I was listening to a talk and a fellow named Christopher Hitchens was talking about his new best-selling book, God is not Great. 

I think he’s an atheist and he was making the point that there must be no God because if there were a good and loving God who directed the affairs of humanity, and as Catholics believe, and also guides the election of the popes, why would this good and loving God appoint an antisemitic pope like Pius the XII just when the world needed someone who would help save the Jews form Hitler?

Can he possibly have a point?

Miss Eunice Taken
 
 

The short answer: No. 

Mr. Hitchens is quite wrong and as pointless as he thinks human life is.   I wonder if Mr. Hitchens would cancel his book tours and return all the money if he found out he was wrong?

Let's look at his reasoning.  It goes something like this: “If there were a good God that God would most certainly appoint a pope in the mid 20th century who would defend the Jews.  Pius the XII was an anti-Semite.  Therefore, there must be no good God.”

WRONGITY-WRONG-WRONG, dear Eunice. 

Mr. Hitchens says we believe a lot of things that we don’t.  He seems to avoid the possibility of free will and his basic premise is wrong. 

Read Rabbi David Dalin's book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope.  Rabbi Dalin as well as many others have exposed the truth that Pius the XII was responsible for the saving of 800,000 Jews in Italy and elsewhere.  At great personal risk, he ordered all convents monasteries and rectories in Italy to hide Jews and he himself hid huge numbers of Jews in the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence.

Stalin realized that Pius and Catholicism were the only force capable of resisting him in eastern Europe after the war, so Stalin began a campaign of disinformation that is still eagerly devoured by pseudo scholars like Hitchens. 

Pope Pius XII was credited as the heroic savior of hundreds of thousands of Jews by none other than the state of Israel and Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel.  The head Rabbi of Rome was so moved by the bravery of the Pope that after the war he became a Catholic and took the Pope’s given first  name “Eugenio” as his Baptismal name. 

Albert Einstein, reputedly the smartest man ever born said that “only the Catholic Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign to suppress the truth.”  In 1940, that meant Pope Pius XII. 

So, Hitchens is wrong.  There was a pope in 1940 dedicated to do everything possible to saving the Jews.  Therefore, according to Hitchens' reasoning, there must be a good and loving God who intervenes in Papal elections, when we give Him the chance.

I will wait by the phone for news of Hitchens' retraction, conversion and the return of his ill-gotten book revenues.  Then I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon.  (Note to the humor impaired: the bit about flapping my arms is a joke.) 

So why is Hitchens' book on the best seller list and not Rabbi Dalin's book?  Because as St. Paul said, “with ears itching, they will pile up teachers to suit their own fancy” (2Tim 4:3) 

In other words, some people don’t want God to exist because then they might have to obey Him.

Einstein, the smartest man in history (reputedly) disagrees with Mr. Hitchens.

Instead of “God is not Great” perhaps the book should be titled “Mr. Hitchens is not smart.”

Sincerely,

Rev. Know-It-All