainstream media.  

This time, the falsehoods come from London and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) which rightfully has been called to accountability for the inaccuracy of a recent documentary about the Pius XII and the Holocaust.  

Following Pope Francis' visit to Auschwitz in July of this year, BBC One stated in a report broadcast during the evening news":  “Silence was the response of the Catholic Church when Nazi Germany demonized Jewish people and then attempted to eradicate Jews from Europe.”

In response to this false statement ("fake news" as its referred to these days), Lord Alton of Liverpool and Fr Leo Chamberlain, the former headmaster of Ampleforth, made an official complaint.

It has taken well over six months for the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit to publicly admit that the story was false and patently unfair to the memory of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church.  

It has taken well over six months for the BBC’s editorial complaints unit to publicly admit that the story was false and patently unfair to the memory of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church.  The Complaints Unit issued a statement which found that the BBC reporter “did not give due weight to public statements by successive Popes or the efforts made on the instructions of Pius XII to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution, and perpetuated a view which is at odds with the balance of evidence.”

"...balance of evidence", indeed!

Lord Alton pointed out that historians have praised Pius’s achievements in the fight against Nazism.  He quoted Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish historian and Israeli diplomat, as saying that Pius XII “was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.”

Lord Alton told the Catholic Herald: “The BBC is right to recognize that the libel that Catholics said and did nothing against Nazism is precisely that, a collective libel. I am grateful to them for doing so.” 

He added that the notion the Church had remained silent was “a canard that is either repeated through sheer ignorance or because the facts don’t fit the story.”

After a review which took six months, the BBC said that the news team responsible for the report had been notified, “so that any future coverage might reflect historical understanding more closely.”  

After six months of review, the best viewers can expect  from the British Broadcasting Company is that future news coverage "might reflect" the truth?  

Now, at least, we know that CNN has its British counterpart in the BBC.

Perhaps, after a six month review, this once-respected news organization might have offered public apology to Catholics everywhere and to the revered memory of Pope Pius XII for continuing to perpetrate a proven lie which clearly reveals its anti-Catholic bias.  

Lord Alton and Father Chamberlain deserve the Church’s gratitude for holding the BBC’s feet to the fire and insisting that the record be corrected to reflect the true facts rather than patently false and inflammatory fabrications.