Vatican To Open World War II-Era Secret Archives On Former Pope Pius XII

[left-of-center2012]

For decades, Jewish leaders have wondered whether Pope Pius XII, who was elected six months before the outbreak of World War II, truly did everything he could to save lives during the Holocaust. Now historians will be able to dig through Vatican archives to determine for themselves whether the former pontiff did enough to resist the Nazis’ persecution of Jewish people.

Pope Francis announced Monday that he will open up the Vatican’s secret archives on Pius starting March 2, 2020 ― the 81st anniversary of Pius’ election. Francis said he’s opening the records “with a serene and confident mind,” The New York Times reports. “The church is not afraid of history,” Francis told archive personnel during the announcement.

Pius became pope on March 2, 1939, and remained in that role until his death on Oct. 9, 1958. During World War II, the Vatican tried to remain neutral and did not officially denounce Nazism.

The Vatican’s secret archives contain records of the Roman Catholic Church that date back to the eighth century, according to its website.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pope-pius-xii-vatican-secret-archives_n_5c7d3a8be4b0e5e313cd56fc

[soryang]

1. They don't mention the ratline to save fascists

Why did the pope help Nazis escape?
By Michael Phayer

Yet there is one important Holocaust-related matter where I think Pius clearly did act at variance with traditional Catholic teaching about justice and how the ends must never justify the means. I am referring to Pius’s role in assisting Fascist war criminals to escape to South America. By and large, Pius’s advocates have played the ostrich when it comes to the Vatican’s "ratline." Denying Pius’s complicity in the church’s smuggling of Nazi and Croatian Fascists out of Europe flies in the face of incontrovertible evidence. Uki Goni’s The Real Odessa (Granta Books, 2002, second edition) provides the conclusive documentation. Using previously unavailable material from the Public Record Office in England and from the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration, Goni clearly demonstrates that Pius knew that ecclesiastical institutions in Rome were hiding war criminals. "The British dossiers...show that the pope secretly pleaded with Washington and London on behalf of notorious criminals and Nazi collaborators," Goni writes. Why did Pius help these murderers escape justice? Because he was convinced they would carry on the fight against communism elsewhere. It turns out that Pope Pius was one of the first cold-war warriors.

More:

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/canonizing-pius-xii