Pius XII’s documents to be opened eight years early as Church is ‘not afraid of history’
Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff accused of failing to condemn the Holocaust, are to be opened next year after pressure from campaigners and historians.
His critics have also said he was enthusiastic about Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power and failed to stand up for priests who spoke out against the persecution of Jews and in many cases helped them and others escape being sent to Nazi concentration camps. Francis told staff at the Vatican archive on Monday: “The church isn’t afraid of history - on the contrary, it loves it, and would like to love it even more, like it loves God.”
In 2009, Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict, angered many Jews when he approved a decree recognising Pius’s “heroic virtues”, a first step toward sainthood. Rabbi David Rosen, of the American Jewish Committee, which has lobbied for more than 30 years for full access to the archives, said the pope’s decision was “enormously important to Catholic-Jewish relations”.
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