THE CARDINAL'S LETTER.(MAIN)

In a column that appeared opposite this page Tuesday, the Pulitzer prize-winning historian Garry Wills wrote of a new book on Pope Pius XII that is sure to cause controversy and recrimination. The author is a British journalist John Cornwall, a Catholic, who faults the pontiff for placing the lives and safety of Italian Catholics ahead of the tragic fate of millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Already, defenders of Pope Pius XII are taking issue and are citing, again, the record of 1945, when Jerusalem's chief rabbi sent a special blessing to the pontiff for his efforts to save Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy. There was also praise for the pope from many …