Open City, Silent City

On Broadway, the curtain falls on The Deputy after two acts. Offstage, the bitter dialogue continues over the question raised by Rolf Hochhuth's inquisitorial drama: Should Pope Pius XII, in 1943, have publicly condemned Hitler's campaign to exterminate the Jews? Last week in Rome, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals, more or less agreed with those Catholics who argue that a statement by Pius would not have stopped the genocide. At the same time, the Frenchman lent support to critics who insist that the Pope, as a moral authority, should have spoken out.

Tisserant, 80, recalled a December 1939 meeting with Pius in the Pope's study at which he futilely urged Pius to issue an encyclical on the duty of Roman Catholics to resist the unjust orders of an authoritarian state; Jews were not to be specifically mentioned. Six months after the meeting, Tisserant wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Paris, then Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard, repeating his suggestion. He did not criticize the Pope, Tisserant insisted last week, giving copies of the letter to the press. His target was the Roman Curia, which, Tisserant charged, had a tacit agreement with Hitler: the Curia would remain silent in exchange for making Rome an open city. "That is a disgrace," wrote Tisserant. "I am afraid history will reproach the Holy See for having followed a policy which was convenient to itself, and for not having done much else. This is extremely sad."

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