Hypocrisy's new name -- Benedict defends the indefensible

One way to tell it's Christmas time in Rome is when Vatican leaders start overdoing the eggnog! How else to explain Pope Benedict XVI's decision to push Pope Pius XII toward sainthood before opening the records of his papacy to scrutiny, and with the pope's World War II-era participation in the Hitler Youth in Germany still a matter of controversy? Of course, this issue comes up because of statements today from a Vatican spokesman defending Benedict's decision, according to the New York Times. Benedict spoke of the "heroic virtues" of Pius XII and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, the next step in advancing both men to sainthood if it is found that they performed miracles. The spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, responded to criticism from Jewish groups who allege that Pius XII, who was the Vatican's ambassador to Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, did not try to prevent or stop the Holocaust before or after he became pope and helped many former Nazis escape to South America after the war, the Times said. Pius XII was pope from 1939 to 1958. Advancing Pius toward sainthood "should not in any way be read as a hostile act against the Jewish people, and we hope it will not be considered an obstacle in the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church," Lombardi said. But how could it be seen as anything but? And how else to see the decision to beatify Pius XII before opening the church's extensive document archive from his papacy than a blatant attempt at obfuscation? Let's not forget that Benedict, the first pope with a Nazi background, still has a lot of explaining to do about his decisions to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop and to not mention the Nazis or Germany in remarks he gave at a visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial earlier this year.

Italy seeks dismissal of criminal case against spies over Bush rendition program

It certainly looks as if lawyers representing Italy will succeed in getting the criminal prosecution against 33 U.S. and Italian undercover operatives thrown out of Rome's Constitutional Court and avoid another international embarassment over the former Bush administration's war on terror. The 33 spies -- 26 Americans and 7 Italians, are accused of kidnapping a Muslim imam from Milan in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured. The Americans, many or all of whom are reported to be CIA agents, are being tried in absentia. The government in Rome contends prosecutors broke Italian law while building their case against the 33 operatives by using wiretaps and questioning them about classified matters, and wants the evidence suppressed. "If the government's position is upheld by the Constitutional Court, certain evidence will become impossible to use," Italy's attorney Ignazio Francesco Caramazza, who wants the trial stopped, told the Reuters international news service before the start of this week's closed-door hearings. An attorney for the prosecutors, Alessandro Pace, contends no laws were broken in the gathering of evidence. The trial, which is due to start in a lower court, has been held pending the outcome of this appeal. Human rights groups accuse the United States and some of its allies of breaking international law by using agents to capture suspects in other countries, Reuters said, a practice called "rendition." But the United States defends rendition as an important anti-terrorism tool and denies torture allegations, Reuters said, including those raised by the Milan man, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Nasr claims he was beaten and shocked in custody before being released in 2007. He still faces allegations of terrorist activity in Italy.