Was Pope Pius XII even Pious?

We asked on 12/23/09 if popes should be made into saints at all?

The Times is catching up to us now (after 25 days) with the same question in a column in today's paper from David Gibson, author of a biography of Benedict XVI, who writes on religion at PoliticsDaily.com.

The column, "Pope Quiz: Is Every Pontiff a Saint?" surprises us in that it does not automatically endorse the notion that popes should be saints. Gibson ends,

Hans Küng, the dissident Swiss theologian, recalls an episode during his days as a student in Rome in the 1950s when the private secretary of Pius XII, Father Robert Lieber, visited the seminary. Father Küng and the other young men pestered Father Lieber about whether the aristocratic Pius was a saint: “No, no!” the priest insisted. “Pius XII is not a saint. He is a great man of the church.”

It’s a verdict that makes Pius XII neither villain nor plaster icon, but neither does it answer the question of what a modern pope should be — a leader of the church or a model of sanctity?

And today the present pope is making a controversial visit to a synagogue.

Just for the record, that guy gives us the creeps.