02/21/2020 - 19:24
- Clarín.com
- World
More than 200 historians are preparing to examine the archives that the Vatican will open on March 2 on Pius XII, the most controversial Pope in history, criticized for not having publicly condemned the Nazi Holocaust.
"Now it is the turn of historians to give their version", the people in charge of the different archives that keep the documentation repeat, which will come out of the secret by decision of Pope Francis.
This is a "decisive moment for the contemporary history of the Church and the world," Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça, librarian of the Holy Roman Church explained this week.
The prelate hoped that attention would be focused not only on the Holocaust, but also on "the tumultuous post-war period."
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Announced a year ago, the opening of this immense documentation will allow responding to the controversy started half a century ago about the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958).
"The Church does not fear history. On the contrary, it loves her." With this statement, on March 4 of last year, Pope Francis explained his decision to open in an accelerated manner for consultation the documentation relating to the pontificate of Eugenio Pacelli.
A decision acclaimed by historians and especially by Jewish organizations, since Pius XII was accused of shutting up before Nazism even when a few meters from the Vatican, on October 16, 1943, one hundred German soldiers captured 1,022 Jews, including 200 children and adolescents, and two days later they were sent in 18 cattle cars to the Auschwitz concentration camp, of which only 17 returned.
Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça (L), librarian of the Holy Catholic Church, Archbishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive and his second, Paolo Vian, this Thursday, announcing the prompt opening of the Pius XII archives ./EFE
Numerous researchers have been demanding access to these documents for years to examine why Pius XII did not express himself about the extermination of Jews during World War II , a silence that Jewish organizations consider a form of passive complicity.
Could a public and explicit condemnation of the actions of the Nazis have influenced the course of history and the German Catholic Church?
According to his defenders, he avoided thunderous statements so as not to endanger the Catholics of the Nazi-occupied Europe and fascism.
The subject has resulted in dozens of books, including devastating works that came to talk about "Hitler's Pope" (John Cornwell in 1999).
For the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, "the story of Pius XII is not 'a black legend', but gray."
In an article published by the Italian press, the rabbi argues that "historians will have to work as if they were in a sterile and isolated room, free from prejudices and influences."
Archives on the pontificate of Pius XII, who was in charge of the Catholic Church since 1939 until his death, in 1958. / REUTERS
An utopia, Di Segni himself acknowledges, as a gap divides the defenders at all costs of Pius XII from the inflexible accusers of "their silences."
The Italian historian Ana Foa "nothing spectacular is expected" of the archives, but details and confirmations.
"If there are documents that justify the action of the Pope they would have already left, if there are terrible things, they have already been hidden," he told AFP.
Some 150 researchers from all over the world have requested access to the central "apostolic archives" of the Vatican , said Monsignor Sergio Pagano, in charge of that section that has 121 collections of documents and 20,000 fascicles on Pius XII.
The first who will have access are the experts of the American museum dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust and the Jewish community of Rome, as he said.
But other dozens of specialists will consult other significant archives, such as those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
According to the archivist Alejandro Cifres Giménez, 1,749 files are housed in 200 meters of shelves dedicated to the 19 years of pontificate of Pius XII.
Johan Ickx, from the historical archives of the Secretary of State of the Holy See, announced that "1.3 million digitized and indexed documents will be available to help researchers move quickly," a novelty.
"There is very hot data," he said.
Historians, for example, can find documents about contacts between the nuncio (ambassador of the Holy See) in Berlin and the German authorities.
"It will take years to examine all those files and make a historical judgment," Bishop Pagano acknowledged.
The Vatican requires that some documents remain secret, such as the archives that document the conclave and the election of the Pope.
Source: AFP and EFE