MORRISTOWN, N.J. (RNS) Nearly 20 portraits of Pope Pius XII line the walls of Sister Margherita Marchione’s office, and dozens of smaller likenesses fill shelves. There are also a pair of his shoes, his white zucchetto (or skullcap), and a gold reliquary containing two handkerchiefs and a strand of his hair.

It is a veritable shrine built by Sister Margherita, 88, who became a vocal proponent of sainthood for Pius after learning in 1995 that her order in Rome, the Religious Teachers Filippini, had saved 114 Jews from the Nazis at the time Pius was pope.

Hers is a controversial cause. The extent to which Pius helped or didn’t help Jews during World War II is a question that has divided historians and other church observers.

Pius’ critics — Jewish and Catholic — believe his canonization would venerate a leader who, they contend, failed to do everything he could to help Jews during the Holocaust. They say the pope failed to directly confront anti-Semitism.

His supporters — Catholic and Jewish — contend he did act, behind the scenes, to save Jews, and that wartime realities prevented large-scale public action. They also say Jewish critics should not be advising Catholics on whom to revere as saints.

The issue resurfaced in December when Pope Benedict XVI formally declared Pius “venerable,” an important early step in the canonization process. When Benedict visited the Great Synagogue of Rome last Sunday (Jan. 17), one Italian Jewish group boycotted the visit to protest the move.

But the pope’s decision to move forward on Pius thrilled Sister Margherita, who sent thank-you letters to the Vatican. “I feel I dedicated 15 years of my life to the topic,” she said, “and to see it reach the conclusion that I felt it should reach, it makes me very happy.”

A retired professor of Italian language and literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Sister Margherita stepped squarely into the debate in 1995 in favor of Pius, whom she had met once in 1957, a year before he died.

Her books promoting Pius — she’s written nine and is working on a 10th — won her a papal medal in 2003 and made her a celebrity in some conservative Catholic circles.

Critics have called her an apologist who would rush the sainthood process rather than wait for the release of documents from the Vatican archives for scholarly review.

Sister Margherita’s is among many loud voices from both sides of the decades-long debate over Pius’ role in the war, including British journalist John Cornwell, author of the provocatively titled 1999 book, “Hitler’s Pope.”

“There have been excesses on both sides of the discussion,” said Monsignor Robert Wister, church historian at Seton Hall University. “This is an extremely sensitive issue, and extremely emotional … and unfortunately, as the years have passed, both sides … have made statements that have resulted in further inflaming the issues.”

While historians agree that convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, they say questions remain about whether Pius ordered this. Sister Margherita says it is logical to conclude he did because cloistered convents would not have opened themselves up to outsiders without it.

“I chose to defend Pius XII because I’m totally convinced that he did everything possible,” she said. “He was what you call a virtuous man, a saintly man.”

Their brief meeting occurred in Vatican City. Sister Margherita had gained access through Pius’ niece, who had visited the nun’s Morristown convent.

“That meeting with him is something so personal, you know, that it does give me the incentive that I can’t stop now, I have to finish my job. And I can’t die now until I finish the job.”

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For her first book on Pius, “Yours is a Precious Witness,” Margherita interviewed Jews who hid in convents and monasteries in Rome during the war. In her seventh, “Did Pope Pius XII Help The Jews?” she questioned the motives of Pius’ critics.

“Destroying Pius’s reputation,” she wrote, “is only a means to an end: destroying the papacy and the church as we know it. By denigrating Pius XII … some writers are contributing to the goal of many confused Catholics — changing the church into a social institution.”

Some of her opponents, she says, are bitter. “I feel sorry for them because they’re so unhappy over it, when they should be rejoicing that the good someone does is being recognized by the world.”

One of the opponents she mentions by name, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Sister Margherita has jumped to premature conclusions.

“She’s already made up her mind that Pius is a saint, so there’s nothing else to do but beatify him,” he said. “There’s no reason to rush the judgment. They’ve waited hundreds of years to beatify saints. Why is there a rush before the archives are open, and survivors are still alive?”

Even if a thorough review of yet-unavailable archives revealed anything negative about Pius, Sister Margherita said her opinions about his sainthood cause would not change. What he did to help Rome’s Jews was enough, she said.

“It wouldn’t really matter,” she said, “because of his actions. Actions speak louder than words.”

(Jeff Diamant writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)