 For Venerable status The Congregation for the Causes of Saints certifies the " heroic virtues " of the candidate . Making Pius XII Venerable met with various responses , most centred on the papal words and actions during World War II . Benedict 's signature on the Decree of Heroic Virtue was regarded by some as a public relations blunder , though acceptance of Pius XII as a saviour of Europe 's Jews is regarded as ' proof of fidelity to the Church , the pope and the Tradition ' by neoconservative Catholic groups . On the other hand , Rabbi Marvin Hier , founder and dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center said , " ... there would be a great distortion of history " if Pius XII were canonized . Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence , the head of Sydney 's Great Synagogue , said : " How can one venerate a man who ... seemed to give his passive permission to the Nazis as the Jews were prised from his doorstep in Rome ? " A counterpoint to such comments is the case of Israel Zolli , the Chief Rabbi in Rome from 1939 to 1945 , who became a Catholic and took the name of Eugenio in honor of Pius XII . 
