It would be unfair to heap obloquy on Clement; if he can be accused of anything, it is the sin of being ordinary in an extraordinary time. The pope did what he thought he ought to do, and some of what he did was meritorious. He marched with the fearful and purchased cemeteries for the dead. It can even be argued that Clement was a bolder defender of the Jews than Pius XII, the pope who presided over the Church during World War II. However, in a situation that called for a leader with a Gandhi-like spiritual authority—someone who could both give comfort and inspire—Clement acted like a head of
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