Vatican files to cast new light on Pius XII, Jews
The Vatican said on Friday it would open all files from the Pius XI papacy which ran from 1922 until just before the 1939 outbreak of World War Two. Critics say successor Pius XII, whose views as a Vatican official would be reflected in the files, did too little in the war to save European Jews from the Holocaust.
Supporters and critics of Pius XII are miles apart. The late Pope John Paul wanted to make him a saint but many critics, including Jewish groups, call him "Hitler's Pope".
The archives contain internal documents showing how Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pius XII, worked as Secretary of State from 1930 to 1939 dealing with major political issues.
"That will put research into Pacelli into a new league," said Professor Hubert Wolf, an historian at Muenster University in Germany and a leading expert on the Vatican Secret Archives.
"We will have nine years of him dealing with church affairs around the world," Wolf told Reuters. The files will show his discussions inside the Vatican bureaucracy and policy instructions to papal nuncios (ambassadors).
"We'll see his comments in the margins of a report. We'll have his tiny, shaky handwriting as he passes judgment on issues. You cannot get any closer to Pacelli," he said.
Wolf, a Catholic priest, could not say how the late pope would seen after the files are opened: "I'm an historian, not a prophet. The documents have to answer that question."