Vatican to Open Part of Archive

For years the Vatican has struggled to defend Pius XII, who was pope during World War II, against claims that he was anti-Semitic and didn’t do enough to save Jews from the Holocaust.

Now, in a bid to halt attacks against a man it is considering for sainthood, the Vatican is opening part of its secret archives ahead of schedule. Starting Saturday, millions of Vatican documents from the years leading up to the war will be available to scholars.

The chief archivist says he doesn’t expect any shocking revelations to emerge from the documents -- and it will no doubt be months, if not years, before any findings are published. But Roman Catholic and Jewish scholars say the papers may answer some questions about the policies that shaped Pius’ papacy and what the Vatican knew about anti-Semitism in Europe before the war.

Jewish scholars in particular praised the opening, which is occurring a few years ahead of schedule at the wish of Pope John Paul II. They say it shows that the Vatican’s private archive is professional, responsible and responsive to the needs of scholars.

“I think that every person goes into an archive with the hope that they will find a document that will turn the way we think about these things,” said Rabbi Michael Signer, a professor of Jewish thought and culture at the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic institution in Indiana, who has studied in the Vatican Library.

“So this will augment and complement material that we already have from local archives,” he said in a telephone interview.

However, Jewish groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said the documents will only confirm that Pius XII was silent in the face of the Holocaust, despite knowing of its atrocities.

“I believe that if John Paul II had been pope during the Holocaust, the events never would have occurred. He would never have remained silent, because he has proven himself to be a person of conscience,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the center.

The documents come from Vatican missions in Munich and Berlin and from the office of its secretary of state in Rome. They cover the Vatican’s relations with Germany from 1922 to 1939. During those years, Pius XII was a Vatican diplomat in Germany and later its secretary of state.

He became pope in 1939 and served until 1958.

“This is a small contribution that the Vatican archives wants to give to study,” said the Vatican’s chief archivist, Father Sergio Pagano.

He said the documents will show “the enormous charity undertaken by Pius XII.”