I received the enclosed letter today from Dr. Michael Pravica, an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Nevada at Las vegas (UNLV), in response to the article, “The Canonization of the Scumbag, Pope Pius XII,” published on Oct. 18^th.

I found his letter to be accurate, sincere and and a natural addendum to the article in expounds on. It is an often overlooked fact that the Holocaust perpetuated by the Nazis targeted more than just the Jewish population.

In addition to the Serbians, Jews, and Gypsies that Dr. Pravica mentions, the Nazis also persecuted Poles, Soviet civilians and Prisoners of war, gay men and the handicapped.

Except for “comments, ”The Lang Report rarely publishes ‘Letters to the Editor however I thought that our Readers would benefit from and appreciate Dr. Pravica’s free expression.

Dear Editor:

    Jews are not the only people who were horribly wronged by Pope Pius
XII’s "inaction" to save civilians and condemn the slaughters of innocents
during WWII ("The Canonization of the Scumbag, Pope Pius XII," October 18).
Serbian Orthodox Christians also suffered a horrible genocide at the hands
of the Croatian Ustashe who were bent on slaughtering one-third of Serbs
living in the Nazi-puppet "Independent" State of Croatia (NDH), ethnically
cleansing one-third, and forcibly converting the remainder to Catholicism.
Some half a million to one million Serbians perished including 68 of my
relatives and over 200,000 were forcibly converted to Catholicism.

    Pope Pius met with Ante Pavelic, the fascist leader of Croatia,
numerous times.  The Croatian archbishop,  Alojzije Stepinac condoned
Croatia’s pogrom and numerous Croatian Catholic priests actively
participated in the mass slaughter.  There is no way that Pope Pius was
unaware of the atrocities committed against Serbians, Jews, and Gypsies in
the NDH which encompassed Croatia, Bosnia and a large swath of Serbia all
the way up to Belgrade.  Speaking out against the genocide of Serbs, Jews
and Gypsies in the NDH would have done nothing to harm Catholics anywhere as
even the Nazis were shocked by the brutality of the Croatian Ustashe and
often had to take control of areas from them to prevent the terrorized
Serbian population from joining Tito’s partisans.

     The Catholic Church’s role in the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies
must be exposed, acknowledged, and compensated for.  Canonizing Pope Pius
XII will forever prevent any true reconciliation between the Catholic and
Orthodox Christian Churches.  Catholic leaders should open up the Vatican’s
files on this issue (which includes the "ratlines" established by the
Vatican to help Nazi war criminals escape justice after WWII) to fully atone
for the sins of their predecessors.  The truth must be allowed to come out.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Pravica

We do appreciate any and all comments as TLR encourages the free expression of all ideas.