ROME (CNS): A commission of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars has decided that published Vatican material on World War II leaves unanswered many important questions about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust.
In a report made public on October 25 after a year-long study, the commission called on the Vatican to open its entire historical archives of the period.
The report posed 47 specific questions – many asking how Pope Pius and his advisers reacted to detailed reports of Jewish suffering – and said the answers can only come through further documentation.
Although full access to the archives would probably not lay to rest all the questions, it would be a “very significant step forward in advancing knowledge of the period and enhancing relations between the Jewish and Catholic communities”, the report said.
The commission was established in 1999 in response to an ongoing debate over the Vatican’s wartime policy.
