JERUSALEM, April 14 (UPI) -- The Vatican's ambassador to Israel has boycotted the Holocaust Day Ceremony in Jerusalem due to a caption on a photo of a former pope.
Monsignor Antonio Franco said he was boycotting the Holocaust Day ceremony at Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum because of the caption on a large photograph of Pope Pius XII in the Yad Vashem museum, which points out his failure to protest when the Vatican discovered Jews were being massacred, as well as his failure to do anything about the deportation of Jews from Rome to death camps during World War II, The Independent reported Saturday.
"His silence, and the absence of guidelines obliged Churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react," reads part of the caption.
Monsignor Franco wrote a letter to Yad Vashem, stating, "I respect the memory of the martyrs but also the memory of the pope. The right of the one does not infringe upon the right of the other."
Yad Vashem insists that the museum "presents the historical truth on Pope Pius XII as is known to scholars today".
