Associated Press Writer

Saturday, Feb. 26, 2000; 7:10 p.m. EST

JERUSALEM Pope Pius XII was right not to publicly condemn the Holocaust, because the Nazi reaction to such a statement could have cost even more Jewish lives, the papal representative in the Holy Land said in an interview broadcast Saturday. Archbishop Pietro Sambi's statement, a month before Pope John Paul II's planned March 20 visit here, was likely to aggravate the resentment many Israelis, particularly Holocaust survivors, feel towards the Catholic church for its failure to publicly condemn Nazism.

Sambi told Israel's Channel 1 television that the pope does not have to apologize for Pius XII's conduct. Because Pius XII did not denounce the Nazi regime in public he was able to save the lives of many Jews, and many Catholic institutions put themselves at risk to do so, Sambi said.

"I am convinced that a great strong condemnation would have increased the persecution of Hitler against the Jews," Sambi said.

There is a widespread feeling in Israel that the papacy could have had a profound influence on Catholics in Germany and across Europe during the Holocaust if it had declared that Nazism was incompatible with Christianity. Television interviewer Yaacov Ahimeir said "I'm a little stunned. In a way you justify the conduct of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust."

"I justify totally what he (Pius XII) did to save many Jews," Sambi replied without hesitation.

Although Pope John Paul denounced Nazism in his document on the Holocaust he did not condemn or even criticize Pius XII. Lawmaker Tommy Lapid, himself a Holocaust survivor, sent a reaction to Channel 1, saying "the Pope should apologize not only for what Pius XII did and failed to do, but also for what Popes have done to Jews throughout the ages." Lapid, who heads a small, secularist opposition party, was referring to persecutions including the Inquisition and the massacres of the Jews committed by the crusaders.

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