One of the great heroes of the Second World War was Pope Pius XII, whose was virtually the only world leader to speak out clearly, consistently, and forcefully against the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis during his papacy. Sadly, however, his memory has been tarnished by a campaign of slander and blood-libel which dates back nearly half a century. It has now been disclosed, however, that this effort was backed and coordinated by the Soviet KGB.

THE KGB hatched a plot to smear the late pope Pius XII as an anti-Semitic Hitler supporter and fostered a controversial play that tarnished the pontiff, according to the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence officer to have defected to the West.

Former Lieutenant General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who headed the Romanian secret service before defecting in 1978, has broken a silence of nearly half a century to reveal that he was involved in the operation codenamed Seat-12, a Kremlin scheme launched in 1960 to portray Pius XII "as a coldhearted Nazi sympathiser".

The result, according to Mr Pacepa, was the 1963 play The Deputy, by Rolf Hochhuth, which argued that Pius XII had supported Hitler and encouraged the Holocaust. It ignited furious debate over the pope's attitude to Hitler.

Pius XII was clearly seen during his lifetime as a staunch opponent of Nazism, so much so that during his life the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra traveled to the Vatican to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the liberation of Rome with a concert in tribute to the Pope's work on behalf of the Jews during the war and none other than Golda Meir paid tribute to him on his death on behalf of the people of Israel.

"We share in the grief of humanityÂ…When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."

Because of his staunch anti-Communism, the Soviets found it necessary to tarnish the image of Pope Pius XII -- and, by implication, the likely successor to the dying Pope John XXIII, Cardinal Montini (later Pope Paul VI) who had been a close aide to Pius during much of his papacy. And while Hochhuth still defends his work and its supporting documentation, the taint of KGB involvement -- as well as the weight of historical evidence -- proves that it is a crude smear against a saintly defender of the Jewish people in the face of Nazi genocide.

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