Francisco decided to open the secret archives of the papacy of Pius XII

ROME.- 80 years after the election of Pius XII (1939-1958) – a pope accused by some for his alleged "silence" in the face of the Holocaust – Francisco announces his openness to secret dossiers relating to this controversial pontificate March 2, March 2020, next year.

"The Church is not afraid of history, on the contrary, she loves him and would like him more and better, as God loves him." That is why, with the same confidence as my predecessors, I open and entrust to researchers this documentary heritage. "he added.

The role of Pius XII – Eugenio Pacelli, elected to the throne of Peter at the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, has always been controversial, some Jewish groups accusing him of not enough to stop the Nazi genocide. In what some considered a campaign against him, which broke out and ended the conflict and created a real "black legend", first of all influenced public opinion about Rolph's play "The Vicar" Hochhuth. We know that this was not the result of a serious historical investigation, but of the playwright's personal interpretation, convinced that faced with the double threat of the Nazis and Bolsheviks, Pius XII was inclined to support it. Then, the bestseller "The Pope of Hitler", the British John Cornwell, who accused Pius XII, nuncio in Berlin, to be silent before the murder of Jews for Germanophile. "The curate" became years later in the famous film "Amen" by the director Costa Gavras, who is remembered for his poster for creating a great scandal by joining the Christian cross with the swastika of Hitler.

The Vatican, however, has always defended Pius XII. In fact, he opened a process of beatification, for which he reached the stage "Servant of God", claiming that he had saved thousands of Jews – even hiding some in the residence of his family. summer of Castelgandolfo – but discreetly.
Benedict XVI defended and praised the figure of Pope Pacelli on more than one occasion and even quoted a famous letter of condolence written by Golda Meir on the occasion of his death, stressing that "during the ten years of Nazi terror, his voice was high in favor of the victims "

Francisco alluded to the controversy by noting that "the figure of this pontiff, found at the head of Peter's Boat at one time among the saddest and darkest of the twentieth century, torn apart by the last world conflict, has already been studied and studied, sometimes discussed and even criticized, one could say with some prejudice and exaggeration. "He stressed that" today, it has been opportunely re-evaluated and put into practice. light by its polyhedral qualities: pastoral above all, but also theological, ascetic, diplomatic ".

As a general rule, the Vatican Secret Archives states that a delay must elapse after the death of the pope so that the documents corresponding to his pontificate can be opened to the investigators. In the case of Pius XII, there was talk of a "closure period" of 70 years.

As Bishop Sergio Pagano, Prefect of the Vatican's secret archives, recalled in an article in L'Osservatore Romano, noting the great interest shown in the documents of the Holy See relating to the period between the two world wars, Jean- Paul II in 2002 and In 2004, opened some archives of the pontificate of Pius XI (1922-1939), relating to the archives of the apostolic nunciature in Berlin (where Pacelli was nuncio) and to the Vatican office for information on the prisoners of war. In 2006, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, decided to open all the pontificate of Pius XI and ordered the Secret Archive to start preparing and inventorying the huge mbad of documents belonging to the pontificate of Pius XII, which did not ask for less than thirteen years. the years when the decision to open Francisco, March 2, 2020.

In an interview with La Vanguardia in June 2014, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires anticipated this desire and also defended Pius XII:
"They threw it on top of everything," he lamented. "Sometimes I feel a bit of existential urticaria when I see that everyone is taking it with the Church and Pius XII and that they forget the great powers," he said in a statement. remembering that they had the pictures of the Nazi rail network to take away. the Jews in the concentration camps, "but they did not bomb them".