The always pugnacious Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has put together a petition, addressed to Pope Benedict XVI, supporting the beatification of Pope Pius XII.

The gesture is likely to provoke strong reaction from Pius’s many critics, who allege that the War World II-era pontiff did not do enough to help Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide. But the Catholic League insists that “we know of no world leader who did more to resist the Nazis and rescue Jews than this great man.”

As John Allen explained in an excellent column this past June, the debate over Pius XII is fated to continue indefinitely, above all because the central facts are not in dispute:

… the heart of the indictment is that Pius XII failed to issue a straightforward public denunciation of National Socialism, or an unambiguous public appeal for Christians to rescue Jews. … The nature of the case, therefore, depends upon the pope’s public record, which is already well known. By definition, nothing contained in the archives about his private views, or his behind-the-scenes action, can bear upon the crux of this charge. His critics are usually willing to concede everything the pope did in private to help people, but they maintain that it does not redeem his failure, in their eyes, to speak out more clearly in public.

Last May a committee of cardinals and bishops voted to recognize Pius’s “heroic virtues”; and the following month, the Vatican Secretary of State gave a speech defending the wartime pope from his “black legend.” All bets are on beatification, the next step before sainthood.

Brace yourselves for a lot more argument and acrimony.