Vatican City, October 23 - The Vatican pointman on Pope Pius XII on Thursday rapped an Israeli minister for saying the controversial wartime pope should not be beatified.Father Paolo Molinari, the so-called 'postulator' of Pius's cause for sainthood, said Israeli Social Affairs Minister Yitzhak Herzog's statements to the Israeli daily Haaretz amounted to an ''interference in the internal affairs of the Catholic Church''.Herzog told Haaretz that plans to beatify Pius - one step from sainthood - were ''unacceptable''.He reiterated the view held by many Jews that Pius did not speak out clearly against the Holocaust.The minister, who is also responsible for relations with Christian minorities, accused Pius of betraying the Biblical principle of ''not keeping silent when blood is spilled''.''During the entire period of the Shoah the Vatican was well aware of what was happening in Europe,'' Herzog said.Father Molinari reacted by citing prominent Jews including former Israeli premier Golda Meir who praised Pius as well as the British historian Martin Gilbert, author of an authoritative account of the Holocaust, who went to Jerusalem to ask for the removal of a plaque denigrating Pius.Pope Benedict XVI recently praised Pius for saving Jews but gave no indication when he might sign a decree advancing the WWII pope's progress to sainthood.Molinari said the pope's failure to set a date might be a a sign of a reluctance to ''hurt certain false sensibilities'' and increase the likelihood of Benedict making a long-desired visit to Israel.The other priest involved in the beatification process, Father Peter Gumpel, said at the weekend that the pope wants to go to Israel ''as soon as possible'' but it would be ''impossible'' as long as Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum refuses to change a caption accusing Pius of failing to protest the Nazi genocide.Gumpel, who as 'relateur' on Pius's cause assesses the arguments put forward by Molinari, told ANSA the beatification process was on hold ''because the pope wants to have good relations with the Jews''.Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday reiterated an invitation for Benedict to visit the country, saying there was ''no link'' between the visit and the Pius XII controversy.Pius XII, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, took a crucial step on the way to sainthood last year when a panel of top Catholic prelates voted in favour of recognising Pius's ''heroic virtues''.This is the key requirement for beatification, the penultimate stage before sainthood. Procedures to canonise the pontiff have moved slowly since they started in 1967. At the weekend Jewish groups issued a fresh appeal to the Vatican to open its archives on the war years.
