Some of you may have noticed a change

Of course, I'm talking about the title picture above. It was Carvaggio's painting of the martyrdom of St. Peter. Now, it's Pope Pius XII. Why so? CWN provides the answer.

The beatification of Pope Pius XII is not imminent, the Vatican's chief spokesman told reporters at a June 17 press conference.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the beatification of the wartime Pontiff-- like the beatification of Pope John Paul II (bio - news)-- remains "in the kingdom of the future." By that, he explained, he meant that "it is not possible to say with any certainty" when the beatifications will take place.

This is very sad. There have been rumors for a long time that the entire cause has been completed. The only thing that is holding back his canonization is slander and calumny related to the garbage peddled by the intellectually dishonest (or liars; there is no other option) like Wills and Cornwell. Of course, there's also the point that the KGB seems to have started the entire thing as a means of discrediting him. There are numerous books dedicated to exonerating Pius XII from these charges, including from Jewish sources. Educate yourself before casting judgment or allowing anyone else to mutilate this holy man's memory.

As a mode of comparison as you read, consider this. Blessed John XXIII made secret deals with the Soviets for the exact thing that Pius XII is blasted for allegedly not doing, namely, failing to confront publicly the evil of his time. Blessed John's actions wrought the presence of Orthodox observers at Vatican II. Whoopee. Pope Pius's actions saved thousands of lives. So let's try to use a little bit of charity in examining things with 20/20 hindsight and without the benefit of omniscience to know what might have been.

It's sort of funny that other groups are being allowed to shout down or delay formal canonizations like this. In this case, it's Jews, but Anglicans had just as much yelling over Thomas More and John Fisher. It's why it took 400 years for them to be canonized. Maybe that will be the case for Pius XII as well. That would be most disappointing.

Anyways, I'm putting Pius XII up as my new title pic in hopes of his speedy road to sainthood.